Free Coffee, anyone?

August 9, 2011 6:15 PM

Jonathan's Starbucks Card. Add the image of Jonathan's Starbucks card to your smartphone and if there is a balance (check twitter) you can have a free coffee.
posted by morganannie (82 comments total)

Gag me with a spoon.
posted by FLAG (BASTARD WATER.) (Acorus Adulterinus.) at 6:18 PM on August 9, 2011

Gag me with a venti carmel half-caf nacho cheese mochafrappapoopachino with a cherry on top.
posted by chasing at 6:20 PM on August 9, 2011

This has been making the rounds for a couple days now and looking at the twitter feed it looks like any money added is getting spent within a minute, which seems a lot faster than it was being spent last time I looked. I would be really interested if someone could come up with a chart of a "Jonathan's Starbucks Card" burn rate or something.
posted by Ad hominem at 6:21 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Can I use Jonathan's card to buy a coffee for the person in line behind me?
posted by box at 6:22 PM on August 9, 2011 [6 favorites]

Hmmm, what to choose - an iced coffee drink with enough calories to breastfeed a baby beluga, a pail of scalding drip coffee with all the taste of burnt socks, or an espresso thoughtfully cooled to tepid, tasteless temperatures before serving?
posted by KokuRyu at 6:22 PM on August 9, 2011 [20 favorites]

Now, if this was somewhere where the coffee didn't taste like crap, it would be at least interesting... but, this is a stunt with a big "if there is money on my card" attached.... and a "give me money" desert...
posted by tomswift at 6:22 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

This seems like a pretty good definition of "doesn't scale well."
posted by RogerB at 6:23 PM on August 9, 2011 [4 favorites]

Yeah, but I bet he gets a shitload of those little "free drink on us" postcards in the mail...
posted by gjc at 6:25 PM on August 9, 2011 [17 favorites]

Need a venti jolt, but haven't got the budget?
Save this picture on your smartphone:

Need a venti jolt, but haven't got the budget?
Stop paying for a God Damned smartphone and get your coffee from McDonalds

There. Fixed it for you.
posted by LoudMusic at 6:27 PM on August 9, 2011 [14 favorites]

Tough crowd.

He's the author of Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, published by O'Reilly (manuscript available online for free). I'd cut him a break; I think he did it because it seemed fun.
posted by nev at 6:28 PM on August 9, 2011 [9 favorites]

I love this idea. Separate from the Starbucks brand it is super cool he did that! Great, creative idea!
posted by femmme at 6:28 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

Hmmm, what to choose - an iced coffee drink with enough calories to breastfeed a baby beluga, a pail of scalding drip coffee with all the taste of burnt socks, or an espresso thoughtfully cooled to tepid, tasteless temperatures before serving?

I would like the jereboami consumptabarfochino - to go. Yes, that's right.....All three. IN A BUCKET.
posted by lalochezia at 6:28 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

"I think he did it because it seemed fun"...

hmmm... see, I think he did it in order to cop a free cup of coffee once in a while....
posted by tomswift at 6:30 PM on August 9, 2011

this would be good for Johnathon if he got points or rewards with the card.
posted by SpaceWarp13 at 6:30 PM on August 9, 2011

I'd be curious to see the level of take up vs. people donating to the card.
posted by arcticseal at 6:33 PM on August 9, 2011

You would think people would get tired of complaining about Starbucks coffee.
posted by smackfu at 6:34 PM on August 9, 2011 [24 favorites]

if this was somewhere where the coffee didn't taste like crap

If starbucks tastes like crap, that means you've been drinking too much coffee.
Becoming a connoisseur is an own -goal :-/
posted by -harlequin- at 6:34 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

You guys convinced me, not only is he a conniving huckster who is getting multiple free coffees all for the price of hacking all this together and hosting it. Stabucks probably is paying him to do it. Furthermore starbucks doesn't even sell coffee, it is swill passed off to yuppie scum who have more money than taste. Fuck the graph of the deltas I was making based on his API I am having nothing to do with this travesty!
posted by Ad hominem at 6:37 PM on August 9, 2011 [15 favorites]

Some time in the past year, Starbucks started serving decent black tea made from something besides floor sweepings. Yeah, I'm shocked, too.
posted by maudlin at 6:45 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

I just came to say that I think Starbucks makes bad coffee, and that this guy is probably some type of low level terrorist... And he probably caused the problem with the stock market.... How are we going to solve the economic problems in this country if this fool is GIVING away coffee... ???!!!!
posted by tomswift at 6:46 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

this would be good for Johnathon

I'm sorry if this is a derail (although I don't go to Starbucks as a rule, for the record), but this is a bit of a sore point for me - his name is Jonathan. That what it says in the post, in the 2 other comments prior to yours that mention his name, on his blog and his Twitter account. That's 1 H, 1 O & 2 A's. There are different ways of spelling the name but they are not interchangeable.
posted by jontyjago at 6:50 PM on August 9, 2011 [4 favorites]

Is there a "Jonathan's Smartphone" you can rent somewhere for us folks who can't afford one? Because I could use a free coffee...
posted by phunniemee at 6:57 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

There are different ways of spelling the name but they are not interchangeable.

Ooh, I can't wait to hear your take on Jhonny Peralta!
posted by phunniemee at 6:58 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

If only the card wthe charged by the hate in this thread we could all never pay for coffee again.
posted by concreteforest at 7:08 PM on August 9, 2011 [4 favorites]

Stop paying for a God Damned smartphone and get your coffee from McDonaldshome
posted by DU at 7:08 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

box: "Can I use Jonathan's card to buy a coffee for the person in line behind me"

Only if you tell them Penn says hi.
posted by ShawnStruck at 7:09 PM on August 9, 2011

I can't tell if this is a plug for collectivism, or viral marketing against it.
posted by Salvor Hardin at 7:12 PM on August 9, 2011

BRB, buying lunch for homeless people downtown.
posted by loquacious at 7:23 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

I hate how everything is a "social experiment." Why can't anybody just be like "Oh, hey, here's my Starbucks card. I thought it would be neat if you guys spent it and also put some money on it for other people." This "social experiment" phrasing sounds like a mixture of grandeur delusions and attention ploys, like those nagging Facebook posts that say "REPOST THIS IN FIVE MINUTES IF YOU DON'T HATE ME LETS SEE IF ANYBODY PAYS ATTENTION."
posted by katillathehun at 7:29 PM on August 9, 2011

if starbucks and social experiments are all you people have to complain about, i sure wish i was in your shoes right about now.
posted by JimBennett at 7:32 PM on August 9, 2011 [6 favorites]

No, seriously. If this thing is still running by tomorrow I think I'm going to try to go buy sandwiches or food for some people. I have errands I need to run down there, anyway.

If I do I'll post an update.
posted by loquacious at 7:40 PM on August 9, 2011 [3 favorites]

katillathehun: "I hate how everything is a "social experiment.""

And they're never even good experimental designs to start with - I mean, forget double-blind tests, they're not even single-blind. The subject knows it's an experiment, therefore their actions are biased - consciously or subconsciously - towards the extremes.

They only question they can ever hope to answer is "what's the ratio of smug-self-righteous:freeloaders in {experiment_domain}?"
posted by Pinback at 7:48 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

If this page is anything to go by, about 97%.
posted by joannemullen at 8:07 PM on August 9, 2011

Oh, they got coffee at Starbucks now? Huh.
posted by tumid dahlia at 8:13 PM on August 9, 2011 [3 favorites]

He does get points and rewards for the card's usage. For every 15 scans he gets a free drink voucher mailed to him.

A fun idea, nonetheless. And I don't think it could be done for any business as easily as it is for Starbucks. I haven't seen mobile phone payments anywhere else, yet. I'm sure McDonald's is right around the corner though.
posted by erstwhile at 8:16 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also, apparently this is viral marketing. Fun for the five minutes I spent thinking it was real.
posted by erstwhile at 8:30 PM on August 9, 2011 [14 favorites]

Great catch erstwhile. One could excuse Starbuck's for hiring a rouge PR firm doing it without their knowledge, except the IP numbers posting as customers coming direct from SB HQ. Of course this kind of PR crap makes up much of the mass media (Internet, TV etc) but still fun to see it exposed.
posted by stbalbach at 8:37 PM on August 9, 2011

Blech. Flagged as Pepsi Blue.
posted by killdevil at 8:37 PM on August 9, 2011

It's actually kind of disgusting considering that people who are uninformed of how Starbucks cards work might actually go to a store thinking they can get a free coffee. But when they go to pay the card will be empty and they'll be stuck having to pony up for what they just ordered (and what is probably already made and waiting for them, further forcing the feeling of obligation), or else walk away with nothing and feel like an idiot.
posted by erstwhile at 8:59 PM on August 9, 2011

I'm at Starbucks right now, studying. it's the only coffee house by work that's open after 8pm, when I get off of work.

I think it's time to get a latte...
posted by spinifex23 at 9:03 PM on August 9, 2011

Hmmm, what to choose - an iced coffee drink with enough calories to breastfeed a baby beluga

Hmm, I dunno. The iced coffee drink I get from Starbucks only has 5 calories. Sometimes I feel like adding a little soymilk (25 extra calories) and then sometimes I feel like adding one pump of the mocha syrup (also 25 extra calories). 55 calories total for my most indulgent days. I don't think that would be enough to sustain even the teeniest of baby belugas.
posted by MaryDellamorte at 9:20 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Save the whales: always get whipped cream!
posted by phunniemee at 9:25 PM on August 9, 2011 [5 favorites]

Fuck the smartphone angle. Just print it out and scan it that way. Drop the kid behind the counter a decent tip and go wait for your Double Blended Iced Mocha Frappuccino Light extra-whip with-drizzle no-straw-with-sleeve at the end of the counter. Don't forget your treat receipt for after 2.
posted by carsonb at 9:26 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

It's likely a marketing shill. Are you surprised? Hey, this bar of soap has a $5 prize in it, just like the man said!
posted by thelonius at 9:29 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also, hey, if anyone's upset that this is a viral campaign for a mega corporation and you think it might make you feel better, I work for 'em too and am happy to talk some shit about the $bux.
posted by carsonb at 9:32 PM on August 9, 2011

Stop paying for a God Damned smartphone

You know, you don't need a smartphone to use his card. Just print the image out and hold it in front of the scanner thing at the Starbucks. Voila, free coffee.
posted by zsazsa at 9:33 PM on August 9, 2011

You can read Jonathan's comments to the Hacker News community here. I particularly recommend that the people saying "OMG HE GETS FREE COUPONS" go read it.

Even if it turns out to be viral marketing, it's a brick and a half more interesting than the vast majority of same. I think it's fun and I might even throw $5 at it.
posted by fake at 9:36 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

Lots of grumpy people here who wish they would just have one interesting idea in their lives. Unfortunately cynicism isn't original or interesting.
posted by stp123 at 9:47 PM on August 9, 2011 [3 favorites]

...and if the Starbucks people balk at you using a piece of paper as the "card", make a papercraft iPhone and put the card image on it!
posted by zsazsa at 9:58 PM on August 9, 2011

Starbucks makes acceptable coffee. I suspect that many of you people who are puking out your eyes and nose and eyes and mouth at the very notion of drinking it are striking fancy internet poses.
posted by Kwine at 10:38 PM on August 9, 2011 [5 favorites]

Horselover - I prefer not to mess with the Starbucks baristas, lest they lick my tiramisu cake pop before they serve it to me.

(Yes. I love those things.)
posted by spinifex23 at 11:41 PM on August 9, 2011

if starbucks and social experiments are all you people have to complain about, i sure wish i was in your shoes right about now.

It's a first world problem sort of thing.
posted by happyroach at 12:14 AM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

I had no idea I was surrounded by caffeine hipsters, or that coffee snobs were so unpalatable. OK, so you don't like their coffee, I don't like their real estate practices - whatever. None of that changes that the fact that this is a really neat idea. You people are supposed to love technology and this is a very lively use of it. I think it's neat and interesting and I wish I'd thought of it.

Now, if you want to put your pissy pants on because you think this is Starbucks Does Pepsi Blue, that's another matter...
posted by DarlingBri at 1:10 AM on August 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

This is a neat idea, but I think him calling the barista a POS was a bit harsh.
posted by Flashman at 3:33 AM on August 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

Cute idea but Starbucks refuses to open a shop in my neighborhood (we've asked) and I'm not driving somewhere for a free coffee.
posted by octothorpe at 3:51 AM on August 10, 2011

He completely denies the marketing-shill accusation.
posted by inigo2 at 3:59 AM on August 10, 2011

Astroturfing leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Ugh.
posted by mantecol at 4:00 AM on August 10, 2011

This is a really cool idea. If this is a marketing campaign, then it's a really cool and original marketing campaign.

Get the fuck over yourselves people.
posted by windbox at 4:55 AM on August 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

If it is a marketing campaign, if Starbucks had been upfront about that, I would have thought it was a neat idea. Do not like all the deceit that seems to be just beneath the surface, though.
posted by mantecol at 5:00 AM on August 10, 2011

The problem is not merely that it might be viral marketing, but that there are signs that he was misleading about his ties to Starbucks. Sort of a "not the crime but the cover up" possibility.
posted by chinston at 5:01 AM on August 10, 2011

Also: tired of the entire Internet being converted into a machine to try to sell me more stuff.
posted by thelonius at 5:35 AM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also: tired of the entire Internet being converted into a machine to try to sell me more stuff.

Sounds like you could use a cold, swift kick in the nuts with the totally extreme and new Internet 2! Speeds so blazing fast your the wings on your surfboard will fall off, and no ads, ever! We promise!^* Would you like to know more?

^{*Ad free internet 2 subject to local regulations and excludes partner sites. Activation of ad-free internet in some markets may require use of a webcam, valid photo identification and a slow loris. Warning: Significant radiation hazard. Please put your pants back on, we can see you. Side effects may include excessive flatulence, dry gums, excessive nipples and trenchfoot.}
posted by loquacious at 5:59 AM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

You would think people would get tired of complaining about Starbucks coffee.
posted by smackfu at 9:34 PM on August 9 [16 favorites +] [!]

I was, but then I had a free double espresso and now I'm ready to go again.
posted by Who_Am_I at 6:14 AM on August 10, 2011 [10 favorites]

Also: tired of the entire Internet being converted into a machine to try to sell me more stuff.

Yeah, damn those commercial interests that have given you free services, democratized information in industries that used to keep them locked up (see: airfares), or transformed instant global communications from science fiction into a routine, everyday occurrence.
posted by zooropa at 6:39 AM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

zooropa, I'm old enough to remember when the Internet didn't have a lot of shit that is ubiquitous now, and I liked it better then. I don't want to have an online "relationship"online with every entity that I ever have any commercial transaction with. I think its incredibly creepy that almost everything I do online goes into someone's database of my preferences. I remember when Google results were far more informative and useful - try to search for information about consumer products, without sales results, for example. If that kind of stuff doesn't annoy you, fine. I'm aware that it is here to stay; that does not mean I like it.
posted by thelonius at 7:13 AM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm confused about how quickly the money's getting spent. Within a space of 10 seconds, the card goes from gaining say, $8.65 and going empty. Are there that many people ordering coffees at once and trying to use this card?
posted by litnerd at 7:17 AM on August 10, 2011

It's not a marketing campaign. Or else Jonathan is an evil man who directly lies when accused of being a shill. The big evidence was Jonathan works for a company that has Starbucks for a client (along with Shell, SAP, etc). Yeah, OK, so that makes the question reasonable. But rather than just politely asking the guy, we get a smug Internet smear campaign from people who hate beautiful projects and want to shit all over them. Between that and the raft of comments above from people snidely dismissing it because it's Starbucks, or because it's a smartphone thing, or.. Not a good way to start my day of wanting to build beautiful Internet hacks. Fuck the haters.
posted by Nelson at 7:29 AM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Stay beautiful, people.
posted by slogger at 8:17 AM on August 10, 2011

Do you think Jonathan is standing right by the counter at his local Starbucks, hands shaking, repeatedly hitting 'refresh' on the 'balance' page of his Starbucks app and muttering "c'mon....C'MON!"?
posted by sexyrobot at 9:16 AM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

You can read Jonathan's comments to the Hacker News community here. I particularly recommend that the people saying "OMG HE GETS FREE COUPONS" go read it.

They are also trying to figure out how the card can drop 100$ withing a minute. Seems like you can buy starbucks gift cards with it. I would love for starbucks, or any other store to attempt to roll something like this out with "access controls". Say limit purchases to coffee only, or only venti lates, or only cookies.

How about, a store website that lets you search products, add them to a virtual cart, pay for the items and generates a QR code for that specific purchase. Go to the store and your path through the supermarked is mapped out on the smartphone app, wind your way picking up products and pay with your QR code at the door.
posted by Ad hominem at 9:47 AM on August 10, 2011

The Starbucks site shows you can only refill it with a $10 minimum donation online. I guess you can donate less in the stores. Maybe the baristas are asking users to pony up.
posted by toastedbeagle at 9:51 AM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Some data from their api.

dollar_amount_added:8932.5
approximate_number_of_gives:575
approximate_number_of_gets:900
min_date:2011-07-20 11:53:08
max_date:2011-08-10 09:48:02

So nearly 2:1 difference in gets vs gives. I might have expected that to be bigger.
posted by tittergrrl at 9:54 AM on August 10, 2011

Is there a chain pizza place we can do something like this for? I don't think you can recharge gift cards for Domino's.
posted by Ad hominem at 10:27 AM on August 10, 2011

I used to work for starbucks for about six years, and all the starbucks people that i know that have left the company have completely changed their minds about people and humanity. if you're surrounded by these kinds of people everyday you slowly lose your faith in humanity and than realize that you need to do something with your life that's worth doing. so i guess working at starbucks is good for figuring out what you ACTUALLY want to do, because I sure as fuck know that no one gives a shit about the coffee anymore.

so is this viral or what? because the customer's i've met and known would freeload that shit out of this.
posted by bam at 11:04 AM on August 10, 2011

Metafilter: Tough crowd.
posted by Lutoslawski at 11:19 AM on August 10, 2011

I think a lot of the "he's a shill" claims could have been avoided, had he linked to his original blog post where the idea first began.

When Starbucks released the Android version of their app, Stark installed it on his new Nexus phone. He then realized that Starbucks only allowed you to associate a card with one specific device - when he added it to his Nexus, it disappeared from his iPhone.

To keep from having to remember which phone had his card info, he took a screenshot of it and put it on his Nexus. After discovering he could actually pay with just an image of the card, he invited others to try it out for themselves. Though it's kind of obvious that an image of a barcode works the same as the original barcode, the original fascination was with the notion of image as currency.

I've been following Jonathan for a while on Twitter, and when he posted about this... I thought it was pretty neat and tried it out. I got a kick out of the process, though it felt a little illegal (not the right word, but the first that comes to mind). Like I was somehow using someone else's identity.

After the initial tests, someone realized you could also add funds to the card remotely. Throw in a custom Twitter account, a bot that scrapes data for the balance on the card, and a nice API later... and here we all are.

As nev pointed out, Stark is the author of the O'Reilly book Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I was dabbling around with PhoneGap, and know of him through his work maintaining jQTouch. He does mobile development; he works a lot with mobile devices.

In other words - he's a geek in love with technology, like everyone here. Relax, people. I'm pretty sure he's the real deal.

PS: The reason the amounts drop so much is due to the sheer number of people using the card.
posted by avoision at 11:55 AM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

TechCrunch has a piece on the ongoing experiment/viral ad debate that includes this great nugget from Mobiquity (his employer) regarding the earlier appearance of a Starbucks logo on their site:

"As a young company launched this past March, Mobiquity had initially included on its website the logos of companies with whom members of our team had worked with in the past, as we stated on the page."

Ugh. If your excuse is that you were basically lying about your client list, that's pretty weak.
posted by mkultra at 12:54 PM on August 10, 2011

Mission update: I have bought two sandwiches and have given them to hungry homeless people.

It took a little explaining, but one of the baristas had heard about it, so that helped. When I told them I was going to give the sandwiches away they were way into it.

It took about 20-30 scans to finish both transactions. But thankfully the store wasn't busy and my cashier was curious as hell about it because one second there was no money and the next there was. The second sandwich was paid for in increments of about a dollar until it cleared.

Worst case scenario a couple of people got fed.
posted by loquacious at 1:58 PM on August 10, 2011 [9 favorites]

Back home at a real keyboard. A third sandwich has been obtained and given away. I went back to the same store since they were friendly and not so busy as the other ones closer to downtown.

Here's a pic to the first two. My phone's battery died trying to follow the twitter and stay on long enough to scan the barcode, so I failed grabbing a pic of the third, but you get the idea..

I have a feeling that if I tried to do the same thing tomorrow it wouldn't work at all even if there's money in the account. What seems to be happening for many transactions is that it's getting "locked" while another transaction is occurring, so you have to scan many, many times and hope for an open window where the card isn't in use. And then you have to hope there's enough on the account to clear.

The third sandwich took about 40 scans all by itself and successful scans were incrementing in amounts of around a dollar or two. Eventually I just gave up and paid the $1 and change still due, mainly because the store was getting busy enough to need both registers, and I would have had to start over if I went to the back of the line.

Viral marketing? I'm still not so sure it is, and I don't really care if it is. I don't really ever go into a Starbucks anyway and this isn't going to change my mind - so it was fun to try out this new fangled tech and see if the card would even work. So I figured the best way to do that was to see if I could feed a couple of people in the process.

It was also fun freaking out the baristas a little and feeling naughty like I was doing something illegal, even if it isn't actually illegal.

Final judgement? Fun. It was fun, and different, and kind of interesting. I'm pretty fucking cynical, and I didn't really feel like it was cheesy or glurgy at all. It was fascinating watching my local edge of Starbucks' payment network struggle with keeping up with the transactions.
posted by loquacious at 3:22 PM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

OH, one additional anecdote: Each time I was giving away sandwiches I was asked "Oh, do you work for Starbucks or something?" "Nope." "You bought them?" "Nope! They're from the internet. I'm not sure who actually bought them." "Oh. Thanks!"

I was prepared to explain what was going on because homeless people can be (rightfully) very suspicious of free food, but "It's from the internet" seemed to be a perfectly logical explanation, so whatever.

And one more thing: They're just a couple of sandwiches. I'm not a hero, it's not going to change anyone's lives. But I wanted to try subverting an already subverted system to see if I could use it to do something besides buy a coffee I didn't really need. It was my own social experiment.

Besides, those sandwiches SUUUUUUUCK. For 5-6 bucks you'd be better off going to Subway or something. They're barely a notch above a vending machine sandwich, just with more stuff in them and slightly more fresh.
posted by loquacious at 3:39 PM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

I have successfully purchased a Starbucks franchise exclusively with proceeds from this card. None of you are allowed in my store.
posted by yoyoceramic at 3:43 PM on August 10, 2011 [3 favorites]

How to use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad, in which the author proves how easy it is to pee in the pool.
posted by Nelson at 3:57 PM on August 12, 2011