Tag: Starbucks

Starbucks to Test Three Cashless Stores in South Korea

| March 23, 2018

This seems to be the wave of the future, cashless stores:

Starbucks Coffee Korea, the local unit of the U.S. coffee giant, said Thursday it will begin a test run of cashless stores at three outlets next month amid rising use of credit card and mobile payment systems.

The stores at the country’s major office districts — Gangnam and Guro in Seoul, and Pangyo, just south of the capital — have been tapped to start testing the new system April 23, according to the company.

When launched, it will mark the second trial for the global coffee giant, following its first cashless store under test run in Seattle, the United States, it said.

Paying with cash has been constantly declining at Starbucks stores in South Korea, from 31 percent of the total in 2010 to 15 percent in 2013 and 7 percent last year, the company said.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Woman Tells Two Korean Students to Speak English Only at California Starbucks

| December 18, 2017

I wonder if this woman has mental problems because can someone really be this stupid?:

A woman was kicked out of a Starbucks in California for a racially insensitive remark to two college students speaking Korean.

South Korean international student Annie An was at a tutoring session with Sean Lee, a South Korean native and UC Berkeley student at a Starbucks in Walnut Creek, California when a patron approached them after hearing the two speak Korean.

“This is America. Use English only,” said the unnamed woman, who was sitting nearby using a laptop, according to An.

An continued to film the woman as Starbucks employees were asking her to leave, KRON reported.

“I hate it,” the woman says in the video. “If you can sit and be quiet, fine, but I don’t want to hear your language.”
Starbucks employees continue to ask the woman to leave. “They’re welcome to be here, they’re doing nothing wrong. You’re the one that’s causing an issue,” an employee tells her. “You’re gonna be in trouble when I get this letter out,” the woman responds. An employee points out that she’s just tapping numbers on the keyboard.Another employee tells her if she doesn’t leave, they will call the police. Three officers later escorted the woman out of the coffee shop. The woman continued to complain about the students speaking Korean as she was forced to leave, according to An. The video went viral and has been viewed by over a million viewers and has been shared over 5,000 times by Friday on Facebook. Many Facebook users were outraged by the woman’s comments.  [Newsweek]

You can read more at the link.

Tweet of the Day: Starbucks, Kyoto Style

| July 2, 2017