A Wegmans store in Buffalo, NY, USA.
Photo: iStock | JHVEPhoto

Wegmans is testing the closure of its full-service Buzz Coffee Shops in favor of self-service coffee stations at select stores in Rochester, NY, as remote working has led to reduced coffee runs.

“Over the last several years, we have seen a significant change to our coffee business, including a decrease in the morning traffic flow to our Buzz Coffee Shops,” Wegmans said in a statement attained by News10NBC, which serves Rochester.

“Coffee-brewing technology has come a long way, and our new self-serve coffee machines use our same high-quality coffee beans and offer a similar menu of lattes, cappuccinos, and brewed coffee drinks. As always, we’ll monitor the success of this new program, and continue to evaluate the future of our coffee shops as we move forward,” the company said.

A Pymnts article assumed cost-cutting played a role in the change.

Grocers moving away from service coffee in favor of self-serve would add to the self-serve options that have grown popular in grocery stores, including hot bars, salad bars and self-checkout.

Coffee vending machines have indeed come a long way since the first models began arriving in the late 1940s. Those first-gen machines relied on instant coffee and hot water.

Coca-Cola’s Costa Smart Café Marlow 1.2., among the recipients of the National Restaurant Association’s 2023 Kitchen Innovations (KI) Awards, promises “barista-quality coffee at the touch of a button. Essentially an unmanned coffee shop in a box, it is designed to craft and dispense over 100 hot and iced drinks.”

WMF, a .U.K.-based maker of coffee machines, acknowledged In a blog entry that barista-made coffee offers advantages, including getting your beverage from a talented mixologist, being able to specify and return your order, and being served by “a real person.” Baristas also support the “atmosphere” that positions coffee shops as social places.

On the other hand, self-service machines can make coffee much quicker than a barista, help shoppers avoid waiting in lines, and take up less room than a full barista station, WMF noted.

7-Eleven introduced self-serve coffee and fountain soda in the mid-1960s and self-serve coffee is now common across c-stores and fast-casual restaurants. It can also be found at some grocers, hotels, gas stations, universities, hospitals and workplaces.

BrainTrust

“If they decide to make the self-serve coffee free to match the other self-serve tasting options in the store, then fine. Otherwise this is chasing pennies to save dollars.”

DeAnn Campbell

Head of Retail Insights, AAG Consulting Group


“Consumers will adapt to this shift but will miss the great experience.”

Mohammad Ahsen

Co-Founder, Customer Maps


“Part of the customer experience at Wegmans is based on human interaction that cannot be replicated by a self-service stand, regardless of how “great” the coffee is.”

Mark Self

President and CEO, Vector Textiles

Discussion Questions

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Do you see more pros than cons in Wegmans’ potential move to replace full-service cafes with self-serve coffee stations? What are your thoughts on the overall trend of self-service in grocery stores?

Poll

What’s the likelihood that self-serve coffee machines will increasingly replace barista-made coffee?

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21 responses to “Should Wegmans Fire Its Baristas?”

  1. Neil Saunders Avatar
    Neil Saunders

    This very much depends on what consumers want. If they’re after a nice social experience and custom made coffee then removing barista service is probably not the best idea. If people are after a quick coffee hit then self-service is much quicker. However it seems like Wegmans is on top of demand and it is right for the company to make decisions on a cost/benefit basis.

  2. Bob Amster Avatar
    Bob Amster

    A good self-serve coffee machine will make a consistently good cup of coffee. A good barista that smiles and wants to help will consistently bring customers back. Choose one!

  3. Melissa Minkow Avatar
    Melissa Minkow

    I’m guessing this decision came from the fact that the volume wasn’t there to support a need for a full coffee bar. This is a great way to inexpensively serve the demand for coffee that exists when grocery shopping.

  4. Richard Hernandez Avatar
    Richard Hernandez

    Wegmans is about quality product presented in a great store experience.
    This weakens that value proposition. Not a good idea.

  5. DeAnn Campbell Avatar
    DeAnn Campbell

    If they decide to make the self-serve coffee free to match the other self-serve tasting options in the store, then fine. Otherwise this is chasing pennies to save dollars. Wegmans’ reputation is built on customer service, not on technology, so this could undermine their brand reputation and perception in a negative way. Rather than cutting a service that is essentially a drop in the cost cutting bucket, look to refreshing the social media presence of Buzz Coffee Shops, encourage remote workers to hang out longer, promote it as a regular meeting place to seniors in the community, or a place for people to come for lunch made from Wegmans products. Use it as a link to community building rather than treating it solely as a revenue center. If it’s just an automated coffee machine, shoppers can just use a McDonald’s drive-thru instead.

  6. Georganne Bender Avatar
    Georganne Bender

    I doubt the new machines can produce tasty beverages as well as a barista can. Swipe your card, press a button, wait a minute, and voilà, here’s your drink. Yay. It may be close, but it’s not the same. Knowing your drink was custom prepared is what makes it special.

    None of us likes to see jobs held by humans replaced with automation, even when that automation saves time and money. Wegmans is all about service, so my guess is that the Buzz Coffee Shops being replaced weren’t very busy. Because if they were they wouldn’t be going anywhere.

  7. John Lietsch Avatar
    John Lietsch

    Businesses have a right to choose to engage in services that make money. Was the decision to offer full service cafes a profitable one? Did it generate money as a stand-alone or did it contribute sufficient, profitable traffic to the store to justify its existence? Is the cafe an extension of the brand in some way? We know very little about the decision but I know I rarely visit in-store cafe’s at supermarkets especially as a sit-down experience. If the move to self-service increases their investments in and their attention to their core competencies, then it should prove a sound business decision.

    1. DeAnn Campbell Avatar
      DeAnn Campbell

      There you go throwing facts and good sense into the debate :). Your comments make a lot of sense. I do think that retailers need to better balance technology with human staff to achieve the best customer experiences, and automating coffee makes them just like everyone else. But to your point, we are looking at it from the outside.

  8. Gene Detroyer Avatar
    Gene Detroyer

    Wegmans’ decision isn’t about coffee. It is about what Wegmans’ is trying to offer the customer. What are the consumer needs they are chasing?

    A barista-centered coffee bar is about customers taking their time. You sit down and lovingly enjoy your coffee. For self-serve, the objective is about pouring that quick cup to carry while shopping or to take on the way to work.

    My prediction is that the baristas will be back. Somehow, “I will meet you at Wegmans’ for a cup of coffee” doesn’t sound like a self-serve experience.

  9. Mohammad Ahsen Avatar
    Mohammad Ahsen

    The decision is an effort to boost margins by lowering their labor costs. Wegmans is looking to integrate a self-service option to achieve a proper cost/benefit ratio.

    Although the coffee shop is about more than coffee, it about the human connections and the experience. Coffee drinkers have adapted to going to the local coffee shop and to baristas. Now they will adapt to vending machines.

    Vending machines for products such as food and snacks, tickets, newspapers and soft drinks are part of daily life. Consumers will adapt to this shift but will miss the great experience.

  10. Ryan Mathews Avatar
    Ryan Mathews

    This is actually a more complicated question than it seems at first blush because it really is about how much Wegmans wants to invest in its brands. Obviously, if demand is actually down that much, it’s hard to justify paying a barista to stand — no doubt bored out of their minds — waiting for a customer who may or may not show up. On the other hand, the Wegmans brand is all about excellence and service–and excellence and service don’t come out of a machine. Quality and efficiency? Maybe. But excellence? Not so much. As to the value of self-service — wasn’t trading full-service for access to high quality brands at lower prices the original core value proposition of the supermarket industry? But now that lower cost branded product is ubiquitous the game has changed, especially the game as traditionally played by Wegmans.

  11. Mark Self Avatar
    Mark Self

    I do not think the time is right for this. I believe self-service coffee, regardless of the quality increases, still has some low-quality baggage that needs to be overcome. Furthermore, part of the customer experience at Wegmans is based on service levels/human interaction that cannot be replicated by a self-service stand, regardless of how “great” the coffee coming out of it is. #keepthebaristas!

  12. Rich Kizer Avatar
    Rich Kizer

    I wonder what would happen if Starbucks announced coffee machines being added to their stores “for your convenience.” Would there be an uproar? Would it affect sales of elaborate and less basic drinks? Or would nothing happen? I think those questions produce powerful answers about customer sentiments.

    1. Gene Detroyer Avatar
      Gene Detroyer

      I was thinking it. You said it.

  13. Steve Montgomery Avatar
    Steve Montgomery

    There are a number of unknowns about Wegman’s decision. Did they see their Buzz Coffee Shops as a profit center, as part of their customer experience, part of their brand image, etc. What were the costs of operating them?. What was size of the decrease in traffic?. Etc.
    Bean to cup coffee brewers have come long way and can provide a good cup of fresh coffee. I am sure that Wegmans will monitor their customers’ reaction and take the appropriate next steps.

  14. storewanderer Avatar
    storewanderer

    It depends.

    If you just want to sell $2 cups of black coffee like a gas station, it can be self serve. There is no need for a batista.

    If you want to sell $6 to $8 custom made beverages, there absolutely needs to be a batista.

    I think their in house service coffee concept was failing and this move is a business decision.

    There are a lot of very low volume Starbucks kiosks in some supermarkets too. I’m waiting for that shoe to drop.

  15. David Naumann Avatar
    David Naumann

    If Wegman’s doesn’t have enough business to support a full-service cafe, it makes sense to opt for a self-service coffee strategy. I doubt that the lack of a full-service cafe will negatively impact their grocery business. Regarding self-service trends in grocery, it is becoming expected – even if it isn’t desired by everyone. The cost of staffing checkout lines and the challenge finding enough people for these positions, has propelled the proliferation of self-service options in grocery stores.

  16. Craig Sundstrom Avatar
    Craig Sundstrom

    My thought is that people were buying the experience of a smiling face, so the “advances in technology” isn’t all that relevant; nor do hot/salad bars seem like an apt comparison, since those have always been self-service (at least in my experience). It seems like an ill-considered cost-saving some ‘bean counter’ came up with (no pun intended).
    That having been said, only Wegeman’s knows the economics involved here, and as they’re a well-run company, even I would readily accept their judgement over my own.

  17. John Karolefski Avatar
    John Karolefski

    It’s really up to shoppers, not Wegmans. First, replace full-service cafes with self-serve coffee stations. If that doesn’t work well and shoppers complain, bring back full-service cafes with baristas.

  18. Brad Halverson Avatar
    Brad Halverson

    Wegmans is well known for their culture of customer service and for their quality, which may be at odds with this experiment. For some customers, a machine can handle a simple drip coffee or straight forward latte, yielding savings on labor. But operating in the quality space means you first think about your most loyal and most profitable customers, who likely expect scratch-made drinks, who may ask for less milk, extra foam, at a preferred temperature – and with a smile.

    Best move slowly on this one.

  19. ChaoticGoddess1 Avatar
    ChaoticGoddess1

    Absolutely not. I work in an extremely large, extremely busy Wegmans and if we did that, we would lose so much business. It has nothing to do with people working from home. It has everything to do with grocery shopping. Having your coffee made for you to your specifications in the same store you are grocery shopping in is extremely convenient. It’s also made fresh and you can actually watch the baristas make your drink. The baristas provide great customer service and they build rapport with the customers, starting of the customers’ visit in a positive way.
    Wegmans is not the first place many people think of when they want coffee first thing in the morning on the way to work. Most people use drive thru coffee companies such as Tim Hortons, Dunkin Donuts, and Starbucks as they are rushing to work.
    Historically, Cafes are meant for people who have the time to sit and enjoy their coffee in the morning. Wegmans prides itself on excellent customer service and it’s freshly made products. I really hope they do not make this decision in all of it’s stores because the stores would lose money. It would be like shutting down their sub and pizza department.
    Self-serve food is disgusting because it sits for hours being cross contaminated by people using the wrong utensils to serve themselves. It is also subject to whatever is flying around in the air. Self-service food and drinks are meant for all-you-can-eat buffets.
    If I want self serve coffee, I stop at a gas station. Yes I can make it myself and gas stations have multiple choices. However, baristas provide personal service and knowledge about their craft the helps to build rapport with customers and keeps them coming back.

21 Comments
oldest
newest
Neil Saunders
Neil Saunders
3 months ago

This very much depends on what consumers want. If they’re after a nice social experience and custom made coffee then removing barista service is probably not the best idea. If people are after a quick coffee hit then self-service is much quicker. However it seems like Wegmans is on top of demand and it is right for the company to make decisions on a cost/benefit basis.

Bob Amster
Bob Amster
3 months ago

A good self-serve coffee machine will make a consistently good cup of coffee. A good barista that smiles and wants to help will consistently bring customers back. Choose one!

Melissa Minkow
Melissa Minkow
3 months ago

I’m guessing this decision came from the fact that the volume wasn’t there to support a need for a full coffee bar. This is a great way to inexpensively serve the demand for coffee that exists when grocery shopping.

Richard Hernandez
Richard Hernandez
3 months ago

Wegmans is about quality product presented in a great store experience.
This weakens that value proposition. Not a good idea.

DeAnn Campbell
DeAnn Campbell
3 months ago

If they decide to make the self-serve coffee free to match the other self-serve tasting options in the store, then fine. Otherwise this is chasing pennies to save dollars. Wegmans’ reputation is built on customer service, not on technology, so this could undermine their brand reputation and perception in a negative way. Rather than cutting a service that is essentially a drop in the cost cutting bucket, look to refreshing the social media presence of Buzz Coffee Shops, encourage remote workers to hang out longer, promote it as a regular meeting place to seniors in the community, or a place for people to come for lunch made from Wegmans products. Use it as a link to community building rather than treating it solely as a revenue center. If it’s just an automated coffee machine, shoppers can just use a McDonald’s drive-thru instead.

Georganne Bender
Georganne Bender
3 months ago

I doubt the new machines can produce tasty beverages as well as a barista can. Swipe your card, press a button, wait a minute, and voilà, here’s your drink. Yay. It may be close, but it’s not the same. Knowing your drink was custom prepared is what makes it special.

None of us likes to see jobs held by humans replaced with automation, even when that automation saves time and money. Wegmans is all about service, so my guess is that the Buzz Coffee Shops being replaced weren’t very busy. Because if they were they wouldn’t be going anywhere.

John Lietsch
John Lietsch
3 months ago

Businesses have a right to choose to engage in services that make money. Was the decision to offer full service cafes a profitable one? Did it generate money as a stand-alone or did it contribute sufficient, profitable traffic to the store to justify its existence? Is the cafe an extension of the brand in some way? We know very little about the decision but I know I rarely visit in-store cafe’s at supermarkets especially as a sit-down experience. If the move to self-service increases their investments in and their attention to their core competencies, then it should prove a sound business decision.

DeAnn Campbell
DeAnn Campbell
  John Lietsch
3 months ago

There you go throwing facts and good sense into the debate :). Your comments make a lot of sense. I do think that retailers need to better balance technology with human staff to achieve the best customer experiences, and automating coffee makes them just like everyone else. But to your point, we are looking at it from the outside.

Gene Detroyer
Gene Detroyer
3 months ago

Wegmans’ decision isn’t about coffee. It is about what Wegmans’ is trying to offer the customer. What are the consumer needs they are chasing?

A barista-centered coffee bar is about customers taking their time. You sit down and lovingly enjoy your coffee. For self-serve, the objective is about pouring that quick cup to carry while shopping or to take on the way to work.

My prediction is that the baristas will be back. Somehow, “I will meet you at Wegmans’ for a cup of coffee” doesn’t sound like a self-serve experience.

Mohammad Ahsen
Mohammad Ahsen
3 months ago

The decision is an effort to boost margins by lowering their labor costs. Wegmans is looking to integrate a self-service option to achieve a proper cost/benefit ratio.

Although the coffee shop is about more than coffee, it about the human connections and the experience. Coffee drinkers have adapted to going to the local coffee shop and to baristas. Now they will adapt to vending machines.

Vending machines for products such as food and snacks, tickets, newspapers and soft drinks are part of daily life. Consumers will adapt to this shift but will miss the great experience.

Ryan Mathews
Ryan Mathews
3 months ago

This is actually a more complicated question than it seems at first blush because it really is about how much Wegmans wants to invest in its brands. Obviously, if demand is actually down that much, it’s hard to justify paying a barista to stand — no doubt bored out of their minds — waiting for a customer who may or may not show up. On the other hand, the Wegmans brand is all about excellence and service–and excellence and service don’t come out of a machine. Quality and efficiency? Maybe. But excellence? Not so much. As to the value of self-service — wasn’t trading full-service for access to high quality brands at lower prices the original core value proposition of the supermarket industry? But now that lower cost branded product is ubiquitous the game has changed, especially the game as traditionally played by Wegmans.

Mark Self
Mark Self
3 months ago

I do not think the time is right for this. I believe self-service coffee, regardless of the quality increases, still has some low-quality baggage that needs to be overcome. Furthermore, part of the customer experience at Wegmans is based on service levels/human interaction that cannot be replicated by a self-service stand, regardless of how “great” the coffee coming out of it is. #keepthebaristas!

Rich Kizer
Rich Kizer
3 months ago

I wonder what would happen if Starbucks announced coffee machines being added to their stores “for your convenience.” Would there be an uproar? Would it affect sales of elaborate and less basic drinks? Or would nothing happen? I think those questions produce powerful answers about customer sentiments.

Gene Detroyer
Gene Detroyer
  Rich Kizer
3 months ago

I was thinking it. You said it.

Steve Montgomery
Steve Montgomery
3 months ago

There are a number of unknowns about Wegman’s decision. Did they see their Buzz Coffee Shops as a profit center, as part of their customer experience, part of their brand image, etc. What were the costs of operating them?. What was size of the decrease in traffic?. Etc.
Bean to cup coffee brewers have come long way and can provide a good cup of fresh coffee. I am sure that Wegmans will monitor their customers’ reaction and take the appropriate next steps.

storewanderer
storewanderer
3 months ago

It depends.

If you just want to sell $2 cups of black coffee like a gas station, it can be self serve. There is no need for a batista.

If you want to sell $6 to $8 custom made beverages, there absolutely needs to be a batista.

I think their in house service coffee concept was failing and this move is a business decision.

There are a lot of very low volume Starbucks kiosks in some supermarkets too. I’m waiting for that shoe to drop.

David Naumann
David Naumann
3 months ago

If Wegman’s doesn’t have enough business to support a full-service cafe, it makes sense to opt for a self-service coffee strategy. I doubt that the lack of a full-service cafe will negatively impact their grocery business. Regarding self-service trends in grocery, it is becoming expected – even if it isn’t desired by everyone. The cost of staffing checkout lines and the challenge finding enough people for these positions, has propelled the proliferation of self-service options in grocery stores.

Craig Sundstrom
Craig Sundstrom
3 months ago

My thought is that people were buying the experience of a smiling face, so the “advances in technology” isn’t all that relevant; nor do hot/salad bars seem like an apt comparison, since those have always been self-service (at least in my experience). It seems like an ill-considered cost-saving some ‘bean counter’ came up with (no pun intended).
That having been said, only Wegeman’s knows the economics involved here, and as they’re a well-run company, even I would readily accept their judgement over my own.

John Karolefski
John Karolefski
3 months ago

It’s really up to shoppers, not Wegmans. First, replace full-service cafes with self-serve coffee stations. If that doesn’t work well and shoppers complain, bring back full-service cafes with baristas.

Brad Halverson
Brad Halverson
3 months ago

Wegmans is well known for their culture of customer service and for their quality, which may be at odds with this experiment. For some customers, a machine can handle a simple drip coffee or straight forward latte, yielding savings on labor. But operating in the quality space means you first think about your most loyal and most profitable customers, who likely expect scratch-made drinks, who may ask for less milk, extra foam, at a preferred temperature – and with a smile.

Best move slowly on this one.

ChaoticGoddess1
ChaoticGoddess1
3 months ago

Absolutely not. I work in an extremely large, extremely busy Wegmans and if we did that, we would lose so much business. It has nothing to do with people working from home. It has everything to do with grocery shopping. Having your coffee made for you to your specifications in the same store you are grocery shopping in is extremely convenient. It’s also made fresh and you can actually watch the baristas make your drink. The baristas provide great customer service and they build rapport with the customers, starting of the customers’ visit in a positive way.
Wegmans is not the first place many people think of when they want coffee first thing in the morning on the way to work. Most people use drive thru coffee companies such as Tim Hortons, Dunkin Donuts, and Starbucks as they are rushing to work.
Historically, Cafes are meant for people who have the time to sit and enjoy their coffee in the morning. Wegmans prides itself on excellent customer service and it’s freshly made products. I really hope they do not make this decision in all of it’s stores because the stores would lose money. It would be like shutting down their sub and pizza department.
Self-serve food is disgusting because it sits for hours being cross contaminated by people using the wrong utensils to serve themselves. It is also subject to whatever is flying around in the air. Self-service food and drinks are meant for all-you-can-eat buffets.
If I want self serve coffee, I stop at a gas station. Yes I can make it myself and gas stations have multiple choices. However, baristas provide personal service and knowledge about their craft the helps to build rapport with customers and keeps them coming back.