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There’s no two ways about it, Starbucks is expensive. With the average price of a drink hovering between $4 and $5, it can dig a hole in anyone’s wallet fairly quickly. It could be a whole lot easier if someone treated you once in a while and shared the caffeinated love. That’s what Jonathan Stark is doing.
Mr. Stark has made his Starbucks card available to anyone who will use it. Interested caffeine junkies can download an image of the card’s barcode for use on their smartphone. He’s also made the card’s number (6061006913522430) available to those who feel inclined to share the love with others by going online to reload the card.
Jonathan’s a programmer, so he wrote an API that would update a Twitter account every time the balance changes. Checking the Twitter stream is a solid idea before using the card is the balance updates are tweeted when they occur.
This communal card is based in the caffe pagato tradition in Italy. Coffee is kind of a big deal there. In Italian cafés, customers can pay for two coffees, but only receive one. The second coffee paid for is on hold for whoever comes in and might be short of cash. The other person would come in and ask if there are any prepaid coffees. If there are, that person would enjoy a cup of coffee courtesy of a benevolent stranger.
Jonathan’s card is the caffe pagato for a digital age. Are you going to give it a shot?
There’s no two ways about it, Starbucks is expensive. With the average price of a drink hovering between $4 and $5, it can dig a hole in anyone’s wallet fairly quickly. It could be a whole lot easier if someone treated you once in a while and shared the caffeinated love. That’s what Jonathan Stark is doing.
Mr. Stark has made his Starbucks card available to anyone who will use it. Interested caffeine junkies can download an image of the card’s barcode for use on their smartphone. He’s also made the card’s number (6061006913522430) available to those who feel inclined to share the love with others by going online to reload the card.
Jonathan’s a programmer, so he wrote an API that would update a Twitter account every time the balance changes. Checking the Twitter stream is a solid idea before using the card is the balance updates are tweeted when they occur.
This communal card is based in the caffe pagato tradition in Italy. Coffee is kind of a big deal there. In Italian cafés, customers can pay for two coffees, but only receive one. The second coffee paid for is on hold for whoever comes in and might be short of cash. The other person would come in and ask if there are any prepaid coffees. If there are, that person would enjoy a cup of coffee courtesy of a benevolent stranger.
Jonathan’s card is the caffe pagato for a digital age. Are you going to give it a shot?
It is kind of neat, but the comic pretty much presents the problem inherent to it. What's to stop someone from being a jerk and just using other people's money when someone loads it?
That's not the problem inherent in it. That's the point of it: you donate money for strangers to buy Starbucks drinks with.
The comic does illustrate the inherent problem, though, which is you put a bunch on money on it intending for many people to use it, and all it takes is one person to be a big spender and it's empty again.
There’s no two ways about it, Starbucks is expensive. With the average price of a drink hovering between $4 and $5, it can dig a hole in anyone’s wallet fairly quickly. It could be a whole lot easier if someone treated you once in a while and shared the caffeinated love. That’s what Jonathan Stark is doing.
Mr. Stark has made his Starbucks card available to anyone who will use it. Interested caffeine junkies can download an image of the card’s barcode for use on their smartphone. He’s also made the card’s number (6061006913522430) available to those who feel inclined to share the love with others by going online to reload the card.
Jonathan’s a programmer, so he wrote an API that would update a Twitter account every time the balance changes. Checking the Twitter stream is a solid idea before using the card is the balance updates are tweeted when they occur.
This communal card is based in the caffe pagato tradition in Italy. Coffee is kind of a big deal there. In Italian cafés, customers can pay for two coffees, but only receive one. The second coffee paid for is on hold for whoever comes in and might be short of cash. The other person would come in and ask if there are any prepaid coffees. If there are, that person would enjoy a cup of coffee courtesy of a benevolent stranger.
Jonathan’s card is the caffe pagato for a digital age. Are you going to give it a shot?
this is kind of neat
I agree.
However, "the average price of a drink hovering between $4 and $5"? What are they smoking? Drip coffee is under $2 for a small and under $3 for a large. Same for tea. IIRC the only drinks cracking the $4 mark are large espresso drinks, smoothies and frappucinos. I don't think that pushes the average price into the $4.50 range.
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jackalFuck Yes. That is an orderly anal warehouse.Registered Userregular
This reminds me of something that I heard this past May about my cousin. He lived in Phoenix, Arizona, and worked at the family company that he, his twin brother, and their mom had built together. For the past ten years or so, ever since he got out of the house and started working on his own, he saved up about a thousand dollars in a special account each year.
On Mother's day, he would buy a ton of long stem roses, and go to the local Starbucks, give them to the manager, along with a check for x amount of money. Any mom that walked into the shop that day got a rose and a free drink of their choice. He did it anonymously. His mom had gotten into the habit of stopping in on Mother's day each year because she thought it was neat that someone in the community did that for people.
We found out it was him at his funeral, during his brother's remembrance time.
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MichaelLCIn what furnace was thy brain?ChicagoRegistered Userregular
Why does this remind me of the morons who to offset the efforts of dirty farkin hippies trying to save energy by turning off the lights or taking the bus, loudly declare that they're going to run their AC at full blast constantly, leave their lights on and spend a few hours idling their SUV on the side of the road, just to show the DFHs that conservation is a fool's game?
Why does this remind me of the morons who to offset the efforts of dirty farkin hippies trying to save energy by turning off the lights or taking the bus, loudly declare that they're going to run their AC at full blast constantly, leave their lights on and spend a few hours idling their SUV on the side of the road, just to show the DFHs that conservation is a fool's game?
those guys are worse, since they don't even get anything (e.g. eighty scones) out of it
jackalFuck Yes. That is an orderly anal warehouse.Registered Userregular
How would you ever know. Saying you do is as good as actually doing it because it can't be confirmed. It's impossible for someone to prove they did it. They could prove it over very small time scales, but that doesn't really mean anything.
I hate dirty fucking hippies as much as anyone who hates dirty fucking hippies can hate dirty fucking hippies, and I don't do it.
jackalFuck Yes. That is an orderly anal warehouse.Registered Userregular
edited August 2011
Someone posting a ten minute video doesn't prove anything. It proves that they did it for ten minutes. "Lookit me, I've wasted 3 cents of electricity!"
I heard about his "Johnathan's Card" thing in the same breath I heard about it being a fake marketing campaign to get people to go to Starbucks and feel good about it.
It kinda sucks that M&J were hoodwinked enough to give it publicity.
This reminds me of something that I heard this past May about my cousin. He lived in Phoenix, Arizona, and worked at the family company that he, his twin brother, and their mom had built together. For the past ten years or so, ever since he got out of the house and started working on his own, he saved up about a thousand dollars in a special account each year.
On Mother's day, he would buy a ton of long stem roses, and go to the local Starbucks, give them to the manager, along with a check for x amount of money. Any mom that walked into the shop that day got a rose and a free drink of their choice. He did it anonymously. His mom had gotten into the habit of stopping in on Mother's day each year because she thought it was neat that someone in the community did that for people.
We found out it was him at his funeral, during his brother's remembrance time.
That's not the problem inherent in it. That's the point of it: you donate money for strangers to buy Starbucks drinks with.
The comic does illustrate the inherent problem, though, which is you put a bunch on money on it intending for many people to use it, and all it takes is one person to be a big spender and it's empty again.
Wait. That's just dumb then. I don't want to pay for other people's coffee.
See I thought it was like.. some sort of discount card that made the coffee cheaper if you pay with it. So people would put their own money on it then use it to save a few bucks. And some guy was just being nice by letting everyone use his.
That's not the problem inherent in it. That's the point of it: you donate money for strangers to buy Starbucks drinks with.
The comic does illustrate the inherent problem, though, which is you put a bunch on money on it intending for many people to use it, and all it takes is one person to be a big spender and it's empty again.
Wait. That's just dumb then. I don't want to pay for other people's coffee.
See I thought it was like.. some sort of discount card that made the coffee cheaper if you pay with it. So people would put their own money on it then use it to save a few bucks. And some guy was just being nice by letting everyone use his.
so...generosity is good but only when someone else is being generous.
i'm not going to say everyone has to up and donate just to be a good person, especially not now. but i don't see why people are hating on the gift card idea if others can donate to it.
yeah, the major weakness is that someone is inevitably going to abuse the card. doesn't make the underlying idea any less cool.
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More like...20. Tops.
Man, why not break the roof on that mother?
Go for eighty-one.
it made me smile
reading this comic and imagining having 80 of them also made me smile
Well, $100 is just what Tycho put on there that morning.
I suspect that's money probably already gone before Gabe gets to the Starbucks, though.
Yeah, this is a real thing.
There, the coffee is good, and it's a fraction of the cost of Starbucks coffee, so donations would last just a little bit longer.
Pity Starbucks is foul.
Satans..... hints.....
The comic does illustrate the inherent problem, though, which is you put a bunch on money on it intending for many people to use it, and all it takes is one person to be a big spender and it's empty again.
You've done America a great service.
it's very smart
and trundled off to the jungle
off she rode with a trumpety trump
trump trump trump
This is a grand idea, that I hope gets picked up for more services.
Just putting this out there; pie shops.
I agree.
However, "the average price of a drink hovering between $4 and $5"? What are they smoking? Drip coffee is under $2 for a small and under $3 for a large. Same for tea. IIRC the only drinks cracking the $4 mark are large espresso drinks, smoothies and frappucinos. I don't think that pushes the average price into the $4.50 range.
hey satan...: thinkgeek amazon My post |
On Mother's day, he would buy a ton of long stem roses, and go to the local Starbucks, give them to the manager, along with a check for x amount of money. Any mom that walked into the shop that day got a rose and a free drink of their choice. He did it anonymously. His mom had gotten into the habit of stopping in on Mother's day each year because she thought it was neat that someone in the community did that for people.
We found out it was him at his funeral, during his brother's remembrance time.
It's also from a guy who's company makes mobile applications/promotions, and Starbucks is one of their clients.
Coffee Strategies article on it.
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I hate dirty fucking hippies as much as anyone who hates dirty fucking hippies can hate dirty fucking hippies, and I don't do it.
But the one(s) I was thinking of were more gas-based than electrical.
It kinda sucks that M&J were hoodwinked enough to give it publicity.
Laaaaaanglyyyyyyyy
Wait. That's just dumb then. I don't want to pay for other people's coffee.
See I thought it was like.. some sort of discount card that made the coffee cheaper if you pay with it. So people would put their own money on it then use it to save a few bucks. And some guy was just being nice by letting everyone use his.
i'm not going to say everyone has to up and donate just to be a good person, especially not now. but i don't see why people are hating on the gift card idea if others can donate to it.
yeah, the major weakness is that someone is inevitably going to abuse the card. doesn't make the underlying idea any less cool.
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