April 25, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Starbucks Coffee Korea said it began a test run of cashless stores at three of its outlets on Monday amid rising use of credit card and mobile payment systems in the country.

The stores at major office districts -- Gangnam and Guro in Seoul, and Pangyo, just south of the capital -- began trial testing the system. The global coffee giant launched its first cashless store in Seattle, the company said.

Paying with cash has been constantly declining at Starbucks stores in Korea, from 31 percent of the total in 2010 to 15 percent in 2013 and 7 percent last year, the company said.

According to government data, daily credit card spending in Korea hit a record-high average of 1.76 trillion won (US$41.65 billion) last year.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)