People will now have to earn 125 stars for a free item, with each dollar spent being worth two stars – meaning they have to spend $62.50 to get their free item. That means people who stick with options like plain coffee are losing out.
For instance, someone who regularly pays $2 for a regular drip coffee would currently earn a free item after spending around $24 over 12 visits. Under the new system, they would have to visit more than 31 times to earn the perk.
Someone who gets a large latte for $4.45 currently spends around $53.40 over a dozen visits before getting a free item. So that person would also need to visit a couple of extra times for the freebie with the new system.
Covered extensively on this blog. I believe this post links to all of the historical Starbucks Rewards tiers starting in 2008 with the $20 black-card. The program has long been completely diluted. It was a really great program now they might as well just kill it off.