sanqueueDark side of Starbucks app: Coffee giant accused of rigging payments to the tune of nearly $900 million over 5 years | Fortune
Nice people
InfynisWait, is that illegal? Basically every app with in-app currency does that. My laundromat does that.
Starbucks disputes this, noting that customers can pay for their purchase with whatever money remains on the app or gift card, then pay the balance in cash at the store.
Seems pretty clear cut
Isn’t this like the whole point of gift cards etc.
They already have your money and they hope you don’t spend it.
In a former life, I sold point of sale (POS) machines. We got bonuses for selling stuff like gift card add ons and the number one selling point to retailers was that some significant percentage of cards are never redeemed at all.
A decade ago, I worked on POS systems as a software engineer.
The selling point was absolutely hawking gift cards. Since we saw the data from companies, and we had a clause that gift cards expired (before the government stepped on) I remember being blown away by how many millions it was in pure profit.
Gift cards. Bleh
I have been actively fighting gift cards in my family by giving cash. I’m all, it’s like a gift card but you can spend it anywhere! I took awhile, but little got into it.
Same. I’ve managed to convince my family that gift cards just tie you into their ecosystem. With cash you can spend it anywhere.
I totally agree, and I definitely prefer cash too. Though, I think gift cards would make a tiny bit more sense if they were worth more than their selling price, since those money are getting tied into their ecosystem. However, that would effectively make them work like infinite discount coupons; E.g. pay 80€ for a gift card worth 100€ (20% off), then just instantly redeem it to save those 20% on anything you want to buy that costs 100€.
the number one selling point to retailers was that some significant percentage of cards are never redeemed at all.
That’s not a good thing though. Companies can’t recognize the money as “income” until it’s spent (until the gift card money is used). Until it’s income it can’t be paid as dividends to investors. It’s just stuck in a bank account gathering dust.
That makes the company look more sluggish. Its “working capital” has increased but income doesn’t go up. So the stats look bad. No, the interest from the money sitting in the bank isn’t worth it. Starbucks isn’t a bank and its investors expect more.
ikiddI represent that demographic.
I get gift cards given to me, and put them in my wallet with the best intention of using them, then after 5 years I clean out my wallet and find them. And where I live they don’t expire, so I put them back into my wallet so I can not use them for another 5 years.
sugarfreeWhat a bizarre story.
What a stupid, utter fucking waste of everyone’s time. Absolute worthless suit with no merit.