from Hacker News

Sbux Math: Calculate Your Starbucks Reward Program Changes

by SeanKilleen on 2/29/16, 3:59 AM with 23 comments

  • by douche on 2/29/16, 5:35 AM

    Circle-K stores (Irving's gas station convenience chain) used to do a deal where you'd get a free coffee every six or ten.

    Most of the time, if you hit them in the morning, the cashier would just punch the whole card when you bought one...

    It's terrifying the amount of money you can save when you get in the habit of making your own coffee though. It's not quite on the level of movie popcorn, but it's up there.

  • by JoshGlazebrook on 2/29/16, 5:30 AM

    The last change they made to their reward system decreased the amount of stars required to receive a free drink from 15 to 12 stars, but the big thing was soy milk and additional syrups were no longer free. This really pissed off non-dairy drinkers and I can understand why since soymilk is an extra $0.60.

    But now with this new change it seems like they're catering to the customers that already shell out the money for the $5.00+ drinks (frappuccinos, lattes, etc) in their larger size forms. It's like they're just giving the middle finger to the people who only come for regular coffee and teas.

    On top of that, they're making it even more complicated to understand. Like how exactly do they think managing hundreds of stars and calculating stars earned based on the amount of money paid is better in terms of simplicity for the ordinary customer vs. the current (soon to be old) system where 1 purchase = 1 star, 12 stars = free food/drink. It's overly complicating an already simple system. Surely there had to be another way to fix the issue of people wanting their orders split up into individual orders to get more stars while still giving more value (in stars) to larger orders.

  • by et2o on 2/29/16, 8:02 AM

    I never understand the extent to which people get upset about these programs.

    Taking the absolute worst-case scenario: You spend only $1.75 every weekday morning on a plain coffee. This website says you now get a free drink every 36 visits instead of every 12 visits. Assuming you have 240 visits (48 weeks/year), that comes to $408/year instead of $385/year, or a difference of $23. That's only about 5% more. Over time, you'd save much, much more just making your own coffee or even buying a machine for the office.

    If you're buying a $3.65 latte everyday (apparently these are much cheaper nationally than in Manhattan), this rewards program change takes it from $832/year to $813/year, or about a 2% change.

  • by gitah on 2/29/16, 4:41 AM

    I get a grande drip coffee every morning just for the star. Looks like I now have to go 32 times to earn the reward.

    Guess it was too good to last; I'm going to stop using the reward system and just drink coffee from the office.

  • by ww520 on 2/29/16, 5:46 AM

    The only reason I got a Starbucks card is for the reward. I actually didn't like the card since it tracked my visits. Now there's less reason to do so. When people are switching back to credit cards, those small transactions are going to hurt more with the per transaction fee.
  • by joeax on 2/29/16, 5:04 AM

    Thanks. I didn't realize how much the new system sucks til I looked at the math. Before I was spending $30-40 bucks to earn a free drink. Now I have to spend $63 in the least, not accounting for truncating the cents off each purchase + tax, so more like $70-80 for the same perk.
  • by gd2 on 2/29/16, 5:23 AM

    This change feels like a bad fumble, even if Starbucks is a great marketing engine.

    Under the old program, even that it was kinda dumb, I liked getting the stars and the reward, and it somehow made me feel like a member a my club. This changes seems to bust that.

  • by fencepost on 2/29/16, 6:47 AM

    I'm going to make a push to get my gold status renewed for one more year before the new program goes into effect, but after that I'm not going to worry about it much. I'm one of the people they're not looking for anyway, since I get either a morning blonde roast or a midday Americano when I do go in there.

    I also haven't actually been in very much since I got a Zojirushi mug for Christmas - these days I make a pot in the morning, fill up an older mug (for immediate drinking) and the Zojirushi mug for 2-4 hours later (when it'll still be quite hot), and I'm done with it for the day.

  • by boling11 on 2/29/16, 5:47 AM

    The best part of this change is the ridiculous email where they couched it by saying it was the "#1 request we heard from members."
  • by jstelly on 2/29/16, 7:27 PM

    This is a good change for people in offices that take turns buying coffee for a regular group of people.