This season, we’re not buying Starbucks while baristas are on strike. And that means more than just skipping lattes: not buying Starbucks means no beans, no bearista cups, and…NO GIFT CARDS.
This year, it’s time to give something else besides Starbies: working class solidarity.
In solidarity with Starbucks baristas, The Labor Force has launched SolidarityWithBaristas.org. There, you can pledge to spend however much you’d normally spend on Starbucks gift cards elsewhere, and find locally sourced gift alternatives.
The act of skipping Starbucks gift cards this year is more impactful than you may realize, because for Starbucks, the gift cards are a profit-machine. Or, as one journalist put it, “Starbucks doesn’t just profit off selling you coffee, it also profits from selling you the idea of coffee.”
According to Business Insider, Starbucks gift cards are bigger than the entire gift card industry.
At any given time, Starbucks has over 1 billion dollars sitting unspent on gift cards–the company’s Q4 2024 report calculated that Starbucks had 1.78 billion in stored gift card funds at the end of the fiscal year.
That’s enough to buy everyone in the U.S. a fancy latte–and Starbucks is holding this money interest-free.
Additionally, about 10% of gift card dollars are never spent but still count as revenue for the company.
Stand with Starbucks workers on strike. Don’t cross the picket line. Don’t buy Starbucks. Don’t buy Starbucks gift cards!
Sources:
www.businessinsider.com/starbucks-says-over-1-billion-is-sitting-on-cards-2022-www.thetakeout.com/1913082/starbucks-unspent-gift-card-amount
www.tastingtable.com/1907921/starbucks-gift-cards-unspent-amount/