If you’re a movie afficionado, you might come across a film titled the 5th Wave. It’s about alien invasion trying to wipe out human and humanity. The commonality between that 5th wave and the 4th wave of coffee industry is that it’s a survival for human to coexist or fight back the technological advancement or the unknown.

Like opening tiny legalized "drug" operation in every corner of the street.

In the coffee industry, the 4th wave is all about advancement, leveraging technology and smart concepts with strong focus on expansion and less about craft and customer. The 4th wave of coffee industry is like opening tiny legalized drug operation in every street corners. They serve caffeine and sugar in the same cup with no frills.

Reference : World Coffee Portal to compare all the 1st to the 5th wave of coffee

They serve caffeine and sugar in the same cup with no frills.

The 4th wave is also leveraging the use of apps catering to the smart concepts where people doesn’t have to interact much with anyone behind the counter. Coffee shops and space is no longer about that space to enjoy a warm cup of latte but just that place to supply our caffeine fix so we can survive another day in our job, worse if it’s a boring one.

For coffee aficionado and coffee lovers who enjoys delving into the culture, it’s plain soulless.

The mark of 4th wave is that coffee chains are using smart espresso machine where staffs just need to know how to touch some button to get the espresso. It’s all about “speed” and “efficiency”. The place doesn’t need more than 3 baristas, they just need one person or two attending on the counter and that’s it. The coffee will be ready in less than 2 minutes.

In between waiting, you can even play some games. For example, TOMORO coffee offers a wheel of spin, a game to the customer to try their luck to get some vouchers and free coffee while waiting for your orders. As much as it is smart and advanced, for coffee aficionado and coffee lovers who enjoys delving into the culture and interaction, it’s plain soulless.

In essence, it’s all about franchise and chain operations

In the 4th wave of coffee industry, they are streamlining the operation that it’s so easy to replicate the business. In essence it’s all about franchise and chain operations. They are even marketing it on their app that it’s so easy to open another franchise of operation and they include a CTA (call to action) for those who has the capital to start another operation in their neighborhood.

It’s about time before every waking moment of ours is filled with ads.

There’s also something slightly sinister about the 4th wave of coffee with their ads that before we’re ordering a cup of caffeine, we have to watch an ad. You’re probably just wanting to get your caffeine fix so bad but you have 3 seconds ad before you hit that order button to get your coffee. It’s about time before our every waking moment is filled with ads.

Where do we go after the 4th wave?

As we struggle in the world filled with AI and soon androids, coffee industry isn’t going to be that different. We might as well expect that before we even order our coffee, we need to watch 1-minute ads just so our daily caffeine price could be reduced to lower than 2$ and we’ll be served coffee by androids. Will one day coffee cease to exist? Who knows. Like everything else that’s struggling lately, coffee industry is going to be the same.

It’s either adapt or completely cease to exist.