Cafe with a difference
Shanghai shop draws crowds as it employs people with disabilities and offers customers quirky experiences
Located on Yongkang Road, this new cafe comes with no seats or tables, and its shop front is nothing more than a grey wall with a hole through which a furry bear claw interacts with customers, either by serving them coffee, giving them friendly pats, or posing for photos.
Here, customers simply scan a QR code hanging from the hole to place their orders. All beverages cost 20 yuan ($3).
Called Hinichijou, the cafe has gone viral among netizens, not just because of this quirky feature, but also because of its mission to provide employment for people with disabilities.
According to the cafe’s cofounder Wang Haiqing, Hinichijou currently employs four deaf-mute baristas, including the cafe manager Chen Yingying, who was the champion in the coffee brewing category at the sixth National Professional Competition for People with Disabilities.
Wang said the cafe’s concept of placing its staff behind a wall is to help the deaf-mute employees feel more comfortable at work.
Since beginning trial operations on Nov 15, the store has drawn hordes of customers and become one of the most searched items on short video sharing site Douyin. Hinichijou officially opened on Dec 3, which marked International Day of People with Disabilities.
The crowds have hardly abated. The current wait for a coffee still lasts about an hour.
“Not all our employees have disabilities. For example, the employees who wear the bear paws are able bodied people who take orders, interact with customers and perform other tasks like disinfecting the store,” said Wang, before adding that the server rotates between several bear paws which are disinfected regularly.
Besides hiring people with disabilities, the cafe also provides free coffee as well as training on coffee making for the group of people.
But while the concept has been a hit with consumers, the fact that the cafe is mostly covered up breaches the regulation which stipulates that
a business’s certification and license must be clearly visible to customers.
The market regulation administration of Xuhui district where the cafe is located has already advised that this situation be rectified by displaying the business documents and license on the board with the QR code.
“The administration is helping us to meet the required standards and we are working on it now,” Wang said.
“In the future, we hope to provide more job opportunities for people with disabilities by opening more stores. Right now, we’ll just focus on this store.”