Here's a free idea for Starbucks: issue gift cards that only allow purchase of a specific product, like a tall chai/coffee.
Scenario: I want to thank someone. Instead of giving them a gift card with an arbitrary dollar value that they will inevitably need to round out with their own money, I can give them a gift card and say "your next drink is on me."
And I get billed/deducted in the background. This would make Jonathans card work as intended.
Incidentally I have previously pitched this idea to employees at Starbucks corporate, to the Starbucks "idea" forums, etc over the last two years. My core scenario is I want to have a stack of these cards and give out free drinks to random people. :) $5 gift cards make things too cumbersome.
I actually waited in line at a bank for about 15 minutes once, and when I got to the teller the manager said "hey - want a coffee?", and handed me a Tim's card (reloadable gift cards for Tim Hortons). I had no idea what the value was - but it turned out to be $2 (just enough to buy any size of coffee at Tim Hortons).
Having it be $2 was a lot more useful than having it be for a large coffee - I don't drink coffee, and I ended up using the $2 to subsidize a bagel.
Scenario: I want to thank someone. Instead of giving them a gift card with an arbitrary dollar value that they will inevitably need to round out with their own money, I can give them a gift card and say "your next drink is on me."
And I get billed/deducted in the background. This would make Jonathans card work as intended.
Incidentally I have previously pitched this idea to employees at Starbucks corporate, to the Starbucks "idea" forums, etc over the last two years. My core scenario is I want to have a stack of these cards and give out free drinks to random people. :) $5 gift cards make things too cumbersome.