Comments on: 15 Pieces of Starbucks flair

By: Nick

Nick — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 10:29:55 +0000

A lot of the partners don’t care about earning the pins, or wearing them when they do get them. They get lost, etc. So most partners only have 1 or 2. Occasionally someone will go out of their way to earn as many as they can, and those are the people that have tons and tons, because they take care to save each one. I notice maybe 1 or 2 partners at each store are pin-collectors. More often than not, the people with all the pins are shift supervisors and coffee masters.

By: purple1

purple1 — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 19:00:49 +0000

Wow just realized I did read it as per my first comment and I still say I do not see partners wearing their pins. Very curious why not?

By: purple1

purple1 — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 18:58:19 +0000

Great to go back to this piece Melody! I must have totally missed it.

By: Charleen Larson

Charleen Larson — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 19:13:11 +0000

Starbucks flair. Who’da thunk it?

Agree with denise r., the Rewards program doesn’t hold a candle to the original Gold Card. With that, I went to the Bux nearly every day.

By: Taylor

Taylor — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 08:05:26 +0000

Melody, I will email you some pictures of my pins! I wonder if there are anymore “random acts of coffee passion” pins out there? I have never seen one before! You don’t have any pictures of MUG awards though…they are really interesting as Sbux changes them every so often. Take care

By: Pencil to Paper

Pencil to Paper — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 16:31:17 +0000

I love Office Space! And I always love the pins the baristas wear. If it were me, the more pins the better! I used to put buttons and pins on my name-tag when I worked at Kohl’s. There’s just something a little more fun about being able to feel even the slightest bit unique at work!

By: purple1

purple1 — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 19:25:49 +0000

Interesting about pins! I haven’t seen one barista wear a pin in any of the SB stores I frequent. No longer fashionable! Great post.

By: denise r.

denise r. — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:45:06 +0000

to ‘Mr Who’: this doesn’t seem the place for your comment but since it’s here, I will respond. The new ‘rewards’ program is defintely not better than the gold card for those of us who had the gold card…..and, obviously, spent a significant amount at Starbucks. (and all those other ‘rewards’ you refer to were already available to anyone & everyone with a registered card, any registered card.)

By: Mr. Who

Mr. Who — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 04:34:22 +0000

I’d like to point out, Melody, that since the new rewards program incorporates the free syrups and soy as well as the free beverages after fifteen purchases, most customers (practically all of the the espresso-bar-beverage-drinking regulars) will be saving more than 10%. It is actually better than the Gold Card, no matter what Steve wants to think.

By: Joe McCarthy

Joe McCarthy — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:00:55 +0000

Wow, I can’t believe that I never noticed these pins in all my visits to Starbucks! Thanks for sharing this dimension of Starbucks culture.

I found myself wondering about what these pins all mean, e.g., for what accomplishments are they awarded, and am grateful for Camspi’s comment pointing to the recognition program page.

I recently visited Disney World, and became enamored with the array of pins they use their to both recognize employees (who, of course, they call “cast members”) and customers (who they call “guests”). It got me to thinking about the shared passion for “experience” at Starbucks and Disney … and I wonder if Starbucks will start handing out pins to customers (and whether they will start trading them). Now that Starbucks has some iPhone apps, perhaps they will partner with FourSquare (http://foursquare.com) or Gowalla (http://gowalla.com) to enable customers to win / trade virtual badges or pins.

FWIW, I wrote about some of the Disney pins in a blog post: http://gumption.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/pins-positivity-and-practices-hybrid-design-at-disney-world.html