Starbucks Coffee Japan will open “Starbucks Coffee JR Shin-Yokohama Station Shinkansen Down Platform 11” on November 21, the first store in Japan on a Shinkansen platform.
This new style store, based on the concept of “Brewed to Go,” will open near Car 11 on Shinkansen platforms 3 and 4 at JR Shin-Yokohama Station (Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen lines toward Nagoya and Shin-Osaka). By introducing an order panel and completely cashless payment system, customers can speedily place orders even just before departing on a trip or business trip, and each partner (employee) wholeheartedly serves aromatic coffee, ground and brewed one cup at a time just like at regular stores.
Hours of operation are from 6:30 to 21:30 all days. The store has an area of 13.9 m2 and does not offer seating, only take-out.
The menu is limited to brewed coffee (drip coffee) and room temperature snacks (packaged food), with a limit of one of each per order. At this time, it is not possible to order for a group of people, such as a family, together (each person must be accounted for individually).
You can choose from three hot (Pike Place Roast, Sumatra, and Decaffeinated House Blend) and two iced (Kenyan and Decaffeinated House Blend) coffees. A special machine developed for this store automatically grinds and fills each cup.
Snacks include only room temperature items such as cookies, scones, baumkuchen, and potato chips. Eight varieties are available when the store opens, but the lineup will vary depending on the season, time of day, and sales conditions.
Products are priced at “Specific Location Price A” and cannot be paid for with cash or Starbucks cards (including the official app). Mobile Order & Pay (advance reservation) is also not supported, and orders must always be placed using the local touch panel (one installed). Two partners are on hand to provide assistance to those who find it difficult to operate the touch panel.
When placing an order, your partner may also ask, “What time is your departure time? Where do you want to ride to? This is a Starbucks-like hospitality experience that is not found in a cup vending machine, but is more in keeping with the user’s journey.
The waiting time is a concern, but by the time the order was confirmed, payment completed, and the receipt printed, to my surprise, the coffee had already been made. The process after that is simply for the partner to take the coffee out of the same window as the receipt number (1-20) and pick up milk, sugar, and food ordered at the same time.
At the preview, there was no wait time to place an order, but if it was the time to select and settle the order and the time to wait for the product to be served, the wait time was so short that it was shorter.
© Source travel watch