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Posts Tagged ‘fastfood’

Want A Starbucks? Use Jonathan's Card

09 Aug

Jonathan is letting anyone who wants to use his Starbucks card. He's posted a scanned copy of the mobile-app code on his Starbucks card and invited anyone who wants to to have a cup on him. The crazy thing is that it's working like "leave a penny, take a penny," with some people adding onto the card's balance after they grab a brew.

Starbucks reloadable cards let you download their code onto your smartphone. You can scan it from your phone at checkout in order to pay.

Jonathan released the card into the wild in July with a $30 balance on it. As of Monday, $3,651 had been spent on it, and at least 177 people had made donations to it.

Here's a full-sized image of the card. The card also has its own automated Twitter feed that gives status updates on its balance and asks for refills.

To reload the card, go to starbucks.com/card, hit "reload a card" and enter card number 6061006913522430.

Sometimes a greedy person will transfer a chunk of the balance to their own Starbucks card but then others refill the card back up again.

Starbucks knows about the project and isn't interfering. "We think Jonathan's project is really interesting and are flattered he chose Starbucks for his social experiment," Gina Woods, director of executive communications for Starbucks, told CNN via e-mail. "We're curious to see how his project continues to evolve."

Want a cup of coffee? Use Jonathan's card [CNN] (Thanks to David!)

 
 

Panera Planning To Add More Pay-What-You-Want Restaurants

27 Jun

A month ago, Panera Bread Co. opened its first non-profit, pay-what-you-can-afford eatery, called the Saint Louis Bread Company Cares Café, in Clayton, MO. And the restaurant chain's chairman is so happy with the results, the company plans to launch two more in the coming months.

"I guess I would say it's performing better than we even might have hoped in our cynical moments, and it's living up to our best sense of humanity," Panera chairman Ron Shaich said of the experiment.

The restaurant's cashiers tell customers the suggested price of their orders and then the customers decide how much to pay. According to Shaich, between 60-70% pay the menu price. Around 15% dig into their pockets to pay a little more, while the other 15% or so pay less or even walk out paying nothing.

The restaurant, which features the same menu as Panera but is technically run by a non-profit organization called Panera Cares, took in $100,000 in revenue its first month. Panera supports the non-profit but is not on the hook financially if the pay-what-you-want restaurants fail.

Shaich didn't say where the non-profit's new locations would be. But a rep for Panera said they are looking for areas that will continue to attract an upscale diner, but is accessible to lower-income communities.



How Much Would You Pay At Panera If You Could Pay What You Want?survey software

Panera Co. to open more pay-what-you-wish eateries [AP]