A Note by Mackenzie Morgan
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As technology has continued to advance, so have company reward programs. In 2021, Starbucks customers loaded $11 billion onto mobile Starbucks Cards,[1] accounting for almost half of all Starbucks sales.[2] The amount of money consumers have loaded onto their mobile applications to prepay for their coffee orders has allowed Starbucks to overtake most banks in terms of assets.[3] “85% of US banks have less than $1 billion total in assets, illustrating the major player Starbucks has become in this space.”[4] Should the billions of dollars that consumers have uploaded onto Starbucks Cards be regulated by the federal government?
[1] Mary Meisenzahl, Starbucks Customers Have More Than $1 Billion Sitting on Gift Cards, Bus. Insider, (May 4, 2022, 1:50 PM), https://www.businessinsider.com/starbucks-says-over-1-billion-is-sitting-on-cards-2022-5.
[2] Lisa Moyle, Starbucks: Banking & Serving Coffee, Future Identity Fin., (July 19, 2022), https://fttembeddedfinance.com/starbucks-banking-serving-coffee/.… Read the rest