The world's biggest Starbucks outlet is also AR-enhanced
Starbucks has made its latest and biggest outlet even bigger, with augmented reality.
The coffee giant will on Wednesday open its new 30,000 sq ft premises in Shanghai, its biggest outlet in the world to date.
The outlet is also a Starbucks Reserve Roastery, its premium-brand segment dedicated to specialty beans and brewing methods.
So to take new visitors through the more complex processes, it's released an AR app that will deliver a tour of store's equipment.
For example, pointing your phone at the copper cask will show you exactly what happens after your beans get transported there, complete with a video of what happens inside the cask.
Customers will also get "virtual badges" for participating in the tour, and once all badges are earned, they'll earn a "custom Roastery" photo filter -- because you're going to definitely want to post a selfie, right?
The app is designed by Starbucks but powered by Chinese giant Alibaba.
Check out the outlet:
It features three coffee bars, the longest of which is 88 feet long, making it the longest Starbucks coffee bar in the world.
The outlet is also home to a 3D printed tea bar, an Italian bakery, and a ceiling made of 10,000 handmade wooden hexagon-shaped tiles.
And that's not forgetting the two-story, 40 ton copper cask which has more than 1,000 traditional Chinese stamps hand-engraved on it, which tells the tale of Starbucks coffee.
China is Starbucks' fastest growing market, and according to the coffee giant, a new store of theirs opens every 15 hours in China. Yeah that's right, every 15 hours.
Currently, there are 3,000 stores across 136 cities in China. Shanghai alone has 600 stores, the highest number of Starbucks stores in any city in the world. Now that's a lot of coffee.
Topics Augmented Reality
Yvette is a Viral Content Reporter at Mashable Asia. She was previously reporting for BBC's Singapore bureau and Channel NewsAsia.
