Starbucks Launches Stainless Steel Cup Rental Service! High-Temperature Disinfection Protects Against Viruses?!

After Starbucks locations in other countries saw that Korea's approach wasn't very feasible, Seattle, London, Japan, Singapore and other regions began implementing cup borrowing programs. Customers purchasing beverages had to pay a $1 deposit to receive a reusable cup for their drink. Afterwards, as long as customers returned the cup to any store after use, they could not only get their deposit back but also receive an additional 10 stars (reward points), which could be redeemed for partial beverages or food once accumulated in sufficient quantities.

Not forcing deposits was one thing, but making them mandatory actually made customers less willing to buy from Starbucks. So Starbucks changed their approach and introduced cup washing machines! As long as customers paid the deposit when purchasing their drink, they could take the cup home to wash after finishing, keep it, and when it wore out, they could exchange it for a new one at any Starbucks location, or return it for their deposit back.

However, many people pointed out that this environmental initiative wasn't actually very eco-friendly... Although they used environmentally friendly PP material (polypropylene), the collected cups still couldn't be recycled and continued to generate significant waste.

So Starbucks Japan took the lead in changing the material of their rental cups, launching a stainless steel cup rental service. Starbucks Japan noted that many customers often bought Starbucks merchandise cups on impulse, but many didn't actually use them afterward, still preferring disposable cups for takeout beverages... So they decided to kill two birds with one stone: Don't buy them! Rent them!

Thus, ten Starbucks locations in the Tokyo area of Japan pioneered a rental service for stainless steel reusable cups. Customers can rent cups by scanning the QR code on the bottom of the cup through their mobile app. Since these are rental cups, the stainless steel cups don't have much design or Starbucks logos - only the cup brand's标识, but they still have a minimalist industrial aesthetic.

To encourage customers to rent stainless steel cups, Starbucks introduced special discounts - using a rented stainless steel cup for beverage purchases immediately reduces the price by 21 yen.

The cup rental period is 3 days, during which you can use them however you like. Returns are also simple - just click return in the mobile app, and the system will display nearby store return information based on distance, then you can return the cup to the staff at the corresponding location. After return, Starbucks will uniformly subject the cups to high-temperature cleaning and disinfection, assuring customers that they don't need to worry about virus or bacteria residue.

During the pandemic, many Starbucks locations canceled programs allowing customers to use their own cups for beverages to reduce the risk of virus transmission. Currently, customer response to Starbucks Japan's stainless steel cup rental program is much better than when they required deposits for reusable cups, so Starbucks Japan will continue to expand the stainless steel cup rental service to other regions, believing more consumers will support this environmental initiative.

If this program were introduced in Guangdong, we'd likely see people rinsing their Starbucks cups with hot water before use, haha~

Image: Internet

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473