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How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
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How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat

The robots have taken over the latest supermarket in town.

How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
But waitaminute, this isn’t exactly new. It sounds like a mashup of Jack Ma’s groundbreaking QR code-powered Hema supermarket in China and Amazon Go’s Just Walk Out shopping experience in America. However, what sets Honestbee apart, says the Singaporean brand, is that it’s the first in the world to offer a system called AutoCheckout and RoboCollect, a cashless, automated checkout system that allows shoppers to pay for their items via the honestbee app and have their purchases delivered by robots.
How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
Simply push your trolley of stuff into an AutoCheckout station, and robots will take care of the scanning and packing (okay it's packed by humans, but you don't see them) for you. Then head over to RoboCollect, a fully-automated robotic collection point where you grab your loot and go. Every transaction is carried out via beePay, honestbee’s e-wallet. habitat will open its doors to the public tomorrow, 18 October.
How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
Littered within the space are 15 posh food court-style food stands, such as this sandwich outfit called Lazy Loaf. A couple of the stalls will even cook your grocery purchases if you so wish (more on that later). We went for a preview shopping and makan sesh and tell you how it works.
How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
The only way to enter the tastefully decorated, hipsterrific store is by downloading the honestbee app and scanning the app's QR code at the entrance. It worked well the first time, but took two tries when we tried to re-enter, and we caused a mini human jam behind us. Once inside, we were overwhelmed by a myriad of over 20,000 makan products. There’s a fresh seafood area with goodies like oysters, a butchery and swanky walk-in wine cellar. Basically, it’s like NTUC, Cold Storage and a few gourmet grocers all rolled into one foodie wonderland.
How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
Forget queueing up — especially when you need only a handful of tidbits. Simply “Scan and Go” by scanning the barcode on each product using your app, toss the item in your bag and leave. Chiong ah! One observation: prices on the shelf weren’t always accurately labelled. For example, when we scanned our packet of candy, the final price on the app was actually lower (not that we mind).
How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
For a bigger haul, grab a shopping cart, throw in your purchases and head to the AutoCheckout area, which looks like a row of mini elevators. Push your trolley into one, scan your QR code on the app via beePay, and then wander around the lovely space or grab a drink while you wait.
How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
Honestbee promises a five minute processing time from checkout to collection.
How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
No humans at this point, they say.
How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
At our media preview, we received an SMS notification within two minutes telling us that our buys are packed and ready to be retrieved at this area called RoboCollect.
How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
Here, we had to scan our QR code again. But our HonestBee app crashed thrice at this point. Pre-opening kinks, we suppose. When we finally succeeded, a shelf bearing our groceries came rolling towards us, powered by a cute little robot beneath it. The robot looked kinda like a robotic vacuum cleaner.
How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
To end the experience, we had to scan the app once again at the gantry to exit.
How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
You can have your steak and and eat it here too. There's a wide selection of premium cuts of meat at Honestbee's butchery, from dry-aged Omaha Packers USDA Prime Beef to the fancy-sounding Mayura Platinum Chocolate-Fed Australian Wagyu. Here's how it works: buy a slab of raw meat and pay for it via the app. But there’s a catch at this point — you’ll have to engage in human contact by telling the butcher where you want your meat cooked. Choose from Californian eatery Moss or grill joint Campfire.
How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
Next, stroll over to your preferred eatery and tell the chef how you’d like your steak done. There're sauces to help yourself to, like a roasted sesame one. This cooking service costs an extra $8.
How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
The impressive oyster selection at the seafood section. Have your oysters shucked on the spot and enjoy them at one of the comfy dining areas.
How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
If you can’t be bothered to shop, just zero in on any of the 15 F&B stands, like Poofy, which specialises in fluffy Japanese Souffle pancakes, as well as Lucky Peach, where you can DIY your juices. There's also Chop Chop, a salad bar with local flavours and Fresh Beets, which offers grain bowls. Or just laze with a cuppa from gorgeous coffee joint Hinoki, while watching the world go by through its soaring floor-to-ceiling windows.
How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
This adorably-named spot specialises in fluffy Japanese Souffle pancakes and milk ice cream. Strangely enough, popular Japanese pancake joint Riz Labo from Tokyo will set up shop within the same Habitat space soon, too. Are two pancake joints really necessary, though?
How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
Order your food via the app, and it will send you a notification when your grub is ready for collection. Sit anywhere you like within the prettily appointed dining area. We like the cosy reading corner, aptly named Shufu, the Chinese word for “comfortable”. Here, you can browse books and magazines revolving around food, design and local literature.
How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
Raclette cheese on toast from sarnie joint, Lazy Loaf.
How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
Add to your shopping experience with free hands-on workshops. For this weekend’s opening, there are pasta making sessions (you can bring your creations home) and oyster shucking lessons. Baking courses are in the pipeline.
How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
Cool tip: there’s a ‘Beauty Bar’ in the rather elegant unisex washroom, where you can try out products like a lavender scrub and moisturiser. Sanitary or not, you decide. Fun, though.
How To Shop & Eat Without Talking To Humans At Honestbee’s High-Tech Grocery & Dining Concept Habitat
habitat by honestbee opens 18 October at #34 Boon Leat Terrace, #01-01, S119866. Open daily 8am to 10pm. www.facebook.com/habitatbyhonestbee.
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By Kendra Tan
Published October 17, 2018
Updated August 8, 2019
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It was only a matter of time before we're all replaced by robots, right? Habitat by honestbee claims to be the “world's first tech-integrated, multi-sensory supermarket, restaurant and retail innovation experience under one roof”. What this means in simple English: a massive 60,000 sq ft warehouse where you can grocery shop with the help of robots. All without using cash, or talking to anyone if you so desire. Oh, and you can also dine in-store and attend cooking classes if you're up for some human interaction. It’s launched by homegrown tech company honestbee, an app that offers grocery, food and laundry delivery services.

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