Bums Killed The Automat
And Everything Else
Sam Sykes ~ 07/10/2024
Horn and Hardart was a food company that operated in the Northeastern United States. They were most widely known as the creator of the automat. If you don’t know what an automat is, it’s sort of like a big, art deco cafeteria with souped-up vending machines serving fresh food, coffee, and more. The style was really nice and high quality, a sort of shining example of the wonders of capitalism. If you want to know more, just look it up, please don’t make me dredge through the boring and diminutive details, you get the point.
It was a very cool premise originally. Citizens of Philly, New York, and Baltimore could basically get affordable, convenient, and efficient kitchen cooked meals anytime of the day. You could walk in on your way to work, lunch break, or get a bite to eat with the family for dinner. A mainstay in the first half of the 20th century, the automats were popular for locals and tourists alike. The novelty of a self-serve kitchen is a very good idea in theory, but the modernization of America, and mostly the decreased focus on enforcing laws and homelessness killed the automat, among other things.
The rise of fast food is partially to blame, but takes too much heat when it comes to what killed such a big brand like Horn and Hardart. Fast food is obviously far more convenient and cost effective from an ownership perspective. Fast food’s simpler menus and battle-tested way to get customers in and out of the door stripped the automat of its utility and forced it to rely on novelty.
The biggest, but quietest, reason the automat was killed was actually pretty simple. Gradually lawlessness became the status quo in our big cities. Homeless people were given enough money and low enough respect to stay on drugs and spiral further away from society. Vagabonds slowly pushed out the nice low-income families that frequented the automat and began camping out in the cafeterias. Causing all kinds of trouble and stinking up a place that people are trying to eat in. As we came closer to the cesspool that is the modern city, businesses that relied on mutual respect and good behavior were crushed.
Horn and Hardart had over 100 locations at their peak in the 1950s, but a bunch of bone-headed investments and unnecessary risks coupled with the intenified horribleness of cities led to a complete closing in the early 90s.
Who Cares About The Automat?
So why am I writing all this about some esoteric business that was born and killed over the course of a century? Because it shows us an example of just how much our cities of today are fucking shit.
Right now, some tech yuppie in Philly is trying to revive the automat. I can admire the gumption and balls it takes to start any business, but he is dead in the water. There is no possible way to recreate the magic of Horn and Hardart without demanding a respectful, clean, and law-abiding city. The best he could do is throw ONE location into the most touristy area (only places that are somewhat policed) and make it an absolute novelty. Like the M&M store in Times Square.
Homeless people used to behave much better in the early 20th century. They knew that if they fucked around and caused problems, they would get a foot up their ass. And no viral 10-second cell phone video or bullshit legacy media company could save them from a well-deserved ass-whipping. They still dressed respectfully and lived within the margins of society. There were no handouts encouraging them to avoid work, and for the ones in the thralls of substance abuse, the government did not do everything they could to facilitate the use of illegal substances. In Philly, a once booming and industrious city, they now hand out needles, Narcan, drug paraphernalia, and even provide spaces for them to do drugs. Does this sound like a city that loves it’s citizens? Or does it seem closer to sadistic hate? I think the latter.
You go to any American city now and there is trash everywhere and the regular people are outnumbered by bums. The road and sidewalks can be hard to see under all the compacted garbage that has now somehow become integral to the infrastructure. Some areas like Kensington in Philadelphia look like some weird apocalyptic movie, with droves of zombies torturing the few normal people that are forced to live nearby. If all of the human garbage were gone tomorrow, I don’t think there would even be a way to clean the streets without completely demolishing everything and starting over.
We used to have such cool stuff. Beautiful cities with fun things to do, and a society that protected citizens and business owners from the virus of lawlessness. Unless you’re a large corporation that can handle the immense losses from theft, looting, vandalism, etc., don’t bother trying to build anything in a community that hates entrepreneurs. The automat was cool and fun in a world where people respected the rules or at the very least, were MADE to follow the rules.