Back in the day, when I actually left my house when I went to work, Starbucks used to be a daily stop. No, I didn’t have a custom order that the barista knew by heart. I was just a venti coffee black. Why Starbucks, then? Because unlike other coffee shops, Starbucks guarantees me a consistent and strong cup of coffee. As a frequent customer I got a Starbucks card. True, I could have just handed the cashier my debit card every time, but Starbucks made their cards an attractive payment option. They also used to allow you free Wi-Fi with it, though that’s all fine and good because it’s free now. Now, following the trend of having cards on your mobile device, Starbucks has released a BlackBerry app for its cards.
The first thing you’ll do with the app is register your card, if you haven’t already. While registration is no longer necessary to get Wi-Fi access, you can get points towards free drinks. You can check your points and dollar balances on the app. You can also reload your card balance right from the app. That’s the basic functionality for now. That might seem underwhelming, but it certainly has its uses. What gets me is the feature that they’re rolling out slowly now.
Earlier this year we looked at CardStar, an application that acts as your discount card to multiple retail stores. Just enter in your barcode number and the app generates it right on your BlackBerry’s screen. Merchants can then scan that, so you don’t have to carry around a ton of wallet or keyring cards. The Starbucks Card Mobile app performs the same function. After you enter your card number you can have the cashier just scan your device. This is not available everywhere yet. For now select Seattle area Starbucks will have it. If you don’t live in that area, the barcode feature will work at all Starbucks locations within Target stores.
The app isn’t yet available in App World, though I suspect it will be soon. For now you’ll have to text GO to shortcode 70845. I’m not sure if you can use a direct link, but if you want to try go to mobilecard.starbucks.com/wap/home from your BlackBerry browser.
