Robot is Making Pizzas At Costco

This little machine resembles a turntable in form, but a Spin Art in function. Workers put the dough on the spinning table, and a spout reminiscent of a turntable’s needle methodically slathers it with sauce. It is a dance of sauce and cheese which will take you into the hypnotic stance.

Unlike the Spin Art’s splattered paintings, Costco would prefer the sauce evenly cover most of the dough, and while the love and care a pizza professional puts into the pie goes a long way toward the result, manually making pizzas doesn’t result in the quantity Costco requires. The robot can sauce up to 350 pizzas per hour, using five different types of dough and spanning six- to 18-inch pies. It pulls the sauce from a five-gallon bucket underneath, and a higher-end model can automatically mix the sauce concentrate with water, saving even more time on the mass pizza production line.

Costco’s pizzas won’t be as delicious as the ones from your favorite joint, but your local joint can’t meet the needs of Costco’s pizza sales either. There’s room in this world for both. It is fun to look at.