Starbucks Is Offering AR Tours of Its New, Massive Shanghai Coffee ShopIt's the drink giant's latest use of tech to draw you in.

ByJon Fingas

This story originally appeared onEngadget

Starbucks

Starbucks has a long, long tradition ofusing techto bring youinto its coffee shops, and that will be truer than ever with the latest supersized Reserve Roastery location in Shanghai. The beverage behemoth will use a mobile app to offer guided augmented reality tours of the coffee-making process when the restaurant opens on Dec. 6. Point your phone at equipment like the roaster or cask and you'll get an explanation of what happens as beans eventually turn into your venti latte.

The chain is offering virtual badges for participating in the tour, and you'll get a "unique Roastery filter" to mark your trip. We're not sure who's excited to show that they've visited a Starbucks (even if it's a very elaborate one), but it at least means you'll have a virtual record of your trip.

There's no mention of whether you'll see this AR experience in other Reserve Roasteries (we've asked about future plans), but it's reasonable to expect that this won't be available at your corner Starbucks any time soon. This is more about turning your visit into a mini event and encouraging you to linger a while longer. As it is, we could see other restaurants following suit if this catches on.

Wavy Line
Jon Fingas is an associate editor at Engadget.

Editor's Pick

Related Topics

Accounting

This Retired Mathematician Won $26 Million From State Lotteries ... Legally

Know your math like Jerry Selbee, and you can beat the system.

Money & Finance

Want to Become a Millionaire? Follow Warren Buffett's 4 Rules.

企业家是不能过度指狗万官方望太多a company exit for their eventual 'win.' Do this instead.

Business Solutions

Learn to Program an AI Chatbot for Your Business in This $30 Course

Get back-to-school savings on this AI coding course.

Growing a Business

We're Now Finding Out The Damaging Results of The Mandated Return to Office — And It's Worse Than We Thought.

Companies knew the mandated return to the office would cause some attrition, however, they were not prepared for the serious problems that would present.

Business News

Netflix is Hiring an AI-Focused Role—and the Starting Salary is up to $900,000

The streaming giant is looking for a leader in its machine learning department.

Data & Recovery

Get 1TB of Cloud Storage for Life for $119.97 With This Back-to-School Sale

This 1TB Cloud Storage Solution Is Only $119.97 for Back to School