Gift cards are such an odd concept. Here is my gift: expiring cash that can only be used at one place.
Convert your US Dollars to Starbucks Dollars!
Starbucks claims $181M in revenue from unused gift cards (2022)
81–90 of 107 posts
Re: Starbucks claims $181M in revenue from unused gift cards (2022)
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've given Starbucks gift cards to homeless folks, who were always happy to receive them. And in California, businesses must give you cash for a gift card if it's less than $10 in value. https://www.giftcardgranny.com/blog/5-important-facts-about-...
That would be a great billboard...a close up of a hipster handing out a Starbucks card to a homeless person. One of those feel-good moments.
I mean, they do have food there. A $10 gift card would buy a decent breakfast sandwich and a basic coffee, I'm sure a homeless person would appreciate that. Not to mention an excuse to spend a while indoors.
I agree that the image is funny, but it's not the _worst _ way to give someone in need $10.
Re: Starbucks claims $181M in revenue from unused gift cards (2022)
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're throwing them in the trash, why not give them out whenever you're expected to tip?
Its just convenience. Its not worth it to lug them around and try to remember you have one.
I hope you can take a step back and understand how wild it is that carrying a plastic card in your pocket for 2 minutes while you exit your building and hand it to pretty much anyone is too "inconvenient" and you'd rather throw away the $$.
Re: Starbucks claims $181M in revenue from unused gift cards (2022)
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
If instead of taking uninformed pot shots you took just a moment to check, you'd see overdrafts come from a tiny slice of customers who get hit by overdrafts over and over again. No one made any excuses for anyone, it was a simple statement of fact that batched transactions save a marginal cost for the good in question and affect the age group that's using them the most. — It might even be profitable for them to eat…
If you can pause for reflection to go check your past history of purchases to determine if you should make another purchase, then you could probably just remember if you’ve been on a recent spending spree.
Huh? I'm saying Uber should surface when an order is about to compound a pending transaction, precisely so they don't need to go and find that.
You're also again, showing how completely out of touch you are with how millions of people live: it has nothing to do with a recent spending spree, there are a lot of people who just live in a state where they're always near $0.
The middle class version of living paycheck to paycheck is not having a properly sized savings, there are people who live below that. Some random bill or fee landed the same day as their order is enough to get hit with an NSF, or multiple.
People in a certain bubble take this very black and white view of it. "Why do they have random bills?? Why would they have Netflix and be ordering Uber Eats??". You think that's idiotic, so by implying there are people living like that, I'm coddling idiots.
The truth is life is short and then you die. If people feel a certain level of hopelessness and lack of control over the larger picture, it can be hard to get excited about essentially balancing their checkbook before ordering dinner. I'm not going to sit on some high horse and act like they don't get to make "bad" decisions for comfort.
How many people in tech are still shackling themselves to 7 figure homes after the rate hikes and the layoffs to satisfy their FOMO instead of taking a more rational approach?
Re: Starbucks claims $181M in revenue from unused gift cards (2022)
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
It does not wreck anymore havoc than lots of separate transactions pushing them deeper into debt.
If you're watching your credit card to know how much money you have left won't the Uber rides not reflect until they do a mass bill?
That’s not how credit cards work. A credit line isn’t “money you have left”, it’s the max you can borrow.
Re: Starbucks claims $181M in revenue from unused gift cards (2022)
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
It does not wreck anymore havoc than lots of separate transactions pushing them deeper into debt.
Stuff like this reminds me of the bubble tech lives in. There are a lot of people who aren't on top of their finances at all. For them, a delayed transaction wreaks plenty of havoc because they're not keeping track of how much "ghost transactions" are affecting the account balance they see. Now you could argue it's on them for not being on top of their finances, but Uber makes a lot of money from these people. The la…
Not a bubble thing. Many people living paycheck to paycheck watch their accounts. They often know everything that’s hitting and on what day, for several days in advance, and what they need to do, or will try to do, to keep it positive. Transportation costs especially.
It’s the same mental power you have, but for a variety of reasons they’re having to apply it to stave off problems instead of to grow their assets as is more typical among software engineers.
Re: Starbucks claims $181M in revenue from unused gift cards (2022)
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
If instead of taking uninformed pot shots you took just a moment to check, you'd see overdrafts come from a tiny slice of customers who get hit by overdrafts over and over again. No one made any excuses for anyone, it was a simple statement of fact that batched transactions save a marginal cost for the good in question and affect the age group that's using them the most. — It might even be profitable for them to eat…
If you can pause for reflection to go check your past history of purchases to determine if you should make another purchase, then you could probably just remember if you’ve been on a recent spending spree.
Most people being hit repeatedly by overdraft fees and the like aren't on spending sprees. They're people who have little to no money, and earn little to nothing. They get hit by overdraft fees whenever any bill is larger than expected, or they get a parking fine, etc.
I really don't think people understand that if you're commenting on HN you are unlikely to be in the same financial ballpark as someone who is actually poor.
Re: Starbucks claims $181M in revenue from unused gift cards (2022)
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
So how is it revenue? Sounds like a liability
Companies bet on something like 2-5% of "breakage". That is the main profit motive behind gift cards. There are various claims of using them as marketing and a system to refund people without letting them out of your loop, but the major reason anyone pays what they do to a certain company to sell gift cards (almost nobody does it themselves anymore) is to get that breakage profit. Gift cards are a subsidy from forget…
The problem is if someone gives me cash I just put it in to my bank account with all my other cash and it just gets spent on typical living expenses. Nothing I can label as a gift comes out of it.
Re: Starbucks claims $181M in revenue from unused gift cards (2022)
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
That would be a great billboard...a close up of a hipster handing out a Starbucks card to a homeless person. One of those feel-good moments.
I mean, they do have food there. A $10 gift card would buy a decent breakfast sandwich and a basic coffee, I'm sure a homeless person would appreciate that. Not to mention an excuse to spend a while indoors. I agree that the image is funny, but it's not the _worst _ way to give someone in need $10.
Yeah, for a homeless person, the advantage to having a little bit of cash to drop in a restaurant or coffeehouse means that they get to rent that table for, oh, perhaps a couple of hours. They get access to a well-maintained restroom. There is climate control.
Motels > restaurants > libraries > buses, in terms of comfortable hangouts.
When I was living on the streets, St. Vincent de Paul continually finagled for me some gift certificates to a 24-hour burger joint. That was a GODSEND, because the worst part of living on the streets is wondering what to do with yourself all night. It was absolutely Heaven for me if I could slip into the burger joint and doodle in my journal, or sip coffee in an IHOP and read a book.
Re: Starbucks claims $181M in revenue from unused gift cards (2022)
#90Gift cards are such an odd concept. Here is my gift: expiring cash that can only be used at one place.
Think about it this way: many people derive peace-of-mind from giving a gift whose purpose is known. Now, I can hand someone $20 and hope they don't spend it on booze, drugs, or prostitutes. Or I can hand someone a gift card, knowing they will spend it on Starbucks (not that expensive coffee isn't on a spectrum of vices anyway.)
I can't put my finger on it, but as someone who has wholeheartedly embraced a "cashless society" vision, I feel better about gifting people with gift cards instead of cash. I don't know if it's any safer to send them through the mail, but it seems customary to tuck one into a greeting card, so that's how I treat my relatives on special days. I often keep a gas station card on hand, because I don't drive, and it can be real useful to offer a fill-up to someone who gives me a much-needed ride.