On behalf of the tired and thirsty residents of Athens, I feel the need to issue a call to simplicity, a reversion to the pre-technological rewards system that our own cherished Jittery Joe’s recently dropped.
Semi-flowery language aside, Jittery Joe’s just recently stopped using stamp cards in favor of some murky cell phone-related system, and I hate it. I love Jittery Joe’s. Hell, we all do, don’t we? But this small instance of corporate logic run amok is simply wrong, unnecessary and, frankly, makes my morning experience about 10% worse. And it’s such an easy fix: Just go back to the stamp cards.
First off, people like stamp cards. You sell a product we’re all addicted to, so we’re probably going to keep coming back no matter what, but we don’t want you to continue your slow slide toward being Starbucks. Be better than Starbucks.
Secondly, I assume you did this for either some idea of fraud prevention, because everyone else is doing it, or because of laziness. All three reasons are unworthy of a great coffee house.
Third, is this really that big of a deal? You sell a lot of coffee. Good coffee. Different varieties of coffee. Like beer, coffee is a fairly recession-proof industry. Judging by the length of the lines, it looks like you could handle the probably inevitable small nugget of fraud that accompanies the stamp cards. If that is, indeed, your reason for this change, then do you really think 21st century teenagers aren’t going to figure out a way to game this system, too? They spend all day, every day, surrounded by electronics. The smart ones learn how to manipulate it before they turn 12.
I’m not calling for a boycott, just a steady line of morning complaints until you reinstitute the stamp card system. I still love you, Jittery Joe’s, but I’d love you more if you went back to stampin’.
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