If you buy anything at Starbucks and thought their rewards program was good what you won't like is that they are changing it. For rewards now you have to spend more money. Previously you'd receive one star for a visit but from now on you'll be receiving two stars for every dollar spent. To get a free beverage you have to spend a little more than $150. Why complain? They've made it easier for you to ditch them and save a lot of money in the process.
In my opinion, if it's something you'd buy anyway then it's worth getting whatever money back to get something free later on. For example if you can collect points for buying every day items at the store, even if the points become worth less and less, it's still something extra for what you'd buy anyway. On the other hand if it's something like coffee that you need to spend more and more money to get one for free, then I'd probably be less likely to bother with it as it seems too much for not enough back.
Agreed. Loyalty programs are great for frugal people only if they are being rewarded by a store for being loyal customers, not spending more money. And it usually is advisable to get as many of those loyalty cards as you can so whilst you visit different stores to save money [since there'll be price differences in some products] at the end of the year, you'd have accrued enough points to get some free stuff from the stores.
I don't know why they did this, other than, like many other large corporations, they don't seem to care what their customers think. I know that research was conducted ahead of time, to discern how people would feel about the change, yet they proceeded anyway. I've seen nothing positive about this on Twitter, where I spend a lot of time. Those who have excess money to spend buying a few Starbucks drinks and snacks a day won't really care, but they're alienating those who use the products as an occasional treat. In my opinion, the goodwill lost by alienating customers isn't worth the change, but obviously they've enacted the new policy and feel it was the right decision.
