August 8, 2011
By the ZippyCart Content Team
Jonathan Stark, a programmer and entrepreneur, has decided to try a new social experiment that is circled around the take-a-penny leave-a-penny mantra. After all this talk about mobile wallets and such we’ve seemingly forgot about the mobile Starbucks card application. This allows people to refill their cards online and have an app that shows the bar-code with the amount on it. You simply wave your phone in front of a sensor and it debits your account on the mobile ecommerce solution.
Stark’s card is now open to the public to go buy yourself a coffee! The only catch is is that the card needs to be reloaded by various people. The karma-based system has hopes that people will log on to Starbuck’s ecommerce solution and reload the card after they purchase the coffee. Stark has created an API that taps in to the cards balance and automatically posts it on Twitter every minute. To use it you have to access a picture of the card on your phone, here.
The incredible amount of coverage this card has gotten is making the amount change by hundreds of dollars every 5 minutes. If the card is out of money when you go to buy your coffee you better have your actual wallet ready. To prevent that, just have your twitter app open on your phone to check the balance right before you use the card.
As I type this the card has a total of $7.53 on it. If you want to help the cause and load some money on the card through Starbuck’s ecommerce solution here’s how:
1. Visit starbucks.com/card
2. Click on the “Reload A Card” tab
3. Enter the card number visible in the picture (6061006913522430)
4. Click “Reload This Card” in the left sidebar
5. Choose a reload amount
6. Choose a payment method
The problems with this experiment are easy to spot, the free-loaders simply wont load any money on it. There have been some incredibly generous people throwing $100 on the card, but most are just taking the free coffee and running. The equation to solve this experiment is simple: the number of greedy-freeloaders > the number of generous people.
If you have the extra change to spend go ahead and load the card and hope the good-karma comes back around. The longer this experiment goes the better, who knows when the “funding” will be exhausted, but right now it’s some pretty good marketing for Starbucks.
Elliott is native to the Seattle area and currently a Senior at the University of San Diego. With business and sales on his mind, finance is the perfect major to suit his needs. Social media, FIFA '11, and the iPad keep him on the couch staying up to date with the day's top business news.
