Method of and apparatus for serving merchandise items in a restaurant with a rotary catering table system, and merchandise item management system for such restaurants

摘要

An improved serving method and apparatus are disclosed for use in rotary catering table equipment having a rotary conveyer (22) on which merchandise (e.g., sushi) items (14) are conveyed around. A freshness managing member (48) is used to automatically alert to the presence of a merchandise item on the rotary conveyer that is deteriorating in freshness upon a given lapse of time after supply. Shortage may also be detected, displayed and indicated by a processing device (70) in combination with mechanisms (32, 38) that determine where on the conveyer and which types of merchandise items are becoming short in number. Also disclosed are a merchandise item stocker (34) and a feeder for automatically serving the rotary conveyer (22) with merchandise items, which may be operated with a merchandise management system (80) in which an ordering mechanism (78) based on data from a managing device (74) automatically orders needed merchandise materials by types from member suppliers (76).