Starbucks opened its first Signing Store in Vietnam on Ho Chi Minh City’s Cao Thang Street on Wednesday, expanding a regional format that already runs 26 outlets across four other Asian markets.
Deaf staff work alongside hearing employees across counter service and daily operations, using visual menus, gestures and written order systems rather than spoken prompts.
Operations on Cao Thang Street
The unit sits set back from the main roadway on Cao Thang Street with a garden-style layout planned to lower ambient street noise for staff and guests. It serves the chain’s standard beverage and food menu while changing the service counter workflow to accommodate point-and-sign ordering.
Chi Nguyen, director of external affairs at Starbucks Vietnam, stated to local media that the location functions as an inclusive space where staff and visitors interact directly through visual methods.
Format Expansion Across Asia
Specialised format stores of this type allow multinational food and beverage operators to test altered counter workflows without changing back-of-house supply chains. Starbucks established its first signing outlet in Kuala Lumpur in 2016 before expanding the concept to China, Japan and South Korea, where dedicated customer communication tools were integrated into standard point-of-sale setups.
For commercial landlords, quiet and garden-style layouts of this type offer ways to activate secondary street frontage and deeper, non-standard retail floorplates that struggle to accommodate high-turnover drive-throughs or standard counter lines. The operational friction sits in staff onboarding and maintaining service speed during peak morning trade, where non-verbal communication systems must process complex drink customisations without causing counter bottlenecks.
Market Positioning in Vietnam
Starbucks opened its initial location in Ho Chi Minh City in 2013 and has spent more than a decade building a store network across major commercial hubs including Hanoi, Da Nang and Binh Duong. The brand competes against established domestic chains such as Highlands Coffee and Phuc Long, which operate larger branch networks at lower price points across Vietnam’s urban centres.
The Cao Thang unit brings the company’s regional signing store count to 27 locations across Asia, with operators watching whether the model will be adapted for additional high-density retail districts in Hanoi.
