A soy-fueled storm is brewing in the Internets today, as we’ve heard from Consumerist readers who received an email update about changes to their Starbucks Gold Cards. Sure, Starbucks loyalists will now get a free drink or food item after every 12 purchases instead of 15, but if those card-carriers happen to be lactose intolerant or otherwise indisposed toward dairy, they’ll have to start paying for their soy, as well as syrups. [More]
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Starbucks To Gold Card Customers: Sorry, We're Not Paying For Your Lactose Intolerance Anymore
By 9.18.12
Starbucks Wants To Turn Leftover Coffee & Muffins Into Laundry Detergent, Bio-Plastics
By 8.31.12
Nobody wants stale old muffins and the coffee ground leavings at day’s end, but instead of just dumping that stuff in a landfill, Starbucks says it’s trying out a new recycling process that would turn said items into bio-plastics and laundry detergent. Wiping up those carbon footprints is always a good thing. [More]
Hey, I'm Missing A Lot Of Starbucks Free Drink Coupons
By 8.20.12
Laird feels deprived. Well, maybe that’s not quite true. But the Starbucks rewards program owes him at least seven free drink coupons over the years that he hasn’t received. The horror! The sadness! The caffeine deprivation! He blames the U.S. Postal Service for, perhaps, not forwarding on his coupons. Or for losing them. He wonders, are there any other Starbucks fans out there missing their coupons, too? [More]
Starbucks Hooks Up With Square & Hands Over $25 Million In Mobile Payment Deal
By 8.8.12
Starbucks and Square are totally hooking up and aren’t afraid to let everyone know about it. The sprawling, ubiquitous coffee chain says it’s going to invest $25 million in Square as part of the deal, which will also have Square processing the retailer’s debit and credit card purchases. [More]
Peet’s Coffee Sells To German Conglomerate For Nearly $1 Billion
By 7.23.12
It’s been rumored for quite some time that California-based Peet’s Coffee & Tea Inc. was up for sale, and many people have been sipping on their beverages, waiting for the seemingly inevitable announcement that Starbucks would be the buyer. And then comes today’s news that Peet’s has been purchased for $977.6 million, not by Daddy Starbucks, but by German conglomerate Joh. A. Benckiser. [More]
What’s The Best Way To Handle The “Hold On, I’m On The Phone” Customer?
By 7.10.12
There is a special type of bad consumer that is the bane of both retail employees and other customers waiting in line — the person who not only blabs away on their phone while waiting in line but also holds things up by refusing to pause their call when they get to the head of the line. So what is the best way to deal with this problem in a way that just won’t slow things down even more? [More]
Starbucks Thinks You Want An Entire Store Of Tazo Tea
By 6.20.12
Back when Starbucks bought Tazo tea, it was a way to sell brand-name tea drinks at Starbucks stores and other retail locations. Now the coffee colossus says the little tea leaf that could is ready to headline its own outlet. [More]
Starbucks Order Helps Save Ohio Mug Business
By 6.12.12
While huge retail and food service chains are often knocked for having a negative impact on smaller, independent businesses, there are ways in which a mega chain can result in a boon for a little guy. [More]
Starbucks Forgets That Whole Irish Independence Thing, Asks Country About Its British Pride
By 6.6.12
Even if Starbucks’ Ireland Twitter account only has 2,000 followers, it probably should’ve thought a bit harder before asking those followers how it feels to be British. You know, since Ireland’s a free and independent republic that is most definitely not part of the United Kingdom anymore. [More]
Starbucks & Coinstar Unite To Sell Seattle’s Best Coffee In Kiosks
By 6.6.12
If you think Starbucks’ penetration into the world of coffee-selling is already at the saturation point, the company would kindly like to disagree with you. It has announced a deal with Coinstar to roll out thousands of automated kiosks that would sell $1 cups of Starbucks’ Seattle’s Best brand of coffee. [More]
Court Sides With Starbucks In Dispute Over Labor Union Pins
By 5.10.12
You won’t be seeing Starbucks baristas sporting aprons covered in Industrial Workers of the World pins anytime in the near future, after a U.S. appeals court ruled today that the coffee company is within its rights to stop employees from wearing too much of the pro-union flare. [More]
How Starbucks Trained Us All To Use Its Lingo, And Why It Improved Customer Service
By 5.9.12
While some people balk at having to ask for a “tall” or a “venti” when they go to Starbucks, most people have learned that the fastest way to satisfy their caffeine cravings is to use the company’s particular lingo and keep the line moving. This, says one leadership expert, is not a coincidence. [More]
Starbucks & Disney Form Overly Cheerful, Caffeinated Alliance
By 4.23.12
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum — and also a grande nonfat caramel macchiato with extra whip, please. A new joint venture between Starbucks and Disney means visitors to the theme parks will be able to get their caffeine fix in cafes designed to blend in with their surroundings. [More]
Starbucks Stops Using Bug Extract In Products
By 4.19.12
Cochineal extract has the vague name one would come to expect from a food ingredient. And for years, it’s been used as a food coloring option for people looking to get a nice red hue in their edible items. But what some folks don’t know is the “cochineal” in cochineal extract is a tiny insect that is pulverized to make the red dye. [More]
Starbucks Can't Serve Me Coffee Unless They Misspell My Name First
By 4.19.12
Some people would say that Carrie is making a big deal out of nothing. That she is being unnecessarily difficult on principle regarding something that isn’t all that important. Well, of course. This is The Consumerist. That’s our thing! Carrie’s battle was against Starbucks, and she fought against employees’ insistence that she give them her name with her order so they can misspell it on her cup. She declined, which threw the employees’ entire worldview into chaos. [More]
Anarchists Deliver A Message With Metal Pipes On A New York Starbucks
By 4.16.12
Burned coffee gets my duff up, too — but taking out your rage using metal pipes on a Starbucks? That’s just impolite. Cops say pipe-wielding protestors and so-called anarchists had at it on a Starbucks in New York city’s East Village Saturday night, in an attempt to shatter the store’s floor-to-ceiling windows. [More]
Starbucks Is Trying Really Hard To Fit In With The Cool European Kids
By 3.30.12
Now that Americans basically use Starbucks as a public restroom where you can also buy burned tasting coffee, it seems the mega chain is trying its best to impress our cool kindred across the pond. They’re spending millions in a new campaign to convince the Europeans that they aren’t just “impersonal,” “mediocre” and “expensive” coffee. [More]
Strawberry Frappuccinos No Longer Vegan, Contain Ground-Up Bugs
By 3.23.12
A few years ago, we happily passed on the news that a change in Starbucks Frappuccino flavors meant that you could get some flavors in a vegan formulation. But now, if you’re a Frappuccino lover who eschews eating animals, you’ll have to stay away from the strawberry variety from here out. The good news is that the newest base doesn’t contain artificial red food dye. The bad news is that’s because it’s been replaced with cochineal extract, a dye made from dried, ground-up insects. [More]
