Starbucks changes rewards program; small spenders lose

On Monday, Starbucks announced that it was making changes to its loyalty program and will now reward customers based on how much money customers spend. The new program will award points for every dollar spent, a change that’s sure to spark complaints from customers who are used to accumulating points with frequent purchases of lower-cost items.

Right now customers have to visit 12 times to earn a free food or drink item.

One change that Starbucks says will streamline its ordering process is that customers won’t be asking their baristas to ring up items separately in an effort to rack up rewards more quickly. Now, Gold status holders will need to spend $62.50 to “earn” a free drink-which is 22 visits for $2.75 medium coffee drinkers.

According to Starbucks’s Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Ryan, the company crunched the numbers and believes only “a small minority” of rewards customers will earn freebies at a slower rate, and said, “We are not using this reconfiguration to reduce rewards”.

Under Starbucks’ current rewards program, customers earn redeemable points for every purchase.

The change comes as Starbucks has been pushing to get more people signed up for its My Starbucks Rewards program. Under the new system, you’ll only need to spend around $5.20 per visit, to accumulate rewards at the same pace as the old 12-visit system. The coffee giant has been teaming up with other companies, including music-streaming service Spotify and ride-sharing service Lyft Inc., to allow those customers to get reward points that can be redeemed at Starbucks. If you’re a Gold member you’re going to want to stalk your email because Double-Star days will be a ~surprise~ and will happen on a different day each month.

The company has made a decision to do away with the “per-visit ” method of earning stars. Already some customers were taking to social media to complain about the changes.

“By designing it in this way, we are providing opportunities for our customers to earn more rewards each time they visit, and will increase the value of our program to our customers and to us”, Ryan said on the call.

Starbucks is simplifying its rewards levels to two: green and gold. But Fiorese said it wouldn’t deter him from getting his coffee.