Lesley Carr, 69, from Maidenhead, said: \u201cIt\u2019s quite pricey for what it is, given it\u2019s self-serve, and very little fruit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Estelle Hutchinson, 32, from Winchester, said: \u201cIt\u2019s the drink that\u2019s most Wimbledon-esque,\u201d adding: \u201cIt\u2019s nice on a hot day but it\u2019s quite a lot of money.\u201d<\/p>\n
The price of a glass of Pimm\u2019s at Wimbledon is \u00a313.45 at this year\u2019s tournament \u2013 up \u00a31.20 from 2025 \u2013 with the AELTC blaming the increase on inflation.<\/p>\n
The trial includes Stella Artois machines serving the regular lager as well as a limited-edition strawberries and cream version.<\/p>\n
The drinks machines mark Wimbledon\u2019s latest foray into automated purchases after introducing \u201cfrictionless\u201d payments at a snack shop inside the Walled Garden Larder last year.<\/p>\n
The technology allows customers to tap as they enter the shop then it scans their movements as they remove items from the shelves, meaning they can leave with their purchases without queuing.<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019d much rather be served by a human\u2019<\/p>\n
The innovation cut queueing times to get into the shop by 75 per cent on the previous year, and has become a fixture.<\/p>\n
However, the replacement of bar staff with automated self-serve drinks machines has left some spectators hankering for a more human touch.<\/p>\n
Sipping sceptically through his cardboard straw, Tim Jowitt, 78, from Arundel, said: \u201cIt\u2019s automated, so it\u2019s not really a Pimm\u2019s at Wimbledon. It feels a bit cheap, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n
The queue for the automated Pimm\u2019s machine stood alongside a far shorter queue for jugs of Pimm\u2019s served by Wimbledon staff.<\/p>\n
Luke Sieger, 52, from St Albans, who came to watch the tennis with his wife and eldest son, said he was drawn to the regular Pimm\u2019s queue for the sense of occasion.<\/p>\n
\u201cApparently the machine is colder, but I\u2019d rather have the human touch,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m here for an event and an occasion so I\u2019d much rather be served by a human than a machine.\u201d<\/p>\n
The AELTC was approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lesley Carr, 69, from Maidenhead, said: \u201cIt\u2019s quite pricey for what it is, given it\u2019s self-serve, and very…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[20635,69782,1431,50,101,5438,118,56,54,55,164415],"class_list":["post-683733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-automation","tag-cocktails","tag-inflation","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-standard","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wimbledon-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}