In response to this trend, a new cafeteria service has sprung up in the city. It is located in Shibuya, the most technological district of Tokyo, and it is no coincidence. Root c, this is its name, is a contactless service. Inside the outlets of the Blue Bottle Coffee chain (which also has offices in the USA, Korea and Hong Kong) you order via screen and collect your coffee from a locker. Guaranteed spacing.
A locker-flavored coffee
I'm used to picking up Amazon packages and items from hub lockers. They are convenient lockers, because they don't force me to be at home when a courier arrives. And anyone who is on the street can go and collect a package, as long as you have a code. The subscription service is also a must, which allows you to collect a variable number of coffees with a single monthly price.
The logic of Root C is identical: the preparation and collection of the coffee takes place without any contact with other people. An ideal solution in a world hypochondriac discreet like ours.
Is coffee still the correct one at the spacing?
Equipped with a locker system for ordering and receiving, the pop-up shop makes coffee time safer and more direct. When the barista puts the coffee in the cabinet, the cell lights up to inform you that the order has been completed. Hurried and even more distancing-conscious customers can place orders on the go via the app, simply by selecting the pick-up time.
The ritual that we have all learned to consume at the bar, the one that unites par excellence (“we talk about it over a coffee”, for me here in Naples is a dogma) becomes a stealth act, to be carried out in a hurry and in secret.
O tempora, o mores.
