London bar trials contactless beer pump
Henry's Café Bar at London's Piccadilly has trialled a prototype of a contactless, self-pouring beer pump, which allows customers to order and pay for their own pints in 60 seconds.
Designed to help pubs and bars speed up service and reduce bar queues, the Barclaycard Pay @ Pump dispenses a pint of ale automatically following successful contactless payment.
Market research consultancy Opinium polled 2,000 adults, who estimated that their average wait-time at the bar per order is nearly 12 minutes, and a quarter said queuing for drinks was the worst part of a night out.
Almost one in four (24%) have considered abandoning a drinks purchase because of long bar queues and 20% have left a bar or pub and gone elsewhere when wait times become too long. 19% said they would like to see pubs and bars install contactless beer pumps to help speed up service.
Tami Hargreaves, commercial director of digital consumer payments at Barclaycard, said: "When people told us that waiting time was one of their biggest annoyances, we wanted to help solve a common problem with a simple solution. If the trial is successful, Pay @ Pump could be rolled out not only in bars and pubs but also at events and concerts to help speed up service - potentially even taking centre stage at the food and drink stalls at Barclaycard presents British Summer Time Hyde Park in 2017."
Dejan Nikolic, general manager of Henry's Café and Bar, said: "We're always looking at creative technology and were happy to host the demonstration of this innovative new product."
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