You are earning bonus My Starbucks Rewards stars right now for buying coffee for home at company-operated Starbucks stores!
A reader alerted to me the fact that her My Starbucks Rewards stars totals this month included extra “bonus” stars for at-home coffee purchases. I made some inquiries and learned that now through March 31, 2013, you earn a bonus star when buying whole bean coffee, Verismo pods, Via Ready Brew, or K-Cup packs at Starbucks! I realized that this was one promo that could’ve easily been missed by both customers and partners alike, so I wanted to pass along the bonus stars news. Besides, it is a long bonus stars promotion, so there is still plenty of time to take advantage of it.
There is one more promotion that I want to mention: I have not confirmed this completely, but I have heard that if you buy a pound of whole bean coffee at company-operated Starbucks stores February 21 through February 24, you will receive a five dollar gift Starbucks card. That seems like a great deal! (The $5 gift card promotion is only available for one-pound coffee purchases. Buying Via Ready Brew, Verismo Pods, and K-Cups doesn’t qualify for the $5 gift card, as far as I know.)
That is it for the whole bean coffee promotions at Starbucks! Enjoy! Hope you get a chance to take advantage of one or both of these whole bean promotions.
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This offer may vary by area. Yesterday at my regular Starbucks it was written on the main blackboard that starting Feb. 21, 2013 you would get a $5.00 Starbucks Card with a 1 lb. coffee purchase (bean coffee only). I do not recall the end date, but I see you say it is the 24th.
I have not seen the extra star announcement you show in the post (I keep copies of all email offers) in any of the emails for my family’s Starbucks Card accounts.
All coffee inventory (bean, K-cup, VIA, Verismo) at my regular Starbucks was really low yesterday (shelves were almost bare) so I hope it was just hiding in the backroom.
Funny about this rewards offer because the pods are available at my local store but where our daughter lives in the Boston area they do not sell in stores the pods for the Verismo machine. Also, speaking of rewards- I got a reward coupon for $1 off an evolution juice but yet our local store is not yet carrying them.
I’m glad you got to the bottom of this Melody. I did find the extra bonus star in my calendar in MSR when I bought a pound of beans last Saturday. This was a total surprise to me which I have inquired about. I never saw any kind of announcement and I definitely got NO email, from anyone. To date, I’ve seen nothing in any of the Sbux stores that I’ve been in. It’s a nice promo for lb, until 3/31! That’ll be a few extra stars.
Re: the $5.00 gift card/lb, I haven’t seen that either but maybe it’s up in the stores today. This is all interesting. I do think, however, a little better communication about all this would have been a good idea! It seems a little odd to me that it is too often left up to us, the customers, to find out what’s going on.
Still, a nice little (hidden) promo 😉
I got the bonus star email on January 30, 2013, outlining the program. Weird others didn’t receive it. I will be doing the $5 gift card promo and hope they overlap. I am loving all the extra stars and free drink specials they are running!
The $5 giftcard with the purchase of 1 pound of beans the February 21st-24th is at every company operated Starbucks.
Hi,
Could you please advise if any of these two promotions are valid in Canada?
@Brian – Hi Brian – Good question. I am inclined to think the answer is “yes” because I sent out a tweet last night to try and confirm the gift card promo, and some of the partners who replied to me are in Canada. But I will attempt to get an official answer too.
There’s also another promotion coming up: if you register a Starbucks card online you get $5 on the card. I believe it’s Mar. 1-15.
You may have to be a first-time card register…er. (not have previous card/s registered.)
@Brian -I know that Canadian stores are participating in the buy a pound get $5 promo. But I do not know if we are doing the bonus star.
I haven’t heard of either promo until this post XD I buy lbs of coffee a lot so i’ll be trying it tomorrow at the Starbucks by my house 🙂 so here goes hoping!! (Fingers crossed)
@Sandra Trolinger – thanks for mentioning when you received the bonus star email. I went back into my message archives and found that only my Wife had received the promo email. Sure cannot figure how Starbucks does some of these promos. I am the only one who buys the coffee, so if my Wife got the promo because she is not a regular coffee purchaser, how is it explained that my two Kids who also are not regular coffee purchasers did not get the promo.
You’re welcome, DadCooks…I always wonder how these promos work too. I have slacked on my home consumption of whole bean coffees and in the past few months have only bought one box of K cups at Starbucks. I am almost exclusively a k cup user at home and buy whole bean/ground coffees for work.
With the Oz promotion last month and the buy one get one free drinks around Valentine’s Day I haven’t bought home consumption coffee but will probably buy some before the promo ends especially if we get $5 gift cards.
Dad cooks again your point is well taken and I really think there is no logical application SB uses to give customers rewards . The other interesting thing is that some of these promotions seem to be regional as are the test products, etc.
Aha!! Confirmed $5 gift card with purchase of whole bean!! :))
There was a communication recently talking about MSI bonus offers. I was happy to find out that for our next promotion period we have a calendar of these events (at least we do in Canada). So! Hopefully, now your baristas shouldn’t be clueless when you come in for your reward.
@Samantha A. – thanks, what variety of coffee did you buy? I am hoping there is some Casi Cielo left this morning.
@Michelle – I hope that this goes for us down here in the “colonies”. 😉
I am reminded though of an old saying: You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink
A good morning to all with a tip of my cup of Sumatra Reserve. I hope those of you that are hunkering down for the latest forecasts of snow and blizzards remember that Spring will be here soon.
Got the $5 email this morning.
Is it possible there has been a fall off of whole bean buying since they took off the free drink for Gold card users? I know it has drastically affected my bean-buying at Starbucks.
@theaternut – Over the past years, whole bean sales has only been a small piece of Starbucks sales. As I recall from looking at shareholder reports, there was a slight bump in “at home coffee” sales when they added Via. But you could be totally right – would be interesting to know if people are just going to the grocery store now given that since 2008, they got a free tall any-drink with WB and that’s no longer. Good question for sure.
SM at my local store knew nothing of the bonus stars rewards promo for at home coffee. Very interesting to me what in store people know and what they do not know.
Thanks to everyone who responded. I just got an email on the $5 gift card promotion. So, this promotion is valid in Canada (BC, at least).
Thanks for your help!
I finally got the promo about the $5. card and the bonus star/coffee just late last nite. Definitely not before, and just like DadC…., I save all email from Sbux. Also, yesterday, there was no sign up about either promo at the store I was in. (corp, and a very busy one) Today, there are signs up in my neighborhood place about both….the coffee thru March promo was only on a flyer type paper posted on the doors, the $5.00/lb sign was hand written nr the beans. Either way, I’m glad about both, and still think it would’ve been nice to have been notified (somehow!) by Sbux before I discovered it by looking at my stars in MSR.
Oh, yes, I doubt that in-store bean sales are a big deal. But they have them there, and they want to sell them instead of having them go stale.
I have headed to the grocery store – to buy Starbucks beans on sale, and also to buy other brands. Except for espresso, I like some other brands as well as Starbucks and it’s the bottom line for my regular coffee beans.
Got the pods for the extra rewards and there are now pods being sold up
In the Boston area stores. Thanks again for the info.
Speaking for myself–Discontinuing the free tall coffee with every pound purchase has definitely made a difference to me. I used to buy my espresso coffee a pound at a time, and the free drink was why I did it. Since I don’t get that anymore, I buy my espresso in Quarter pound increments. Now I get four stars, where before I used to get one star and a free drink. Yes, it’s a little bit petty of me. But there is simply no reason for me to buy a pound now, instead of buying it more frequently and getting fresher coffee.
Makes perfect sense to me, Jim98122. I am buying more K cups for my Keurig and Starbucks is not our preferred brand as they are some of the priciest and I can buy other brands we love to drink much cheaper per k cup. I will always go to Starbucks for specialty drinks as no one comes close to theirs.
I kind of felt like I should bump this. In my areas, it seems like partners (or customers) don’t know there are bonus stars for at-home coffee. And now that Tribute Blend is here … well it’s nice to get the extra star! 🙂
This past week, I did see the bonus star promotion mentioned in an email I got from Starbucks.