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In Manhattan, Amazon and Starbucks have teamed up for a high-tech coffee and convenience store. The Starbucks café operates without cash registers and has its own Amazon Go-shop inside.
Shop-in-coffee shop
In New York’s Manhattan neighbourhood, a new co-op concept has opened: a Starbucks Pickup café with Amazon Go shop can now be found on 59th Street. The coffee shop uses Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” technology so that people can quickly buy a coffee or snack without having to go to the cash register.
Upon entering, customers can either pick up their Starbucks coffee at the counter that they previously ordered through the app or buy something to eat in the integrated Amazon Go market. To enter, customers can use their Amazon Shopping app, Amazon One or a credit card, just as they would in a standard Amazon Go store. With Amazon One, Amazon links credit card details to the handprint of consumers. Simply showing your hand is therefore enough to sign in.
In the Amazon Go section of the shop, consumers can buy Starbucks products, such as biscuits and wraps, as well as ready-made salads and sandwiches from Amazon Kitchen. Local favourites such as sandwiches from Ess-a-Bagel and Magnolia Bakery are also on offer.
More branches in the pipeline
Whatever visitors take away is automatically charged to their credit card. This also allows for consumption on site: in addition to the food displays, there are seats, larger booths for meetings and solo dining booths for those who want to telecommute or study. Additional coffee can be ordered from the Starbucks app or from a barista at the counter.
“It’s a proof of concept that we’re both learning from,” Kathryn Young, senior vice president for global growth and development at Starbucks, told CNBC. Two more similar shop openings are planned in the coming year. Since the corona pandemic, Starbucks has been looking for digitised, contactless and cheaper ways to deliver coffee to consumers. The chain closed 400 shops in a year and a half, but opened more pick-up locations in cities and is investing heavily in online pre-ordering.
