What is the "caution" behind Ali Yun's cooperation with Costa to open a coffee shop?

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Any action of Alibaba has always been the focus of attention from all walks of life, and even employee welfare can become a hot topic every minute.

Recently, the programmer-themed coffee shop opened in Alibaba Xixi Park has become a hot topic. This time, the coffee shop that Ali Yun partnered with Costa has led the outside world to wonder whether Alibaba is going to cross the catering industry, too.

According to Lianshang.com, this time Ali Yun and Costa jointly opened two programmer-themed cafes in Hangzhou, one in Alibaba Xixi Park and the other in Yunxi town in Hangzhou, which are closed to the public and are only for internal staff. In Xixi Park, there is also an ordinary Costa store opposite the gate. Due to the more business training going to and from the park every day, this store just supplies people with ordinary needs.

The location of the theme coffee shop is close to the programmer's office area.

Recently, the reporter visited the programmer-themed coffee shop located in Alibaba Xixi Park. In order to fit the programmer's theme, the shop is set in the programmer's main office area to facilitate the use of programmers in the park; the periphery of the store are transparent floor-to-ceiling windows, and in addition to the Costa logo, the glass also uses a simple white font to mark "code-aware coffee", implying the programmer theme coffee shop.

Entering the store, the reporter found that the theme store is not like an ordinary store, the design belongs to an open shop, a little airport coffee shop feeling. Directly opposite the gate is a background wall covered with various codes and Aliyun signs, and in the middle is the eye-catching theme coffee "APSARA coffee", which is clear to the employees who enter the store.

The nearby counter still continues the decoration style of ordinary stores, while in the beverage bar there is a programmer's custom coffee "Apsara Coffee" named after Aliyun's flying system Apsara, which tastes a little more bitter than a latte, and there is also a pull flower by Aliyun logo. The clerk told reporters that the coffee is currently available in more than 20 Costa stores in Hangzhou, Shanghai, Suzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen and Chengdu.

Throughout the store, we all use the traditional Costa decoration style, with more than 20 seats, and the customers are all internal employees with Alibaba work cards, including foreign employees. At the same time, the reporter learned from the shop assistant that because the shop is in the programmer's office area, the peak of passenger flow is concentrated in the noon and afternoon off work period, there will be queues.

In addition to the background wall echoing the theme in the store, there is also a programmer challenge board on which programmers can write questions and code connection, and customers who successfully solve the problem can take away a custom coffee cup.

The "small mind" of improving employee welfare to attract talents

Programmers' high-intensity work is bound to be inseparable from coffee, and the theme coffee shop that Ali Yun cooperates with Costa undoubtedly meets the needs of these employees. It's a pretty good employee benefit to have a cup of coffee and think about work in an atmosphere of programming with your laptop.

For large enterprises like Alibaba, employee welfare is the key to attracting talents. it is killing two birds with one stone to enhance brand awareness and let employees build good feelings at the same time.

The reporter randomly interviewed a programmer in the store. He told the reporter: "due to the relatively closed circle of programmers, the opening of this store has also broadened the social circle among employees. In their spare time, they can discuss problems in the store together and develop new ideas. Although the theme decoration style in the store is distinct, they do not pay much attention to drinks, while most of the post-80s and post-90s employees in the store. Some of my colleagues are busy at work and will directly pack up their coffee and bring it back to the office to drink. "

It is reported that through this cross-border cooperation, Aliyun hopes to introduce big data's app into the cafe in the future, instead of manually collecting programmers' preferences for cafes, including accessing Aliyun's membership system and exchanging Aliyun's membership coupons for Apsara coffee. At the same time, Costa is also trying to sell coffee to specific groups of people, increasing the possibility of cross-industry cooperation.