Starbucks Planner and their Christmas Tradition
Updated- View the 2008 Starbucks Planner
I kept getting these text messages from my daughter, M the past two weeks now “Don’t forget to order starbucks coffee”. Yesterday another text message came “I need 13 more stickers and I get the starbucks planner. whee” I showed the text message to a friend. My friend smirked “My two daughters are also crazy over their planners. I am looking for the supplier so I will just get from them”. Curious over these planners, my friend and I transferred over to the Starbucks Coffee just to take a look at the sample planner. Flipping through the pages, it’s no wonder my daughter is crazy enough to drink starbucks coffee to avail of it. Inside the pages are really cutesy keepsake envelopes. The planner seems like a mini scrapbook of sorts to hold in precious mementos. I can’t possibly drink 13 cups of coffee! Even if I could afford to drink Starbucks coffee every single day, it’s boring. Drinking in coffee shops is something I do once a week or whenever I meet a client. With this rate, it will take 3 months to complete the 13 stickers.
I don’t want my daughter to starve and use her allowance to buy coffee.
Starbucks really knows how to increase their sales this Christmas season. Obviously they are targetting the young crowd. I told my daughter that I couldn’t possibly drink all that coffee but I ‘d increase her allowance for the next few weeks . I considered the costs involved.
The planner needs 21 stickers (9 are for Starbucks featured Christmas beverages while 12 for Starbucks beverages of your choice). The cheapest price for regular drink is 80 pesos (I think) so that’s 960 pesos while Christmas drinks at 125 pesos minimum 1125 pesos for a total of 2085 pesos ($42) to complete the 21 stickers. How expensive. Looking at the bright side, Starbucks Christmas tradition is not just about increasing sales. They are in partnership with UNICEF’s SparkHope project . Acutally the thought that one is helping a cause makes the expense a little bit worthwhile. Let’s see how this works.
The Sparkhope project has a two-pronged strategy. While it equips barangays with the necessary facilities for a functioning day-care and pre-school education, it also enhances and augments the skills of frontline workers or the day care and pre-school teachers in the proper administering of activities and lessons. With this approach, Starbucks and UNICEF both believe that an enriching experience could be achieved for the benefit of the parents, teachers, and most especially the children.
So once my daughter fills up the specially marked card with 21 stickers, she will be entitled to redeem this wonderfully designed Starbucks planner. The good part is ,for every redeemed planner, P50 is donated to the Sparkhope project.
Concerned benefactors will not go on wondering where their contributions will be used. Each corresponding amount has an equivalent educational material, which will be provided to the communities. From as simple as story books to dolls and musical instruments and to the more functional playground, the amount donated to the project will be used to create viable learning centers equipped with the right educational materials for use of the children.
Now, that is probably one good reason to buy cups and cups of coffee at Starbucks minus the guilt.
L, my other daughter snorted “What a great excuse for greedy capitalists!”
Filipina mom) and my journey to a "new normal" after the death of 
aw, i need 17 more stickers. haha.
@ Can you imagine drinking coffee for the next 17 days or so?
15 stickers more for me.
Ack, nagoyo nanaman ako ng Starbucks.
It’ll cost me a fortune, as usual. But its a good thing my brother is here. He’s addicted to coffee and is only in manila for two months in a year, so my parents will do the subsidizing of coffee. heehee! caffeine fix anyone?
too bad they don’t have that promo here. i drink more than one cup of coffee everyday, i’ll have that planner in no time
same here Karen..LOL. goodluck to your daughter Noemi
Good thing my friends loves starbucks too, haha. starbucks every weekend with friends. Nyay, Goodluck to us.
oh btw, mukha bang pang babae yong planner?
@patty - Good luck getting all of them
@karen - I wonder if Starbucks only creates this for Philippines just for us to spend more
@Dexie- She has 11 more to go!
@jong- it looks girly to me because of the cutesy stuff inside.
You could also buy this planner on eBay (the seller is in the Philippines) and donate P500 to the Sparkhope project, if you don’t want to buy 21 cups of coffee
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230059344275
My wife likes the planner. I like the coffee. She buys and collects the stickers. I drink the coffee. 12 silver stickers more to go. he he
@Christianne- how resourceful huh?
@Siu- hehehe. My daughter has 4 more stickers to go. I teased the starbucks guy that we might die of heart attack because we are buying more coffee than we usually drink.
I caught that craze last year. I dragged my friends and family with me to Starbucks just so I won’t have to drink all of it. After I got the planner, I never wanted to drink any Starbucks drink again lol
Starbucks Philippines is nuts… and so am I. I have two planners already, going for a 3rd!
“I am looking for the supplier so I will just get from them”
Any luck finding the supplier?
add me up at friendster, check out my sweet starbux planner hahaha. orangebliss@gmail.com. hapi holdays!
my friend couldn’t go through the arduous 21-sticker collection
this year so i decided to surprise her with korea’s very own
starbucks limited 07 planner…
and i bought it for 550 pesos lang! (11,000 won?)
methinks thank god i need not collect 21 stickers just to have
that planner..
pero wait, walang little envelopes at wala ding coupons ung
korean starbucks planner so isnt it too late to collect the
21 stickers?? hehehe…
I am at The Medical City 3x a week for hemodialysis and I always buy 2 cups of coffee at the Starbucks so I can rack up the stickers. Take note, I could save by buying myself a large venti size coffee but I buy 2 short sizes to get more stickers.
For the last 2 weeks or so, my maid [who buys the coffee] has been forgetting to bring the sticker card. HOWEVER, the crew at Starbucks insist that this is okay since we can, according to them, combine the stickers from more than one promo card.
This morning, I ordered coffee #24. I was excited to finally get the planner.
My maid came back with the coffee BUT WITH NO PLANNER. Why? Apparently, you can only combine the stickers from NOT MORE THAN 2 PROMO CARDS. Since most of my stickers are in 2 promo cards and 6 are spread across four others, they say I do not qualify despite the fact that I have already bought 24 cups of coffee. I was upset!
I have to admit, the rules clearly say “maximum of 2 promo cards” on the card itself. It probably is my fault for not reading it. BUT, why did the crew say otherwise? Was it so hard to remind us that only 2 cards can be combined? What’s with the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” attitude?
This doesn’t really pose such a big problem for me, ‘coz I will definitely be buying more coffee the next time I’m at the hospital. I’ll probably qualify for 2 planners by the time the promo ends. BUT what about the other buyers who don’t know about this rule, who are trying so hard to buy 24 cups of coffee just to get the planner? What happens when they buy cup #24 like I did, and the cashier tells them “Sorry, despite buying 24 expensive cups of coffee, you STILL don’t qualify ‘coz your stickers are spread across more than 2 cards”? What difference does it make if I have 24 cards with 1 sticker in each one or 1 card with 24 stickers in it? Either way, I bought the required quantity of coffee!
I texted my other friends who were also accumulating stickers to get the planner and they also didn’t know about the 2 card maximum rule. They didn’t even know that you must buy 12 regular coffees and 12 christmas flavors to get the planner. My point is that despite the fact that they said so in the rules, nobody really reads the rules and it would be much easier if their crew told us about this rule up front, because this is apparently a VITAL RULE to qualify for the planner. You don’t hide this rule amidst the fine print, hiding in plain sight!
When the nurse saw I was kind of upset over what happened, she jokingly said, “Don’t get upset, it’s only a planner. You can buy them real cheap at National Bookstore, much cheaper when the new year begins.” She has a point, but that isn’t the point. I could care less about the planner, I dont intend to use it. My point is I felt I was victimized by this promo to buy more coffee!
Another annoying thing is, part of the proceeds from this promo will supposedly go to charity, So they are actually trying to make you buy more coffee thinking that it’s for a “worthy cause”. I don’t mind giving to charity, but I dont appreciate the fraudulent tactics.
I am at The Medical City 3 times a week for hemodialysis and I always buy 2 cups of coffee at the Starbucks so I can rack up the stickers. Take note, I could save by buying myself a large venti size coffee but I buy 2 short sizes to get more stickers.
For the last 2 weeks or so, my maid [who buys the coffee] has been forgetting to bring the sticker card. HOWEVER, the crew at Starbucks insist that this is okay since we can, according to them, combine the stickers from more than one promo card.
This morning, I ordered coffee #24. I was excited to finally get the planner.
My maid came back with the coffee BUT WITH NO PLANNER. Why? Apparently, you can only combine the stickers from NOT MORE THAN 2 PROMO CARDS. Since most of my stickers are in 2 promo cards and 6 are spread across four others, they say I do not qualify despite the fact that I have already bought 24 cups of coffee. I was upset!
I have to admit, the rules clearly say “maximum of 2 promo cards” on the card itself. It probably is my fault for not reading it. BUT, why did the crew say otherwise? Was it so hard to remind us that only 2 cards can be combined? What’s with the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” attitude?
This doesn’t really pose such a big problem for me, ‘coz I will definitely be buying more coffee the next time I’m at the hospital. I’ll probably qualify for 2 planners by the time the promo ends. BUT what about the other buyers who don’t know about this rule, who are trying so hard to buy 24 cups of coffee just to get the planner? What happens when they buy cup #24 like I did, and the cashier tells them “Sorry, despite buying 24 expensive cups of coffee, you STILL don’t qualify ‘coz your stickers are spread across more than 2 cards”? What difference does it make if I have 24 cards with 1 sticker in each one or 1 card with 24 stickers in it? Either way, I bought the required quantity of coffee!
I texted my other friends who were also accumulating stickers to get the planner and they also didn’t know about the 2 card maximum rule. They didn’t even know that you must buy 12 regular coffees and 12 christmas flavors to get the planner. My point is that despite the fact that they said so in the rules, nobody really reads the rules and it would be much easier if their crew told us about this rule up front, because this is apparently a VITAL RULE to qualify for the planner. You don’t hide this rule amidst the fine print, hiding in plain sight!
When the nurse saw I was kind of upset over what happened, she jokingly said, “Don’t get upset, it’s only a planner. You can buy them real cheap at National Bookstore, much cheaper when the new year begins.” She has a point, but that isn’t the point. I could care less about the planner, I dont intend to use it. My point is I felt I was victimized by this promo to buy more coffee!
Another annoying thing is, part of the proceeds from this promo will supposedly go to charity, So they are actually trying to make you buy more coffee thinking that it’s for a “worthy cause”. I don’t mind giving to charity, but I dont appreciate the fraudulent tactics.
Do you know how I can get this planner without having the 21 sticker thing? Is there a place I can just buy it?? Any information would be great! I really want this, but I dont have any stickers! =[
when does this start? i want to be ready for next year