Happy Cashier piloted Philippines-based video cashiers at New York restaurants

A virtual cashier service providing remote staff from the Philippines to answer customers by video and take delivery-app orders by phone

Small restaurants will cut labor costs by using remote cashiers from the Philippines's outsourcing industry to take orders and answer customers by video

Chi Zhang opened a restaurant in downtown Brooklyn in 2015 and closed it during the pandemic partly because of hiring difficulty. He later founded Happy Cashier and began testing it at Sansan Chicken in October 2023, where screen cashiers greet customers, answer menu and kiosk questions and take Uber Eats orders by phone.

The pilot grew to Sansan Ramen, a couple of Yaso Kitchen locations and one undisclosed chain. Zhang said the staff come from the Philippines's BPO industry and did not displace in-person workers; he openly said the cost is cheaper than the US. He said pay is 150% above the average Philippine cashier job; Fortune calculated about $2.50 an hour, plus tips split with in-person staff.

Restaurants spent about 36% of cash on labor with a rising minimum wage

Hiring workers was difficult, which had led Zhang to close his own restaurant

Remote cashiers in the Philippines cost less than US staff, as Zhang acknowledged

Fortune placed it beside Freshii's Percy, a video-cashier system paying Nicaraguan staff $3.75 an hour; Freshii discontinued it in August 2023, citing an ownership change.

As of April 2024 Happy Cashier was in pilots at a handful of New York restaurants and planned a market launch by the end of June 2024; no results beyond Zhang's own claims were reported.