Cash-free restaurant makes its debut up north

(chinadaily.com.cn)

Updated: 2016-04-05

A dumplings restaurant situated on a food street in the city of Baotou, Inner Mongolia might seem inconspicuous until you sit around waiting for someone to serve you or go to look for the "cashier", but learn that there's no one because it has dispensed with the use of cash and has started a trend by asking customers to use their mobile devices to order and pay for it.

This is Inner Mongolia's first restaurant of its kind and the manager, Dou, explains, "We've put a two-dimensional shop code on each table so customers can just scan it and follow the steps for having a meal."

Cash-free restaurant in Baotou. [Photo/baotounews.com.cn]

One customer who speaks of the great convenience of ordering on phone, a Miss Wang, explains that she works in a shopping mall nearby and has little time for lunch, so, "I usually order in advance and the food is already there waiting for me by the time I arrive."

Another customer, the 25-year-old Zhang, says that he agrees that this self-help mobile ordering and paying could "become a trend in the catering business", which is fairly typical of young people so, when asked whether he might be afraid that the restaurant lacks appeal for slightly older people, Dou notes that one "bonus" is ease in financial management”.

Certainly, this non-cash payment method does represent the new "smart shop" approach, one industry insider says, and, in any case, one part of the process is for the customer to "befriend" the shop over the phone first, to give the seller and buyer a closer, natural connect, and the seller can provide more information and the customers can give some feedback.

And, as if to support the idea that, to be a pioneer, one must be courageous and innovative, Dou is busy today looking for ways to get more people to accept his model and concludes, "We'll continue with activities such as special awards for consumption points and discounts that can be shared with friends."