Food Service Delivery Robot: How the b8ta Cafe Deployed Kachaka

Kachaka is thriving in food service too, taking on the role of a delivery robot. For this story we interviewed the “b8ta Cafe,” located inside the experiential retail store b8ta, to learn how they put Kachaka to work.

About the b8ta Cafe

The b8ta Cafe sits inside the b8ta Tokyo - Shibuya store, where professional baristas craft a range of drinks and also offer tastings of select food and beverage products sold in the store.

Official site: https://b8ta.jp/store/shibuya/

What prompted the decision to deploy Kachaka?

b8ta Tokyo - Shibuya, where the b8ta Cafe is located, was already selling Kachaka as a product on the store floor. Roaming the store carrying furniture, Kachaka was a real eye-catcher for shoppers.

The team realized that putting Kachaka to work delivering drinks in the cafe could both surprise and delight customers and help streamline cafe operations. That was the spark behind the deployment.

When was Kachaka deployed?

Around the end of August 2023.

How is Kachaka being used?

Kachaka carries the drinks the barista prepares straight to the customer’s seat. The workflow is as follows:

1. The barista places the drink on Kachaka and uses a smartphone app to specify the customer’s table.
2. On arriving at the customer’s seat, Kachaka announces: “I’m Kachaka, your smart furniture. Here’s your drink—please enjoy” (using Kachaka’s message feature).
3. After taking their drink, the customer follows the guidance on the POP sign on Kachaka’s shelf and tells the robot “Hey Kachaka, clean up” (“ねえカチャカ、片付けて”) to send it back.

What results came from deploying Kachaka?

Three tangible benefits emerged: “lightening the barista’s workload,” “faster drink service,” and “happy customers plus new openings for hospitality.”

A reliable partner for a one-person shift

First, “lightening the barista’s workload” and “faster drink service.” The b8ta Cafe was originally run by a single barista handling everything—making drinks, delivering them, and clearing tables.

Carrying a drink from the bar where the barista stands to the customer’s seat takes about 60 steps round trip, roughly 30 seconds to a minute. With Kachaka handling delivery, that trip is eliminated entirely and the time saved. It may be only 60 steps, but with just one person running the shop, simply cutting out that walk lightens the load directly—and the pace of making and serving drinks for other customers picks up as well, which is especially noticeable during peak hours.

Delivery plus voice recognition: a double dose of surprise

Next, “happy customers plus new openings for hospitality.” Unlike a typical delivery robot, Kachaka has voice recognition, so the b8ta Cafe lets customers try saying “Hey Kachaka, clean up.” Seeing a robot deliver their drink—and then understand what they say—surprises and genuinely delights many customers.

Seeing customers enjoy themselves lifts staff morale too, and Kachaka becomes a natural conversation starter for delivering hospitality.

Using Kachaka as a way to introduce customers to the whole store

Some visitors to b8ta Tokyo - Shibuya come purely for the cafe, and a few of them—unfamiliar with b8ta—would finish their drink and leave straight away. By letting these customers experience Kachaka in the cafe, the staff can naturally go on to introduce both Kachaka and the store itself, and the team has seen guests stay longer across the whole store as a result.

The team says Kachaka does more than just deliver drinks—it creates touchpoints with customers: “It’s not just a robot, it’s a working partner.” Given the labor shortages and rising personnel costs of recent years, they believe Kachaka—with a cost-performance edge over other delivery robots—will absolutely earn its place in other food service businesses as well.