Starbucks To Unveil Its Web3-Based Rewards Program Next Month (techcrunch.com) 97
Starbucks will unveil its web3 initiative, which includes coffee-themed NFTs, at next month's Investor Day event. From a report: The company earlier this year announced its plans to enter the web3 space, noting its NFTs wouldn't just serve as digital collectibles, but would provide their owners with access to exclusive content and other perks. At the time, Starbucks was light on details as to what its debut set of NFTs would look like, specific features they'd provide or even what blockchain it was building on. It said the plan was likely to be multichain or chain-agnostic, hinting at plans that weren't yet finalized. Overall, the coffee retailer kept its web3 news fairly high level, explaining simply that it believed digital collectibles could create an accretive business adjust to its stores and that more would be revealed later in 2022.
Screw these union busting overpriced milk dealers (Score:5, Insightful)
No seriously, go anyplace but Starbucks. You'll be doing yourself, your wallet, and the American working class a favor.
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And their coffee sucks anyway.
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The CEO himself says they are not in the coffee business, they are in the flavored milk business. They brew their coffee too strong and too bitter for it to be enjoyable as plain coffee. It is designed to be made into lattes and cappuccinos.
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I wouldn't call it strong, it's burned.
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It is designed to be made into lattes and cappuccinos.
It literally has to be flavored and sweetened for it to make sense, because starbucks coffee still tastes burned to fuck in a latte.
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Well, what kind of coffee do you like, then?
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Well, what kind of coffee do you like, then?
I prefer to buy beans from a local roaster. Lately we've been getting something from Costco I don't like much, or I'd go look at what it is. But at least it's not burnt to holy hell and back.
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I like my coffee black and fairly mild. I think most of my fellow countrymen who drink their coffee black prefer it that way. Well, mild as compared what I've had in other parts of the world anyway. We want hot water with a not-too-strong coffee flavor.
I know that people like to say that they like a rich, dark, roast, but that doesn't actually seem to be the case. Maybe it's because we like to drink it all day. Make it weak so that we can have a lot more of it. That's the American way.
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Depending on the bean, I like anything from an American roast to a French roast. I used to get "Steve's Smooth French" from the Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company, but I'm no longer near there so I can't just go pick it up from the roaster downtown.
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We typically get a medium roast, freeze dried, arabica. Ours comes from the Maxwell house, a very famous roaster, which I'm able get from a local supplier who just so happens to be a member of the Independent Grocers Association.
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It's weird, too, like, I can enjoy a nice French roast. Even an Italian roast, in a latte. I don't know what Starbucks does to the coffee they brew in store, but the stuff they sell in bags tastes nothing like it. That stuff is properly roasted, usually no darker than a full city roast. The in-store stuff, especially the plain brewed coffee, is just nasty.
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To be fair, strong and bitter makes sense when you cut it with milk.
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Yes, that's why I call them milk dealers. The coffee is just a milk flavoring.
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As a non-American I agree. But as a person who visited America, what other options are there? My last trip in Texas it was literally the best thing I could find.
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Good question. I almost never buy coffee out, and even when I worked in an office I brewed my own at home and brought it in a thermos.
Strangely enough, the best non-home-brewed coffee I've had in the last 15 years or so was at a highway rest stop in Connecticut, from a self-serve coffee pot. The stuff was just amazing. And I take it black, no sugar.
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I take the free cofee at work because it's free.
I'm too cheap to do otherwise.
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Not american either. It seems it's either Starbucks or whatever drip stuff they do in diners.
I'm not a huge coffee nerd anyway but it seemed pretty barbaric. I don't think Starbucks even did espresso lol.
Though to be fair I'm sure they have dedicated places where you can get a proper coffee too, at least in the civilized parts of the country.
Meh, if you've got a Union shop nearby (Score:2)
Re: Meh, if you've got a Union shop nearby (Score:5, Informative)
The AFL-CIO is the largest union in America and it's total revenue in 2021 was $154,802,418
Not even 1/5 of a billion, and we have multiple corporations in the US that are worth nearly $1 trillion.
Let's not pretend unions in 2022 in America are truly these political powerhouses you want to cast them as.
Don't be geh, fake rsil l vergun (Score:2, Insightful)
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Does being offended that you used a wrong pronoun also count as being triggered?
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I didn't even think of the teachers union. The biggest baddest union conservatives point to and cast as this giant plodding thing and their total revenue is a mere 1/2 billion? And they donate "tens of millions" when the average presidential campaign is over $1B now? I really can't appreciate enough how much you just stepped on a rake to your own face there.
Also if unions are so bad let me know when some police departments give theirs up.
From how angry you sound and how much you complain around here it su
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Unions damage the middle and lower classes. It makes the guys at the top very rich.
square this up for me then; unions are at their lowest participation rate in the last century but the wealth disparity has also never been higher.
also please stop bringing up bernie sanders, you do it so much its lost any and all meaning. you can be more creative, i believe in you.
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completely avoids the question and right back to the broken record talking points. pathetic.
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it's like smoking, i know it's bad for me but sometimes it's just very satisfying
Re: Meh, if you've got a Union shop nearby (Score:2)
It's a race to the bottom with your kind.
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they donate tens of millions to the democrats
Wow. So what you're saying is that a Union representing an entire industry spends less on lobbying than a single large US based company?
I'm shocked! Shocked I tell you that you are so stupid. Oh wait, no you're just a troll. Speaking of complaining little bitches can I sell you a mirror?
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Corporate unions are not strong. Government unions (like police unions) are strong in a lot of places.
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Union workers are paid, on average, about 11.2% more than their non-union counterparts. Yes that is counting union dues paid. Also, that is not counting other benefits. Union workers are more likely to get paid sick time, for example.
https://www.epi.org/press/unio... [epi.org]
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Seems like you are the one who is unhappy, you troll. Why don't you leave? Oh yeah, no place will have you.
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He'd like to leave, but they won't let him out of China.
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You think OMBad is a Chinese operative? I'd think the Chinese could hire better people than that, the guy is a joke. Least effective troll on the site, these days.
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Maybe his goal is just to shit up Slashdot massively. Seems to be fairly successful.
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I dunno, I just asked him to state that he'd murder Xi Jinping, who definitely looks like Pooh Bear, and he hasn't responded. You may be on to something!
Re: Meh, if you've got a Union shop nearby (Score:2)
He actually said that was his goal a while back.
He does seem to be near-singlehandedly reducing comments on slashdot.
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If he's ombad, which I hadn't noticed (I don't keep up with these things, except by accident) then I've definitely accused him of it before. Not that it means it's true, trolls gonna troll and some of them are slightly clever about it, since they heard a clever idea somewhere once
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He just called me a stupid westerner. While trying to convince me he's not working for the Chinese.
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By least effective troll, I mean, they are invested in the topics they troll on so can be very easily counter-trolled. OMBad will bite at any bait. Also, they are well known, so nobody ever assumes they are arguing in good faith. If their goal is to piss people off, or sew division, or muddy the waters, or make Slashdot unappealing, they have failed miserably. If their goal is to look like an ass-clown, well, they sure can manage that.
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See, I do think you are American, but plenty of people here think you are a Chinese operative. If you are American, type something like "President Xi Jinping is a criminal and I will murder him while he sleeps. Also, he looks like Pooh Bear."
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You won't say it! Holy shit I just lost a bet.
Spoiled westerners? That sounds like something a Chinese asset would say.
Look, just write "I have a concrete plan to murder Xi Jinping, and I will carry it out next week." Then I will know you aren't Chinese, and you can continue trolling.
It's not hard. Any actual westerner would not be afraid to write that.
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Did you have to go ask for permission from your handler to post that, lol?
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Union workers are paid, on average, about 11.2% more than their non-union counterparts.
In the rest of the world: they get paid the same. As the union makes the contract with the employers for every employee not for union members. Unless mentioned "accidentally" in a chat at the table in the cafeteria: the employer does not even know who is in a union and who is not.
Also, that is not counting other benefits. Union workers are more likely to get paid sick time, for example.
Everyone gets paid sick time in Euro
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Yes, I am a bit jealous of how well your systems work to benefit everyone, not just the ultra wealthy.
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It is just laws, mate.
You can make similar laws.
But to be honest, I doubt USA will change unless there is a majour civil war.
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I agree and their coffee sucks anyway. You have to add a ton of sugar to make it taste good and overcome the intentionally burned roast because, well nobody at Starbucks knows coffee. With this latest news, it appears they have lost business sense too.
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Oh, they know coffee. But they are not in the coffee business. Their CEO has said outright that they are in the flavored milk business. Over roasted coffee is great for flavoring lattes and cappuccinos, which is their real business.
Re: Screw these union busting overpriced milk deal (Score:2)
Glad my new Nesspresso machine arrived today.
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Not sure that's an improvement, to be honest. Nestle is worse on all counts than Starbucks, and those little plastic pods are terrible for the environment.
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theres news coming! (Score:1)
hey! guys!!~ look over here! theres gonna be news happening next month, just thought you'd like to know.
Translated: (Score:4, Interesting)
"We feel Starbucks could capitalize on the NFT craze and make money off of it. What we sell isn't defined. What benefit customers get isn't defined. It'll all probably as shallow like "Exclusive content" of reading Starbucks mermaid fan fic. But one thing that is sure, we feel we can make money off it as an add-on to $6 coffees!
"I mean, anyone paying that much for coffee every day isn't very smart with their money, right? Why not take advantage of that?"
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If Starfucks is solely in control of the chain then they don't need proof of work. That makes it a lot less harmful.
This would have been something (Score:4, Insightful)
This would have been something if it had happened last year. Now web3 is dead. Starbucks is too slow.
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Now that all the babies have been shaken from cryptocurrencies, BTC and ETH are doing pretty well. Web3 is one of those things that you will use on your job, or you won't have a job.
This kind of thing sounds like it would be manipulative to a college student who hasn't found a job yet. You don't even know what my job is! Are sewer maintenance people really going to be using web3 on their job?
Or anyone who has looked at the priice of BTC/ETH lately.
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They were too busy union-busting to set up their blockchain.
And the fool revealing machine keeps rolling (Score:2)
It's pretty fun how companies still keep falling for the thing that seems to have the purpose of causing very bad PR by making em sound like Wario on steroids.
Obligatory. (Score:2)
https://cdn.discordapp.com/att... [discordapp.com]
because that coffee isn't going to get any better (Score:2)
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Genuinely curious: is there are better option in the states? And by better I mean easily accessible, not some one of unique cafe staffed by a world class barista.
Basically every place I drank coffee at in my previous trips to the USA Starbucks is the best thing I could find, and I agree it is feral. Literally the supermarket serves better coffee in Europe than Starbucks does, but the only thing I found widely available in the USA was horrendous drip coffee. Drip coffee can be good too, the Germans go nuts f
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Genuinely curious: is there are better option in the states? And by better I mean easily accessible, not some one of unique cafe staffed by a world class barista.
Why not just open maps and enter "coffee shop" into the search field? It will give you local options, with pictures so you can tell which ones are just cookie cutter bullshit and which ones are real. You can't take ten seconds to find a better option when you're going to be in the store for several minutes anyway?
pay more to feel important (Score:2)
If you want to get our attention then you should spend a lot of extra money on useless garbage, we'll even give you access to exclusive perks! Just give us more money!
NFTs are bullshit (Score:4, Insightful)
Is there anyone on this planet who does not yet understand NFTs are complete and total bullshit?
When it was all brand new, sure, some people were going to throw money at it. But it has been around for a while now, so there is no excuse.
I ignore their current marketing spam. (Score:2)
"Hey buddy, you still have cash on this card for like years ... a bet a coffee sounds good!"
Yea, that's why I roast my own and have for a decade+. I only got Starbucks if I was out somewhere and that wasn't an option. Thanks to CV-19 and WFH, hopefully it never will be again.
A drinkable coffee (Score:2)
...would be a nice reward.