Luckin Coffee adds kiosks in New York City stores, reshaping front-line work

Luckin Coffee has added self-ordering kiosks to two Manhattan stores, giving the chain a second way to take orders in New York City after relying only on its mobile app in the market. The new setup is likely to shave time off the counter and push more of the job toward beverage assembly, quality checks and keeping app and kiosk tickets moving.

The kiosks are now part of Luckin’s two-store Manhattan expansion, which brought the company’s New York footprint to about 20 locations after its U.S. debut last year. Luckin first soft-opened two pickup stores on July 2, 2025, at 755 Broadway in Greenwich Village and 800 Sixth Avenue in Chelsea, with company materials placing those sites in high-traffic areas near New York University and Midtown Manhattan. The latest additions extend that rollout with a channel that does not depend on a phone download.

For workers, the shift matters because each new ordering lane changes the rhythm behind the bar. A store that once lived or died by app traffic now has to manage kiosk orders, mobile orders and the handoff between them. That can mean fewer cashier-style interactions and more pressure on the people making drinks to keep production tight, catch mistakes before they reach the customer and prevent bottlenecks when the line piles up. Luckin has said the kiosks are meant to complement its app rather than replace it, which points to a layered digital model instead of a clean switch from one system to another.

New York’s rules shape that model as well. Local Law 34 of 2020 prohibits most cashless-only businesses from refusing cash, and the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection has moved to implement the law through new rules. Luckin’s earlier U.S. model was built around mobile ordering and cashless pickup, so adding kiosks gives the company a way to broaden access while keeping the transaction flow heavily digital.

The move also fits a broader pattern in New York coffee service. Starbucks opened a pickup-only store near Penn Station in November 2019, an early sign that major chains were testing app-first service before Luckin arrived in the market. Luckin’s own U.S. push is part of its effort to become a world-class coffee brand, but the chain is still working under the shadow of its past: the SEC said Luckin fabricated more than $300 million in retail sales from at least April 2019 through January 2020, imposed a $180 million penalty in December 2020 and noted that Luckin’s American Depositary Shares traded on Nasdaq until July 13, 2020.