March was a busy month for Starbucks. It introduced a new blend, Pike Place Roast, as well as French press and espresso machines to turn out higher-quality drinks. And it began to generate buzz for April’s rollout of the Starbucks Rewards program, which offers a twist on the company’s mainstay stored-value cards: Customers receive additional benefits for logging on to a Web site, registering their card and volunteering contact information. All in all, it’s a more focused effort to capture customer data.
Members can get extras like free refills on brewed coffee; a choice of free flavorings; a free tall beverage when they purchase a pound of whole-bean coffee; and two consecutive hours of free wi-fi access in company-operated stores.
This is a nice package of perks. But it seems to have been motivated less by altruism than by recent financial results.
Starbucks’ retail transaction count was
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