A Japanese sushi chain is replacing its revolving sushi conveyors with touchscreens after misbehaving customers—'sushi terrorists'—played a series of unhygienic pranks which led to a shocking impact on the bottom line. Once again YouTube, Instagram, Tiktok and like sites have much to answer for.
Instead of placing sushi on a rotating conveyor belt for customers to pick up — famously known as "kaiten" style — three stores will replicate the experience through animation played on a touchscreen fitted to every table, Akindo Sushiro Co., which runs the Sushiro chain, said in a recent statement….
The chain had been subject to a string of pranks dubbed"sushi terrorism" since the start of the year.
Inspired by viral online videos, pranksters filmed themselves licking shared soy sauce bottles or tampering with food rotating on conveyor belts at the chain's restaurants.
Licking the sushi and letting it continue on to other diners! Five arrests! And the reputational damage to the chain and this form of dining seems to be immediate and overwhelming, as CNN Business reports it: more than $100m in claimed losses and a "sharp drop in customers." Maybe the whole concept was waiting for its demise in the age of modern hygiene and post-pandemic scumbaggery.
