About 14 months ago, Starbucks launched a program called a Gold Card. Under the 2008-2009 version of the Gold Card, officially announced in October, and available for customers to purchase as of November 4, 2008, customers paid $25.00 annual fee to receive ten-percent off all their purchases for the year. Click here for the official Starbucks press release about the 2008 version of the Gold Card. Additionally, customers received various coupons in the mail, available only to Gold Card holders. This was a fabulous program for the highly loyal customer buying multiple items at a time, and frequenting Starbucks perhaps a dozen a more times in one month. For the infrequent customer who came in, bought a soy latte, once in a week, this offer made no sense. Unfortunately, only about 20% of the Starbucks customer base falls under the “super regular” category, though they spend in numbers far in excess of their 20 percent proportion of total customers.
Most people paid $25 for the Gold Card. Three very small groups of customers received free Gold Cards from Starbucks. (See USA Today article about Gold Card). First a few thousand customers were sent Gold Cards early – presumably the highest spending group of customers. Second, stores received three Gold Cards that the store manager could give away to a favorite customer. Third, a very very tiny group of customers who were highly loyal mystarbucksidea.com participants received their Gold Card free for their loyal participation at mystarbucksidea.com.
Overwhelmingly, hundreds of thousands of people paid $25 for their Gold Card. Starbucks has never told us how many people bought the card, but I’ve often guessed that the number was above half a million but below one million.
For many people, their Gold Card discount of ten percent off their purchases comes to an end on January 5, 2010. Starbucks is eliminating the old version of the Gold Card in favor of a new version called “My Starbucks Rewards”. Your Gold Card discount ends one year from purchased and activated, or January 5, 2010, whichever is the later date of the two. However, in all cases, the old version of the Gold Card with ten-percent discount ends on December 31, 2010.
The new version of the rewards program allows participants to collect “stars” per transaction, and upon reaching 15 “stars,” the participant is mailed a coupon for a free beverage.
The new version of the program consolidates the previous registered card rewards (free soy milk, free syrups, 2 hours of wi-fi, tall drink when buying one pound of beans) into one card. No longer does anyone have to carry two cards.
Of course the obvious problem with the new program is that the reward is a “per transaction” and has no relationship to dollars spent. Thus, there is now a disincentive to grab a second item at the register. In addition, the best case scenario is a delayed beverage coupon. Some will get lost in the mail no doubt, forgotten, destroyed… you name it. The new program is still a great program for the group of customers who don’t buy very much and just want their tall soy vanilla latte and to be in and out the door. However, the new program is a definite step down in benefits for the “super regular” group of customers.
For more conversation on the new My Starbucks Rewards, be sure to visit the Starbucks blogs. There have been 3 official blog posts about it:
- October 30, 2009 – Introducing My Starbucks Rewards
- November 6, 2009 – In Response to Your Comments on My Starbucks Rewards
- December 24, 2009 – My Starbucks Rewards – Your Ideas!
On a personal note, I’ve been a Starbucks customer long enough that a change of reward programs isn’t going to make me stop going to Starbucks. I don’t change my stripes so easily. I was around long before anyone dreamed up the idea of a ten-percent discount, and I will be around afterward. One single year of a ten-percent discount after being a customer for about 18 to 20 years (I don’t remember when I first found Starbucks but I moved to Seattle in 1989) represents just a “fluke” year in my history. The new program will perhaps help me control how much money I spend at Starbucks since there is now a reason not to grab a second item at the register. No more buying 8 pounds of coffee at once and using it for twitter contests: The new program will reward a large purchase still with “one star” unless the register barista rings each item separately, which is only going to cause headaches at the register. In an odd way, I’m looking forward to Starbucks giving me a reason to spend less. I spent more, sometimes to excess, with the ten-percent off discount. 2010 will be the year that StarbucksMelody doesn’t spend so much at Starbucks.
And now, the doors open to your comments on the new My Starbucks Rewards program…
P.S. I had a previous blog post on My Starbucks Reward when it was first announced. Click here for the previous blog topic.
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Ok, so I’ve clearly had my head under a rock… I thought they were keeping the 10% discount for Gold level members. Knowing this, I completely agree that this is a total step down for current Gold Card members. Assume someone goes every morning, at $4 a trip. After 15 stars they’ve spent $60 and will get a coupon worth $4, a 6.6% savings. The new program will be an improvement for the guy getting a daily drip coffee if he spends that coupon on a latte, but definitely not for the super regulars. Starbucks needs to add a third level to the program for super regulars – 50 stars? – and bring back the 10% discount.
Oh, and they’re going to send me my free drink coupon in the mail? In a time when Starbucks is piloting a pay-with-your-iPhone program, it seems like they’re going backwards. Maybe I could request that they fax it to me? Carrier pigeon perhaps?
i currently, for at least the past year, have been going to starbucks at least once if not twice every weekday
i am not going to stop going but i will go only once, and may not go every day now
i got a free gold card because of my duetto card, so i didnt’ pay
i am also glad to get my soy free now – since lactose free milk isn’t an option
we’ll see how it goes and how it changes for next year
for now, my local baristas know i am a regular and won’t mind (if there is no line) ringing our drinks separate when we need to cover for one another
me: bummed with new *stars* and no more old Gold card. Are we expired as of TODAY, (1/5) or are we still valid THRU today???? I can call….
I have been really upset about the new rewards program but I guess I’ll just stock up on mugs and whole bean coffee before my gold card exp. I have saved a lot of money esp. since I bought a espresso machine to which I saved about $50. Since regulars only acct for 20% of sbux customers they figure they can save $ by ending our main rewards program in favor for a less expensive program for the once a week/month frappachino customer. While it makes since it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth as a hyper regular customer
Hi Melody and All, I am more confused than ever now…. I just checked my account and I am at “green level” but wait I WAS a Gold Card holder….I thought those that held “Gold Cards” were automatically placed at “Gold” status. The “manage card” site says I have to earn 30 stars to move to “gold level” …. Can anyone clarify…. I am so, so confused!!!! Thanks…
Good Coffee Day to You!
Oh I wanted to add something else….. Of course I am extremely dissapointed that I won’t get the 10% off anymore, especially on my whole bean purchases. But because I didn’t use my “Gold Card” as a pre-paid card and used another form of payment I’m afraid the “new rewards” program won’t do me any good as I refuse to load a pre-paid card and HAVE TO use that as my form of payment to recieve rewards. Why should I “loan” Starbucks my money? Better in my account earning interest than in theirs earning interest. So I guess as of today there will be no rewards for me. That’s really too bad because I am a loyal customer.
I agree with you that I won’t be spending as much without the 10% discount. I have the new gold card, it’s already all scratched up just from being in my wallet. It hasn’t even been used yet. I celebrated the last day of my 10% off by getting my usual Grande Vanilla Latte and the mini sparkle donut….which was rather bland and dissapointing.
Mine says green also!!
I am going to miss the 10% discount!
to Venti-Bold, et al.: according to the faqs and info. I’ve read, if you had the old gold card, you automatically are in ‘gold’ with your new gold card. In the little paper ‘welcome pkg’, that my new gold Gold card came in, it says ‘Dear Denise……
On Jan.6, 2010, as your gold card expires’ (I just answered my above question!)…… BUT, before that, in the 1st paragraph, last sentence says “welcoming you into the next evolution of our rewards program…My Sbux Rewards–at the Gold level automatically.” So, I cannot see how any Gold card-er would ever be at the “green level”. Where did you see this?
I’m sad! I got the Gold card from my mom as a present awhile back and now she won’t get the discount any more. :’(
I already registered my normal card for the rewards program. Something about registering it before 2010 starts you at a a higher level?
I’m not sure what’s going on, but I only buy a few drinks a week anyway and I’m allergic to everything else they sell so it’s not gonna hit me too hard.
I did like the gold card though, it made me feel special. Sip sip, sniff sniff :’(.
Melody, I’m sorry Starbucks isn’t rewarding the big spenders. Maybe Peets or Lladro would like to court these customers?
Like Venti-bold and Denise R. I went to my Starbucks Cards account for the first time in a while as I usually check things via the iPhone app and found…I am at the green level a well. I am going to hold off on doing anything until tomorrow since I believe that the old program ends today and the new one starts tomorrow. That is the only reasonable explanation for the level not being gold and described in all of the marketing hype.
I’m a bit confused on how to pay. I did receive my nice new gold card with my name engraved on it but I used to pay cash & give them my gold card for the 10% discount or I would give them a different registered card for my free soy etc (depending on what drink I was receiving).
Now it seems that you need $$ loaded on the gold card & have to pay with that in order to get the ‘points/stars”. What if I just want to pay with cash or a credit card? I’ve bout a few drinks this way but I did not receive stars for those drinks. I don’t necessarily want to load $$ on my new gold card. Not sure If I’m loving the new program.
I hope it will show Gold tomorrow.
Mine account shows the same thing as well…being at the green level when both gold cards are registered to that account. Since the 10% worked today, I assume we will all show at the new gold level starting tomorrow 1/6. I was glad to read others were having the same issue, as I was a bit concerned when I logged in and saw that I was at the green level.
I also show that I have been accumulating stars the past 4 days…so I wonder if they will go away tomorrow when rolled into the gold level and have to start over again.
I really wish they would have just kept the 10%!!!
I asked Starbucks(Brad) on Twitter. He says it should show Gold level tomorrow!!!
While I’m sure there are problems with the new system, the old one was really broken. Gold Card users didn’t always get the best discount, what with free syrups, milk substitutions, et al. giving a greater than 10% discount to registered card holders. So it was confusing to both customers and partners.
I wonder if AT&T had any input into the program. I use the free Wi-Fi all the time, and when another customer used to ask, I would tell them how to buy a $5 card, use it for their purchase, then register the card from the store and immediately logon to the system. Now they have to use the card 5 times before the free Wi-Fi kicks in.
I also think the star system will get modified over time. The stores won’t want customers to ring up each item separately. That will accelerate their rewards while slowing down service in the stores.
Overall, since I am a black coffee drinker, and didn’t use a Gold Card but just a registered card (better deal for drip coffee refills), I’m satisfied so far.
to ‘sjclynn’: you misread what I wrote. (responding to Venti-Bold) My gold card info. clearly says I am automatically at ‘gold’ level. gold to gold, that’s what I have seen. In any case, apparently any concern has been cleared up…. according to Sbux ‘Brad’, all gold will be gold tomorrow. yikes….
Hey Melody, great post — I agree with pretty much everything you’ve said. Previous Gold Card holders get less of a reward with the new system, which is really unfortunate since they are the most loyal customers. Personally, I like the new program because I couldn’t justify the $25 outlay when Gold Card was launched (I was in college in a rural area, far from a Starbucks) but now I visit Starbucks several times per week, and I’ll be at the gold level after just 30 stars.
Basically, I see the new program as a double-edged sword that will benefit some people more than others, while simplifying the rewards structure.
Thanks Venti_Bold. Sorry I missread you Denise. It look like they are going to gild the pig tonight. We will see how it looks tomorrow.
to ‘Amy’: It is necessary to pay with one of your registered cards to earn *stars*…… another downside to me. Like you, I usually paid with cash, etc. Now Sbux gets all that $$$ sitting on cards upfront….
Good Morning…. Happy to report my Starbucks acct. is at Gold Level this morning! But there is still the payment issue… This is how it reads on the Starbucks website:
Ques:”What if I need to pay for my transaction partially with my registered Starbucks Card and partially with cash – does that still count toward earning a Star?”
Answer: Yes.
So it seems that even if a partial payment is made with the registered card you will earn “stars”. So if the benefits are important to you BUT you dislike loading a pre-paid card then it might behoove you to load a card with 5 or 10 dollars and then just use .25 cents with the card and the rest with any form of payment you choose. I’m considering doing this myself.
And just for clarification this question is also addressed on the Sbux site:
Ques:”If I purchase two drinks in one transaction, do I earn 2 Stars?
Answer:Stars are earned based on each transaction, rather than the number of items purchased in the transaction
Good Coffee Day to You!
Thanks again Melody for such a great blog!
Mine shows gold level also now.
My account also shows as gold level.
Has anyone noticed if you tried to use your old black gold card, if you still received the 10% discount this morning?
the girl in front of me in line this morning must not have known about the new program and she still gave the barista her black gold card to swipe but paid with cash. I am fairly certain that she still received 10% off today. I used my black gold card as well, because I still have $ loaded on it, but I did not get the 10% as I had expected.
Did anyone else get an unexpected 10% discount this morning?
@Hayley – The 10% discounts are still working for people whose Gold cards have not expired yet (anyone who bought their Gold card less than a year ago). I believe that the Starbucks official post said that the 10% discounts would begin phasing out yesterday and would end no later than 12/31/10 (again, depending on purchase date of the “black gold” card).
My account is now at Gold level as well. That is the good news, The bad news is that yesterday, I had 6 stars, actually 7 because one hadn’t credited yet. Today, I have 0 yes, that is zero, stars. I stopped using my black card last week and went to using a normal registered card. Yet again, Starbucks had a chance to do the right thing and did not.
@sjslynn – my account did the same thing too. I had 5 stars yesterday and was at the green level. Today I was at the gold level but my 5 stars are now gone.
any stars earned toward becoming gold are saved in your total history, but if your account expires it automatically makes you gold, so now your counter starts over at the gold level earning you stars towards free drinks! you have to be gold to get free drinks.
By the way Melody…don’t know if you remember me from MSI or StarbucksGossip, but I do like your blog!
Hayley – I definitely remember you from Starbucks Gossip! Your name is unique, and I don’t think anyone there had even a close name to yours. I had always hoped that a few more people from SG would come post here, but I don’t think I’m controversial enough for that crowd of commenters. I need to start writing about layoffs or fired people I guess!! I remember you posted a little at MSI, but I never thought it was alot there.
Starbucks Gossip has some real amazing characters with strong personalities: Spence, Waltie, BostonStarbucksRebel, PatNerr, MrsTillinghamshackles, just to name a few… but mosttly I’m unable to persuade much overlap in comments!
Thank you for participating here too! Glad you like the blog!
I like that your blog focuses on Starbucks things local to your area, and it’s not just everyone complaining about everything!! New things that I would never know about or get to see unless I was in Seattle. It must be awesome to live right in the center of the Starbucks ‘mecca’! I hope to make it to Seattle someday, we just have our few little Starbucks here in Tucson….I imagine they do not compare!
Interesting – it says I’m Gold, with 32/60 stars, with 13 counting towards a free drink! My gold card expired on the 5th, like most.
(reply to Judy) – Hi Judy! Those are interesting star numbers! Weird. My card still shows I am hanging at 11 stars, like yesterday. It’s weird that I had 11 so fast – I assumed that there had been a period of overlap between the two programs, but I don’t know? I dont know how else I’d have 11 stars upon waking up on the 6th, the first day of the new program for me, and so many others.
Yesterday, my card had 4 swipes to it…
to Melody: re the # of stars that show up….. like your example, and that of Judy. see, they’re messing up already. (btw, I found no ‘overlap’ with the days/stars. weird. ?)
I’m from SG as well, never post there, just lurk, I find your site to be more welcoming to posting though (less threat of getting attacked), great job! I wonder if green_cup will crossover, hehe.
Well I haven’t used my new gold card yet. The main thing I hate about this new program is the “transaction” versus “drink” issue. I have four kids and one husband and sometimes before church we all get drinks. I don’t want to be a pain and have all of them rung up separately, but I want my star for each drink, dang it!
Why would Starbucks want to cause this kind of a problem for customers and baristas? Are they just hoping most people won’t bother to request they ring up drinks in multiple transactions?
Even with 15 stars per free drink the discount is pretty low.
Like you Melody, I went to Starbucks before I got a discount and will go there after. But this issue is really bothering me and I probably won’t take my family there for drinks anymore.
How quickly are the stars updated? My Gold card shows my transaction from this morning, but it says I have 0 stars.
(@AnderBobo) I’d grin ear to ear if green_cup posted here, but my topics dont encourage crossover from SG.
Hey Melody! Not jumping ship from SG, but thought I’d check you out!
Thanks for clarifying the benefits for the public.
Someone mentioned that the WiFi was going to be a green level benefit, which means you’d have to earn 5 stars first. NOT TRUE! In late November/early December, probably after getting numerous complaints, free Wi-Fi access was bumped to being a Welcome Level benefit (no stars needed). Yay!
It took 27 hours after I first used my Gold Card II on 1/6/10 before the first star showed up–not quite the “up to 24 hours” as noted on the My Rewards page.
Never experienced the “green level” or phantom stars like some folks have mentioned.
I have noticed that a lot of the old Gold Card I regulars that are usually running through while I am at my favorite Starbucks have been absent the last couple of days; rather unusual.
I’m very proud to have received my Gold card at the end of December 2009. I go twice a day 7 days a week so I guess I fall under their top tier of coffee drinkers.
I do miss the 10% discount and my pocket book is taking a hit I can already tell. I should get my first FREE drink soon. Am I the only geeky person that was happy to see my name on the Gold card? LOL
@Hayley- I totally agree with your observations about this blog- it’s local and focuses on the company and the coffee experience not the whiny voices of the customers that tend to run on the MSI site. Good job, Melody!
1 cup per day ($2.00) * 365 = $730 dollars per year spent on drip coffee. If you are a former Gold Card Member you saved $73 less the $25 you invested to become a member. The average Gold Card member probably save somewhere between $48 and $200 per year on coffee depending on consumption volume.
In the new model, 365 cups of Joe will get you 24 free coffee coupons. So you get $48 worth of free coffee. More or less the same as the original program. I presume Starbucks prefers to give away free cups of coffee instead of $48 per loyal customer.
Personally, I would have liked for the original gold card to tell me how much I spent in the year.
(Reply to Al) -That model starts to change drastically once you have a customer who adds anything to their purchases – pastries, whole bean coffee, tumblers. If you start looking at person who buys even one or two tumblers in a year, and any knickknacks, or Via, the previous version of the Gold Card suddenly becomes the clear winner.
The reason they changed the card benefits was because they wanted to track what people where ordering. Let’s get one thing clear the 10 % is a joke. If you get soy in your drink(50 cents). and then vanilla(50 cents). you save more with out the 10%. The point is to reward customers and find out what they drink so we can make drinks they want, and stop coming up with stuff no one buys. It is a pretty simple consept
Greg, as I’ve always said, that for one group of customers the old version of the Gold Card didn’t work so well: The tall Vanilla Soy latte drinkers who don’t buy anything else.
However, do the math – Anyone who is super-regular at Starbucks, and orders beverages other than syruppy-milk-changes-espresso-beverages saves more with 10%. There are more permutations with greater savings under the 10% off than under the new program.
Just start looking at any other combination of purchases: Vivanno drinkers, people who buy Via, the person who buys a cupcake and Clover cup of coffee… All will save more under the old program than the new program. All you have to do is add one pastry to your purchase and buy a Frappuccino, and you save a lot more with the Gold Card, over the one single star you earn. And even if you ask a barista to separate transactions, you still probably saved more with the Gold Card.
By the way Greg, you make an interesting point about tracking what people order so they have that information for studying consumer habits…
However I think they were previously able to do that with the old black gold cards too.
I think it is possible that they wanted to encourage people to load money on their Starbucks card, which wasn’t required under the old black gold card program, but that is another story entirely.
The Thing about loading money onto a Starbucks card is that Starbucks doesn’t see a penny of that until you use the card for a purchase.
So say you load a sbux card with $50 at one sbux. That store doesnt get that money right then and there. In fact it isnt even included in the sales for the day. Now if you come back the next day and spend $5 and pay with the card you loaded money onto, then the store would see that $5 purchase in their sales for the day.
The money basically just sits on the card until it is spent, it doesnt expire and if you have under $10 and no longer want the card you can have them cash out the remaining balance for you. (At least in CA)
Ruinedone…Then where does the actual cash money go to? If I load $50. on my card the $50. must go somewhere. Sure the credit for the $50. is on my card but where is the actual cash if it isn’t in Starbucks’ bank account?
SBUX financials: Sales $10 Billion, Income $400 Million, Howard Schultz net worth: $1 billion
Starbucks: please don’t insult us further by telling us you can no longer afford to give us a 10% discount after we buy a $25 annual gold card.
Our responsibility is to never, ever buy another thing from Sbux. It’s my new year’s resolution.
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