Coffee shops go high tech across Singapore with tray return robots and digital order kiosks

If you pop by the two new coffee shops in Tampines and Choa Chu Kang, you’ll get a dining experience that includes tray return robots, digital order kiosks and cashless payment options. Both eateries were launched last weekend, and they’re among the first batch of ‘productive’ coffee shops in Singapore — meaning they use less manpower and give consumers a fuss-free setting with smart technologies, reports The Straits Times.

At FoodTastic coffee shop along Choa Chu Kang Avenue 1 — which is run by Chang Cheng Group — high tech elements include a food waste composter machine, an automatic floor cleaning robot, a ready-to-eat hot food vending machine, a tray return automated system and a tray return robot.

And at the Koufu-operated Happy Hawkers coffee shop in Tampines Street 86, the self-ordering kiosks remove the hassle of waiting in line at busy stalls; other features include a food waste digester and a tray return robot.

By 2020, the government aims to set up 100 of such tech-embedded coffee shops, including ones in areas like Yishun, Punggol and Bukit Batok.