'Mobile Only' Bandit Coffee Shop Opens In New York

When is cash no good when it comes to paying for something? Apparently, for Bandit's "mobile-only" coffee shop, it's all the time, unless customers don't want a cheaper coffee than Starbucks.

Customers have a choice if they ever stumbled upon Bandit's Midtown New York location: they can stand and complain why the baristas aren't accepting their dollar bills, or they can download Bandit's app to get their dose of caffeine.

The ordering process takes place solely in the app with the customer creating a profile first, followed by uploading a picture (so baristas can recognize them), setting up a payment method, and finally placing an order.

Bandit's model is nothing short of unique, though, as some delivery companies already have the same technology working for them -- like Uber Eats and Deliveroo that both have "click and collect" feature.

And Bandit's CEO, Max Crowley, admitted that his concept is inspired mainly by China's Luckin Coffee.

Convenient Coffee

Crowley, who also founded the company after he left Uber last year, is striving to achieve convenience for people ordering coffee. He drew up a Bandit tagline for Eater: "We are coffee at a push of a button."

"We never want to be more than five minutes walking from someone who wants coffee," Crowley added.

But with one store in New York, convenience is a long road ahead for Bandit. For one, Luckin Coffee, which is the biggest threat to Starbucks in China, has 4,260 locations. With that many stores, it would be more positioned for convenience.

Crowley's expansion plan is to open up shop in New Jersey in 2020 with five or six locations, but plans to be ubiquitous in Midtown primarily. To make expansion faster, Bandit targets landlords who have vacant space but need a vendor immediately. Crowley told Eats that they could be up and running in just a few hours because of how their shops are constructed.

Cheaper coffee?

Bandit also wants to compete with Starbucks in pricing by offering cheaper coffee. Crowley said, "I don't think an iced latte needs to be $6 or $7. Our goal is to be less expensive than Starbucks."

And to get ahead in pricing, Bandit is also planning on offering a subscription-based model that will start at 20 bucks for an unlimited $1 shots a month.