Just a few days ago I received my gold, personalized Starbucks Card in the mail. And I have to tell you that I was genuinely excited to get it. But how’d I get here, caring about this little gold piece of plastic?
A few months ago, I found that I was using my lunch break to take a break outside of the office at coffee shops, where there was free wifi. Of course said wifi wasn’t free, because a purchase was required. I put two and two together and realized that $1.67 – the cost of a tall drip coffee at Starbucks – isn’t a bad price if you think of it instead as the cost for an hour of wifi. See?
On top of that, the Starbucks Card offers a bit of a budget for me. I load it with ten bucks at the start of the month, and when I hit zero I’m done for the month. Pretty simple.
So what do I get for this? The gold card is the level to shoot for, obviously, but along the way I got free refills on drip coffee, a free drink on my birthday, and a coupon for a free oatmeal. With the gold card/level, I get a free drink for every 15 I buy (not the most amazing deal, I’ll admit) and a number of other free-with-purchase type things.
I think what made this program seem really good to me was the combo of rewards and budget limits, really. Starbucks does a very, very good job of making people who use the card feel special – even when I’m just buying regular ol’ coffee. It’s all very well done, and incredibly, it’s made me a fan of Starbucks.
Posted in Consumer Commentary
Ryan February 22, 2011, 12:49 pm
If I’m not mistaken, that card also lets you get soy in place of dairy for free, rather than paying the (annoying) 50 cent surcharge. I’ve considered getting one for that reason and it becomes even more intriguing given what you’ve mentioned.