Yes, the factory stores have long been a proponent for automation, but the filling donuts using a hopper, frosting donuts (different from glazing, and is typically applied with a long spatula), and packaging doughnuts by plucking them from the conveyor for customers which has been done by humans are tasks that have previously been cheaper to do with humans vs robots. Cheaper that is till the new round of inflation and high AF wages (I saw McD’s advertising $22.50 an hour here in Seattle), made the upfront investment in automation worth it.
On a tangent, I remember seeing that the Romans had a crude steam engine that the gentry used as a toy instead of seeing the potential work a steam engine could do, and thinking “they were so close, why did it take so long to get to here?”, then I found out how cheap human labor was in it’s various forms throughout history.
