Jimmy Choo steps into hospitality with pop-up café at London's Harrods, Seattle-based giants Starbucks and Amazon open second Pickup and Go location, and Yum China enters the tea café market
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The Choo Café will be open until the end of September 2022 | Photo credit: Harrods
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Jimmy Choo opens Choo Café at London’s Harrods
British fashion brand Jimmy Choo has opened a café in London’s luxury department store Harrods. The Choo Café will be open for three months until the end of September 2022 and is targeting younger consumers with ‘Instagrammable’ fuchsia décor. The design of the temporary café is reminiscent of boutique coffee group EL&N, which operates 10 London stores and is renowned for its lavishly decorated interiors.
Starbucks opens second cashier-free Pickup with Amazon Go location
Starbucks has opened a second Pickup with Amazon Go location, following the launch of the concept in November 2021. The new store, which joins the first location in New York, allows customers to pre-order a Starbucks beverage via the coffee chain’s app before collecting in-store. The outlets incorporate Amazon's Just Walk Out technology, launched in 2018, which uses app scanning on entry and exit to bypass a traditional checkout line. Although a third location is expected, neither Starbucks nor Amazon have shared long-term plans for the venture.
H.R. Owen Bugatti opens Ettore’s Espresso Bar at Mayfair dealership
French luxury vehicle retailer H.R. Owen has launched Ettore’s Espresso Bar, a new coffee cart inside its Bugatti dealership in Mayfair, London. The showroom has opened to the public for the first time and promotes The Ettore Shot as its most appealing feature. Priced at £50 ($60), customers are served an Espresso in a Bugatti Carbon Fibre Espresso cup and given access to the lounge of the London showroom.
Benugo opens new coffee shop and bar concept at UK’s St Pancras station
UK café and restaurant brand Benugo has launched a new concept store at London’s St Pancras International rail station, with plans to roll-out the format in further major transport hubs. The new format features the traditional Benugo café alongside a Benugo Espresso Bar, which the London-based chain said will enable the ‘smooth transition from morning through to evening’. All Benugo locations began introducing carbon neutral coffee to their menus at the end of 2021 as part of a partnership with fellow London-based environmental consultancy ClimatePartner.
Yum China enters tea market with Grandpa Comfy Tea opening
Yum China has made a foray into China’s tea café market with the company’s first Grandpa Comfy Tea store opening in the city of Suzhou. According to Chinese media, Grandpa Comfy Tea offers a selection of rice milk tea alongside ice cream created in partnership with Swedish oatmilk brand Oatly. Yum China, which operates major fast-food brands, including KFC, as well as branches of COFFii & JOY and Lavazza Café in China, launched a series of tea beverages at its dessert stations across the country in 2019 to evaluate local demand for the venture.