This May, the My Starbucks Rewards loyalty program expands into grocery, so you can earn a “Star” by buying specially-marked packages of coffee. I want to give you a sneak preview of how the program works, so you’ll know exactly how to get your Stars!
When you’re at the grocery store, simply look for Starbucks coffee with a special small sticker affixed to the upper right area of the bag:
The special gold sticker says on it, “Buy this bag. Earn free drinks at Starbucks.” If your grocery store coffee doesn’t have this sticker, you cannot earn stars from it.
I discovered that the adhesive used for this sticker is pretty strong! I had wondered if these little stickers would fall off, or easily be ripped off, but I don’t think that is likely. When you pull the sticker from the bag of coffee, a code is revealed:
Hang on to that sticker! You’ll need to enter that code on a website. The sticker tells you to “Look inside.” I will admit, when I first played around with the bag, I thought, “Look inside of what?” The adhesive is so strong, it’s not immediately obvious that there are layers to the sticker. I tried to tear at the edges, in a frustrated manner. Do not do that. The easiest thing to do is place the sticker between your thumb and fingers, and roll it until it naturally begins to peel apart:
Pretty soon, you’ll have the sticker fully opened, and you’ll find further instructions on how to obtain your My Starbucks Rewards Star:
Next, enter the code in the special Starbucks website set up for this. According to the instruction sheet, you should be able to visit http://www.starbucks.com/entercode and earn your Star. Since the program has not launched yet, that website is not yet live. I will keep you posted, or edit this if there is a different website to visit.
Now you know how to get your My Starbucks Rewards at the grocery store!
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hard to do!@!!!!! just enter the code right?????? had to fill out a form to create an account, well that got me nowhere, still didn’t get the benefit from entering the rewards code. too much to fill out for others to see and I don’t want to create an account
This offer would of been great, if Starbucks didn’t steal my 11 stars on had on my account, claiming I have purchased enough from them over the last year. I buy 3-4 coffees a week and they say I didn’t but enough to maintain my gold level, so they take my 11 stars and reset me to green. Way to keep customers happy Starbucks!
What a joke! Count me out not only does it not work, they took my rewards card at Starbucks after I used my credit on it. So now what I have to start again and register again, what about the stars and the birthday coffee….what a joke!
Bought coffee. Trying to put in PXHX828P7.
Glenn
I agree with last three comments: much too complicated. I tried for 2 days to get to somewhere where I could enter my “magic number” and finally had to end up creating an entirely new password, etc., etc.,etc. What was wrong with the “free drink” stamp on the pkg. we buy at the grocery store? Don’t think it’s worth it — may go back to buying different brand of coffee at grocery store!!
@JoCarter @GlennDavis @Jeanne –
@Jeanne – Call Customer Service and tell them what happened. It sounds like the register barista didn’t know much about the cards work.
@JoCarter and GlennDavis – I apologize but I’ll probably say things you don’t want to hear. Now, these “stars” are connected to MyStarbucksRewards. If you are not already using a Starbucks card and enrolled in MyStarbucksRewards, I can see how it would be confusing to look at a bag of coffee and think “what’s this star about?”
http://www.starbucksmelody.com/2014/01/01/register-your-starbucks-card-earn-rewards/
But there are more than 7 million active MyStarbucksRewards users in the United States so it’s very unlikely Starbucks is going to switch to any other system. This new system of “stars” at the grocery store creates consistency between what’s happening in the company-operated stores and the CPG category.
Jo Carter and Glenn Davis – Hope you’ll go to Starbucks, pick up a card, and enroll too.
Good luck!
Having trouble finding website to enter the grocery star codes. It isn’t clearly marked on the rewards site and to find the entercode site is impossible to find consistently.
I’m not a happy camper.
It was great when I baught a bag of starbucks at the grocery store I got a free small coffee. I buy at least 5to6 bags a month. This new system is less coffe per bag,and a lot of unnessery BS
Totally agree with —– Sean Donaghey April 4, 2014 at 10:45 am: I moved this winter, had my black lab having cancer surgery and me having ankle surgery within weeks of the move. It was a 10 week NWB to TDWB time when I didn’t drive. I used to live 5 minutes from Starbucks – here I am 25 minutes. I was 1 star away from keeping gold and actually had a coffee there (my first “real trip out) the day I was “demoted” but forgot my phone with the app to get credit.
So much for wanting my loyalty.
Loved the free coffee with the grocery bag–this new system will probabl y send me looking for another coffee brand–even though the Verona has been my favorite and worth paying for!
This program is a disaster.
We have been buying bags of beans for years, at SAM’s,
and with the bag, stop by a Starbuck’s and get a coffee free.
Great concept. But you certainly put a stop to that.
Your new program has sent us looking for another brand,
which we have found. So, record a sales drop of 6 to 8 bags
a month. What fool sold what fool on this program?
I agree with JIM. this new reward system is BS. It looks as like SB does not give a S–T about all of its past LOYAL customers who have been buying their SB at grocery stores As JIM said :RECORD A DROP OF 8-10 bags ffom me.Ad up all the bags sold at groceys sure ADDS UP to a h–l of a lot of lost sales BUY BUY
I tried to enter my code exactly as it was on my paper and all I got was “invalid star code.”
Tired of endlessly holding on the phone to speak with someone at Starbucks. I got the same as everyone – invalid. Well, I’m pretty educated and can read and yet no matter how many times I enter the star code, it does not work. So much for that, but i thought others would like to know – seems like a run around to me – ugh.
How come my star code was invalid? I typed it in exactly as it was on my paper? No spaces.
The program will not accept my email address, saying it is already in use. Which isn’t possible. Looks like you need to do some work on this program!
I made a suggestion to Starbucks back when this started to put the rewards IN the product. Not stuck to the outside where anyone can just open it in the store, get the code and be on their way.
Just entered my first “Earn A Star” code. What’s the point? I used to enjoy a free coffee when I turned in an empty bag. Now I am shown a calendar with a heart symbol indicating a special reward. I don’t understand. What reward? How do I use it?
Maybe I will continue to buy the occasional bag of Starbucks but I must admit that certain Gevalia blends are just as good as my favorite dark roasts from SB. And Gevalia has the advantages of being readily available at my local grocery and for a lower price per ounce. Just saying…
I absolutely agree with Harvey. The stars are not user friendly. I buy—or rather used to buy a lot of Starbucks coffee. Part of what tipped the coffee scale in favor of the Starbucks brand was the free tall. Not so anymore. The stars are way too much monkey business.
It is almost impossible to find the special page to enter the long and random letter number off the bag of coffee! Why is not on the starbucks app
Unable to enter codes from packages of coffee
So I finally log on, after saving stars from a TON of bags we have purchased & used….only to discover the website is not operating at this time and I need to check back?! Ugh reading everybody’s comments is kind of scaring me now. Does this work or does it not? I guess there’s always Pete’s Gourmet coffee and then some. This will give me the excuse I needed to check out the competition, should this be an Epic Fail. Sure hope not, because we buy A LOT of Starbucks coffee bean bags AND counter order as well. We shall see…
Star promotion is so disappointing. Much preferred the return bag for a free tall coffee. Felt like a reward for being a loyal customer. Unless you go back to that original method of reward I will discontinue buying Starbucks coffee.
I was able to enter about 7 codes/coupons months ago. Some of them were from large bags, so probably about $60 – $75 in retail coffee dollars spent with Starbucks.
When I went to use my phone to get the complementary tall, they actually let me choose a grande, which confused me – they never let me do that before.
Come to find out, all 7 of my “stars” had been used for that single grande.
Even more confusing, another store does honor my beat-up bags – but I’m never sure they will continue to do so.
So, no more grocery money Starbucks, unless it is at least $1 less than Peets.
Grocery wall mart stores have Via pkgs, I love the instant coffee cause I’m traveling in motor home vehicle. How do I enter code from card to enter rewards stars?
I too get so frustrated trying to enter the code on coffee bags, why do you make it so hard?????
It sounds too complicated when coffee can be so inexpensive. It’s really a bummer when after going through all this trouble, one finally gets a reward (free tall latte) and it’s all poorly done because of a bad barista.
Why doesn’t Starbucks give stars for K Cup purchases? I buy at least 3 boxes a month. I tried buying bagged coffee and making it myself, but it just doesn’t taste the same.
Yes, the old reward of a small coffee was GREAT!! The stupid stickers are IMPOSSIBLE to remove without shredding and the sticky website is for crap!! I did find a nice coffee at Trader Joes, and I do mean to get revenge for this idiotic hoop-jumping they put me through!! I will never again waste my time getting a scissors out to perform surgery on those bags I’ve consumed …..to the tune of 2 per week—–for several years!! Get real, Starbucks!
All the my starbucks rewards I entered by purchasing coffee at the grocers should have rewarded me by now, but didn’t. There is nowhere to look on your site to see all the number of 12 oz. bags I’ve purchased and entered the rewards code. Why do bother to do that to your customers?, or not bother to anything? It’s a real disappointing waste of time. Adios starbucks.
I have purchase four bags of coffee so far at Sam’s Club. I tried to enter the code to redeem the stars. I received an error message on ALL of them saying that the code had already been redeemed. The stickers did not look used and I paid attention to make sure that they had not been tempered with. Looks like someone has cracked the code from the Starbucks enigma machine. What now? I agree with everyone else. Now I need to buy 12 bags to get a freebee when I used to get my small coffee with every bag before. What a downgrade.