Personally, I love Starbucks. Their gourmet drinks are completely worth the price, and my personal favorite is caramel hot chocolate with whipped cream. I've only actually had a coffee based drink twice, as I'm not a big fan of coffee, but from Starbucks it's actually quite decent. And the typical, warm coffee shop atmosphere gives off a nice jazzy vibe that no one can quite resist. My boyfriend and I spent a great deal of time at Starbucks this past winter. It got to the point where the employees at our local Starbucks knew us as a couple, and they knew our "usuals". They really took the time to make us feel welcome.
While Starbucks has great drinks, they also have a great rewards program. Christmas and my birthday are within a month away from each other, so I receive a great deal of Starbucks gift cards around that time of year. If you register your gift cards, Starbucks sends you a free drink on your birthday. They also have different levels of rewards: a welcome level, a green level, and a gold level. You earn stars every time you make a purchase with your gift card, and once you accumulate a certain number of stars, you move up a level and get better rewards. The welcome level is simply the drink on your birthday, while the green level gets you free syrup and soy milk in your drink, free refills, and a free drink if you buy coffee beans. I recently became a Starbucks "gold level" member, after being a "green level" member for a little over a year. For being a gold level member, I get my own Starbucks gold card. It even has my name on it. Every time I use that card at Starbucks, I earn more stars. With the gold card, you get the free drink on your birthday, all the benefits of green level, plus special limited time offers by email, the gold card, and a free drink every fifteen stars. Now that, my friends, is worth it.
April is Starbucks' Global Service month. They're raising $4 million to give to non-profit organizations in the U.S. With your Starbucks rewards cards, you can go online and vote to help choose how Starbucks distributes the $4 million. This way, the customers, who are the ones providing the funds, get some say in where the money goes. You can choose one of four options to send the money: Community Housing Initiatives, DonorsChoose.org (helps teachers and funds educational expenditures), Family Resources, or Opportunity Finance Network. Another good thing is that the voting is personalized by state, so the money goes to organizations right here in Iowa. Admit it, Starbucks is saving the world one blended coffee drink at a time.
Starbucks has over 5,500 coffee houses in 58 countries throughout the world. Even in the U.S., Starbucks is everywhere. Last summer, I went on a trip to Washington, D.C., and there was a Starbucks store in nearly every place we stopped. This is good--they're providing high-quality drinks to everyone everywhere. Starbucks is committed to adapting to the culture of their surroundings, and they understand that their success cannot just be flaunted, I guess you could say Starbucks is a modest coffee company.They believe it is their responsibility to respect the rights, reason, and lifestyle of the people they serve, it even says so in their mission statement. This company, based out of Seattle, Washington, is truly one of a kind.
So go to Starbucks. Get your rewards, your gourmet hot chocolate/latte/coffee. Relax. Enjoy your day. Starbucks wants you to.
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