Do you remember to bring your reusable tote bag to the grocery store for a ten-cent discount? Would you remember to bring an inexpensive reusable tumbler back to Starbucks for your daily coffee? Starbucks is hoping that some people do, offering the new cups and a discount in an effort to cut back on the total number of cups the the chain uses per year. [More]
starbucks
Twitterers Use Starbucks’ #Spreadthecheer Campaign Against Coffee Company
By 12.18.12
So the folks at Starbucks UK thought they could ask people on Twitter to use the #spreadthecheer hashtag and have their happy holiday messages displayed on a big public video screen. The people at Starbucks have apparently never used the Internet. [More]
Sold-Out $450 Starbucks Steel Gift Cards Now Going For Up To $5,000 On eBay
By 12.11.12
In case you missed those few seconds when Starbucks’ new steel gift cards went on sale last week before selling out in the blink of an eye, you’re in luck! Well, if you define luck as forking over around $5,000 on eBay for a gift card that retailed for $450, that is. Then you’re all set! [More]
Starbucks Has Discovered Street Corners Without One Of Its Stores, Set To Open 1,500 More
By 12.6.12
If you’ve passed a street corner in your neighborhood and wished there was a Starbucks there instead of having to walk all the way to the next corner, you’re in luck: The company has announced it’s opening at least 1,500 new cafes as part of a broader plan to expand by 2017. Which means yes, Starbucks will be even more ubiquitous. [More]
Starbucks Introduces Limited Amount Of $450 Steel Gift Cards For The Caffeinated 1%
By 12.5.12
There are people who are willing to plunk down $7 for a cup of coffee every day at Starbucks, or those who carve out decent slice of their budgets to ensure they get a venti latte with all the syrupy extras on a constant basis, so the idea of spending $450 on a shiny new steel Starbucks gift card really isn’t that much of a leap. And it will come with the cachet of being one of only 5,000 in existence. We can just sense the caffeinated drool out there right now. [More]
Fake Starbucks Taste Test Shows The Very Real Power Of Suggestion
By 11.28.12
Starbucks is rolling out its new Costa Rica Finca Palmilera coffee that costs $7 a cup (or $40/lb). So what better way to find out if people can tell the difference than by having a taste test? [More]
Starbucks Store Gives Away Two Months Of Tips To Charity
By 11.27.12
A Starbucks store in Greencastle, IN, recently handed over a check to the local chapter of the Humane Society, representing the full amount of tips taken in by the coffee shop in September and October. [More]
Hey, How Hard Is It To Remake A Starbucks Drink?
By 11.20.12
Reddit user Larebearspear had a rotten experience at Starbucks, and shared it with the /r/talesfromretail subreddit. Now, normally the community is for retail workers to share stories from the other side of the counter. But some experiences are so terrible that you just can’t be sympathetic, no matter how many terrible customers you’ve dealt with in your day. That was this trip to Starbucks. [More]
Starbucks To Buy Teavana For $620 Million, Declines $800 Million Tea Tin Upsell
By 11.15.12
If you’re not familiar with Teavana, they’re a chain of about 300 mall shops that sell exotic (and expensive) loose-leaf teas, along with pricey tea-holding tins and tea-making accessories. Starbucks, which already owns a tea brand (Tazo) sees something special in Teavana, and has purchased the company for $620 million in cash. [More]
Starbucks Testing Out Powermats So You Can Wirelessly Charge Your Phone While Camped Out There
By 10.31.12
The days of jockeying for position near the power outlets and Starbucks could be a thing of that past soon: Starbucks is teaming up with Duracell to try out wireless charging systems with Powermats at 17 locations in Boston. The idea being that we often keep our cell phones out on the table, so why not charge them while they’re just lying around? [More]
5 Ridiculously Impossible Customer Requests At Starbucks
By 10.29.12
Given all the permutations possible with the various coffees, flavorings, milks and whatnot at coffee shops like Starbucks, baristas are asked to create all sorts of odd concoctions. But some things just can’t happen. [More]
Apple & Amazon Top This Year’s Brand Loyalty Survey, Blackberry Hangs On In Last Place
By 10.26.12
If there’s anything we want from our products and the brands that provide them, it’s love, true love. Well, maybe not quite that level, but according to the most recent Brand Keys Loyalty Leaders List, we consumers are craving an emotional connection to brands. And when they fill that special place in our hearts, they earn our loyalty. [More]
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz Gives Local Manager A Ring To Thank Her For Doing A Good Job
By 10.12.12
You know how your aunt is always posting inspirational stuff on Facebook telling you to dance like no one is watching or whatever? Well you should also do a super awesome job at your place of employment even when you think no one is paying attention. Because they might be and then the CEO of Starbucks is calling you up to thank you and holy moly, that’s kind of a huge moment. That’s what happened to a Starbucks manager in San Diego earlier this month. [More]
Chances Are You’ll Never Have To Drive More Than 20 Miles To Find A Starbucks
By 10.11.12
Inspired by this now-classic map of McDonald’s clusters in the U.S., blogger and scientists James Davenport decided to map out as many of the Starbucks locations as he could find and discovered that 80% of the country’s population lives within a 20-mile drive of a cup of Starbucks. [More]
Starbucks Asks Starbarks Dog Daycare To Please Change Its Name
By 10.10.12
Starbarks, a dog daycare facility in Illinois is feeling the legal heat from coffee colossus Starbucks, which doesn’t see much humor in the smaller business’s name or logo. [More]
10 Examples Of Why Companies Should Just Avoid Twitter Altogether
By 10.8.12
People talk about the risk posed by the immediacy of the Internet. Items can be posted with little thought about consequences, or made public by accident, and no matter how much deleting or editing you might do, the truth — as the kids say — is out there. Nowhere is this danger more evident than the Twittersphere. [More]
Try Not To Freak Out, But A Shortage Of Syrup Might Foil Your Plans For A Pumpkin Spiced Latte
By 10.5.12
Call it caffeinated crack, call it a seasonal beverage that drives otherwise sane people to the brink of madness when they can no longer get it, but the Pumpkin Spiced Latte is a very popular item at Starbucks locations around the country every fall. So when stores run out of the syrup needed to concoct this beloved beverage, people are bound to be bummed/irate. [More]
Starbucks To Add Tipping Function To Mobile Payment App
By 10.4.12
One of the knocks against Starbucks’ mobile payment app is that it doesn’t have a way for the customer to add a tip if they want to. But the coffee colossus has apparently realized the error of its ways and is working on a way to allow for tipping. [More]
