Starbucks addicts know that their regular visits can eventually pay off in the form of free drinks. Coming up in April, this will still be possible – but for many customers, it might get more difficult. Starbucks will now structure its rewards program based on how much customers spend, instead of how often they visit.
At the moment, customers in the rewards program accumulate stars every time they make a purchase. Thirty stars puts you at gold level, and once there, you can get a free reward every 12 subsequent stars. Under the new regime, customers will receive two stars for every dollar they spend, and getting to gold level will require 300 stars. Once there, every 125 stars will yield a free reward.
If you’re tempted to do the math in your head, it might help to know that Time.com already did it. Their conclusion? If you spend less than $5 on an average visit to Starbucks (increasingly harder to do, but still possible), it will take you longer to make progress on your rewards than before. Despite this, Starbucks says the new rewards system has long been requested by customers.
