4C
THE DAILY ASTORIAN FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2016
PARTING SHOT FROM JOSHUA BESSEX
A weekly snapshot from The Daily Astorian and Chinook Observer photographers
A view of the Columbia River from the Warrenton Waterfront trail.
ODDITY
Warbucks
Small spenders lose
under Starbucks’ new
rewards program
By CANDICE CHOI
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Starbucks is
changing the terms of its rewards
program so that people who spend
around $5 or less per visit won’t get
as many freebies.
The Seattle-based coffee chain
says its loyalty program will award
stars based on the dollars spent
starting in April. Currently, peo-
ple earn a star for each transaction,
regardless of how much they spend,
and get a free food or drink item of
their choice after earning 12 stars.
People will now have to earn 125
stars for a free item, with each dol-
lar spent being worth two stars —
meaning they have to spend $62.50
to get their free item. That means
people who stick with options like
plain coffee are losing out.
A regular drip
For instance, someone who regu-
larly pays $2 for a regular drip cof-
fee would currently earn a free item
after spending around $24 over 12
visits. Under the new system, they
would have to visit more than 31
times to earn the perk.
Someone who gets a large latte
for $4.45 currently spends around
$53.40 over a dozen visits before
getting a free item. So that person
would also need to visit a couple of
extra times for the freebie with the
new system.
Still, Starbucks says the change
is the No. 1 request among loyalty
program members and predicts it
Mark Lennihan/AP Photo
A man sits inside a Starbucks in New York in January. Starbucks is changing the terms of its rewards program
so that people who just get a regular cup of coffee will have to spend significantly more to earn a freebie. The
Seattle-based coffee chain says its loyalty program will award stars based on the dollars spent starting in April.
Currently, people earn a star for each transaction and get a free food or item of their choice after earning 12 stars.
will lead to higher spending by cus-
tomers eager to earn more stars. The
change applies to the U.S., Canada
and Puerto Rico.
Star crossed
In a call with analysts, Star-
bucks Chief Strategy Officer Mat-
thew Ryan said the vast majority of
customers will earn rewards at an
equal or better rate with the change.
Without providing details, he said a
“small minority” of customers will
earn rewards at a slower pace.
The change is not a way to
opaquely reduce the value of the
program, Ryan said.
A problem with the current
rewards system is that it can make
wait times longer, Ryan said,
because some people try to get
additional stars by asking to ring
up multiple items in an order sepa-
rately. Such instances account for 1
percent of all transactions, he said.
The change comes as Starbucks
has been pushing to get more peo-
ple signed up for its My Starbucks
Rewards program. Loyalty mem-
bers spend three times as much as
non-members, and help push up
profit, according to the company.
Last month, Starbucks said it had
11.1 million loyalty program mem-
bers in the U.S., up 23 percent from
the previous year.
‘It sucks’
The coming change will not
benefit customers such as Vincent
Fiorese, who works in construc-
tion management and spends less
than $3 on a cup of coffee whenever
he goes to work. But Fiorese said
it wouldn’t deter him from getting
his coffee.
“It sucks, but what am I going to
do,” he said.
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