IF you don’t know it yet, Pickup Coffee opened its first physical branch less than a year ago because the brand started out via the cloud, specifically cloud kitchens.
Cloud kitchens were born as a result of the pandemic, just like Zoom meetings, webinars and lockdowns. Essentially, cloud kitchens were created for the purpose of preparing food for delivery or takeout only, with no dine-in customers. During the pandemic, cloud kitchens helped entrepreneurs open businesses at little cost.
But contrary to popular belief, cloud kitchens or ghost kitchens were already in existence even before the coronavirus became a reality. These mobile canteens, which started after the 2007-2008 financial crisis, popularized the concept of on-demand food delivery. These ghost kitchens became an alternative to the more expensive fine-dining restaurants, many of which closed because of the recession. This concept evolved with the advancement of technology. In 2020, someone estimated the global size of the food delivery market will be at $164.5 billion by 2023 but as of 2022, initial data indicates that it was expected to reach $215.69 billion in 2022.
Pickup Coffee was a start-up with the goal of making espresso and milk-based beverages more accessible to Filipinos with drinks from P50 to P100 only. The initial locations of Pickup Coffee’s cloud kitchens were in Rockwell, Julia Vargas, Alabang, Banawe, UP Town Center, Mall of Asia, Ayala Malls Vertis North, San Juan, and Nuvali. You could get the coffee offerings via Grab Food or foodpanda.
Today, the homegrown coffee company has 50 cloud stores, delivery hubs, and physical branches combined. The coffee and tea products are indeed accessible, with nothing costing over Php100 pesos.
“We actually price the coffee at the right point. The second one is making it accessible. We try to bring Pickup Coffee to as many locations as fast as possible. So it doesn’t matter where you are in Metro Manila, at any given point you can have it in 10 to 15 minutes. It makes it very easy for people to simply pick up one,” said Jaime Gonzalez, Pickup Coffee cofounder and head of strategy.
Pickup Coffee recently introduced Anne Curtis as its new ambassador. With almost 19 million followers on the platform, Curtis is, unless I am mistaken, the most followed Filipino celebrity on Instagram.
“Coffee makes us feel good. It makes us feel great. And that is the feeling that led us to Anne Curtis. She makes thousands of Filipinos feel good, from her movies and hosting, to the products she produces. As a mother, she serves as an inspiration. Anne Curtis makes us feel good and she continues to do so this year with Pickup Coffee,” said Bien Lee, Pickup Coffee cofounder.
Meanwhile, there is no doubt that many of us were tuned in to Netflix on February 21 for the finale of Physical: 100, a Korean physical survival series.
Directed by Jang Ho-gi, the competition started with 100 contestants from different backgrounds and professions all related to fitness. The contestants included athletes, wrestlers, trainers and fitness influencers on YouTubers and social media. These contestants, including mixed martial arts fighter Yoshihiro Akiyama or Choo Sung-hoon in Korea, took part in some of the toughest challenges to prove that they were worthy of the title “perfect physique” and take home the cash prize of 300 million KRW (or nearly P13 million).
The winner was Crossfiter and snowboard cross-player Woo Ji-yong, born in 1986 and graduated from Chung-Ang University to become a physical education teacher early on. He also attained his masters degree from the university’s Graduate School of Physical Education.
During a dinner with the four other finalists, Woo Jin-yong said the reason he joined Physical: 100 was to raise more awareness for snowboard cross games. He was the first national team athlete for the sport but he couldn’t enter the Olympics because the government chose to focus on other disciplines.
“There are no openings at all now. They’re training hard, the younger athletes, and I hope they get the spotlight and people would look them up,” said Woo Jin-yong.
It’s so funny that one of my friends, a Crossfitter himself, was so annoyed that his fellow athletes kept posting spoilers when he hadn’t watched the finale yet. “Of course, they couldn’t shut up about the winner being a Crossfit athlete,” he said.
What I liked about Physical: 100 was that it celebrated strength and power in different forms and ages. The five male finalists didn’t have bodies that we’d normally associate with hot men on the beach but they were strong and powerful bodies that could lift, pull, jump and bend. I wish that some of the challenges weren’t skewed toward men so the female contestants had a fighting chance but the show was inspirational and aspirational. n
Image credits: Pickup Coffee