Braamfontein is the perfect location for this innovative venture, home to Joburg's largest concentration of students, and creatives. Positioned as the first of its kind in Africa, the KFC concept store at 73 Juta Street, just next door to Play Braam's Mexican eatery Loco, is a first for the global KFC brand, and an interesting move for the fast-food giant. Instead of serving up what they think customers want, this future-focused store has been designed with a customer-first approach that rather imagines what customers need.
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A fast food store that doubles as an innovation hub, the idea is that the store will pioneer new concepts in real-time, exploring food, fashion, technology, sustainability, and design. The restaurant's interior design includes collaborative pieces with hot local designers and creatives, including Yay Abe, Karabo Poppy, and Damn Vandal. The concept store features an exclusive menu with offerings such as Cola Dunked Wings, the Chilli Lime Burger, and a range of new Krushers, including the Pineapple Mojito Sparkling Krusher. You get to order from the menu, presented with 100% digital graphics and display content, in our 11 official languages. Basically, KFC is venturing into the digital space, and we think it's super fresh.
With lots of seating capacity, an open kitchen for you to see your food being made, and a focus on young and energetic team members who play the roles of lobby hosts and table servers, we have to applaud KFC for moving fast food into a fresh new age.
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There's unlimited Wi-Fi and you get to contribute to South Africa’s first crowdsourced Spotify playlist. The digital experience extends to trying on exclusive merch from a collaboration with award-winning local designer Mzukisi Mbane of Imprint ZA and participating in a custom KFC virtual reality (VR) gaming experience.
To salve the conscience around impact on the environment, this is also a green and sustainable store with initiatives that measure and optimise energy use. Energy consumption is monitored along with CO2 emissions; flow-flush toilets and other water conservation efforts are in place; and the store uses sensors that gather information on environmental changes for food safety. We think Greta Thunberg would be proud to call this place home (we're just not sure about the chickens!).
We loved our visit.
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