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Americans love their coffee. For far too many they are not able to function until they have had that first or second cup. That lack of functionality has led to many being forgetful and leaving their wallets behind at home and now there may be a way to solve that. Coffee lovers and coffee sellers check this out!
The Clever Cup
Costa, a coffee chain in the UK, has begun selling a reusable cup called the Clever Cup. But it’s not just any cup. This cup gains the customer a 25 pence (about $.30) discount on a cup of coffee just like any other reusable cup does but this particular cup allows the customer to pay for their coffee with the cup!
Using Near Field Communications (NFC) technology placed in a compartment underneath the cup, the Clever Cup is equipped with a chip capable of paying for a cup of coffee using contactless payment technology. £15 (about $20) can be preloaded using the bPay app from Barclays Bank. This allows customers to track their usage and to block or cancel the contactless option should they lose their cup. It should also work anywhere contactless payment is available, including ironically Costa’s chief rival Pret a Manger which offers a larger discount for customers who use a reusable cup.
Benefits of the Clever Cup
The benefits of this are numerous. First NFC payments are more secure and with only a £15 max should a nefarious individual gain access to the wallet the payout will not be much. Second is of course environmental. With at least 1 billion coffee cups used per year in the UK alone (and that could be as many as 2.5 billion) the amount of waste produced is enormous. Here in the US it is believed that upwards of 50 billions cups are used every year. Few cups can be recycled owing to the polyethylene coating that makes them waterproof and it takes years for them to decompose in a landfill. Clever Cup users will be helping to save the environment one cup at a time. The Clever Cup is being sold for £14.99.
Costa’s goal is to reduce the amount of throwaway cups by 500 million cups by 2020. The packaging of the cup itself is even made from recycled coffee cups. It is hoped that the cup will appeal to younger and more tech savvy drinkers. The use of reusable cups is on the rise, who knew they could do more than just hold liquids?
While a coffee cup will never replace a smartphone or a credit card as the payment method of choice this just goes to show the versatility of the technology. It may come in handy for someone who needs that first cup just to think straight and forgets their wallet in that early morning daze. You can bet if this works American companies like Starbucks will be sure to copy it and who knows, someone may walk into your store and pay for something one day with their coffee cup. While NFC technology is not prevalent everywhere quite yet, it will be the norm very soon.
