You can save the image of Jonathan Starks’ Starbucks card onto your phone and use it at Starbucks. He encourages it. Or if you are feeling like you are in a giving mood, you can put money on the card. Check out @jonathanscard to see how much money is currently on the card.
What a great idea! I want to put five bucks on this card. But then what if someone hacks this account and gets all the payment methods? That account has my payment information. Do you know how amazon has a list of all your different payment methods? I would not want my payment information on some account that millions of people have access to.
The more i think about it, people could just donate money to a worthy cause. This Starbucks thing is neat in its method, but the motivation is to give. So you are giving it so someone can have a coffee. Ok. That’s cool. But if you want to give, why not give to people who need it. Most people who go to Starbucks don’t need the extra money. And ultimately, you aren’t giving to that person, you are giving to Starbucks. I don’t think Starbucks needs donations.
But there is the intangible overall effect of making people more giving. And perhaps that’s the bigger story here. I could get wrapped up in the details of who gets it and such, but then that makes me more miserly. I’d rather have a society where everyone was more free-giving. So in that sense, I give this project a thumbs up.
Do you think this project is lame for giving money to Starbucks? Or do you think it’s cool that it gives people a more giving mood?
Props to @abhayshah76 for emailing me a link to this story.
If there was a starbucks anywhere around my daily route (the closest is about 20 minutes away) I would use this and then pay back what I used… just because. As far as the payment methods concern, I wouldn’t be comfortable using a credit card for this, but a one-off payment through paypal, if starbucks has it as a payment option, would be fine with me. Worst case, someone could see my email address. Jonathan also has an API that you can use to grab minute-by-minute balances for the past hour. I’m still trying to come up with something interesting to do with this data.
Your credit card may support “temp” numbers that expire after a certain time and have preset spending limits. That’d be the way to do it.
Sparx, ooh cool. He has an API for this. Wouldn’t it be funny if somehow this project ended up being one big collective tank for spending and investing? Although I suppose the value would only increase based on the giving of people. So if you put in $5 and spent $6, you made money, only because you gave less. I was going to say, only because you are greedy. But the part of the point of this project is to help other people. So perhaps some people aren’t greedy if they spend more than they give. But as I said in the post, people who go to Starbucks aren’t exactly people in need. And the fact that you need a smartphone to redeem this, shows that you really aren’t in that much need. Now, you could spend the money on a pastry or beverage for someone homeless. Then that would be an example of how this could be a fund for those in need. It would be nice if the API had an indiciator of the reason why the money was spent. On yourself? Did you forget your wallet? Did you buy something for someone else? Tom, oooo, i want my credit card to do that!
there’s one very simple problem with this scenario: STARBUCKS
But moose, that’s what makes this so fitting for the technorati.
Hmm, there’s some doubt being cast on where exactly Jonathan is coming from: http://consumerist.com/2011/08/jonathans-card-may-be-a-starbucks-brewed-viral-marketing-gambit.html Regardless, I sort of like the idea, but honestly, seeing the indie coffee shops in my town dying by the week, I’ll pass.
I ve seen progression in every post. Your newer posts are simply wonderful compared to your posts in the past. Keep up the good work.. Ladder