STEVEN INSKEEP, host:
Some employees of Starbucks might conclude that this is the time to go back to college. The coffee chain is ordering a grande double-shot lay-off latte with whip, as the baristas would say. It's cutting 600 jobs. Starbucks is struggling with a weak economy and tough competition. And in the future it could face another challenge.
And that brings us to our last word in business - coffee robot. Italian scientists this week unveiled a robot barista named Justine. She's part of a European project to develop robots that can use two arms together, because apparently many current robots can only handle one-armed tasks. But Justine still needs work. At the moment she only makes instant. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
