So today I just learned that Starbucks is closer to a bank than a coffee franchise. The chain is so large that 41% of it's customers use their cards/app effectively giving Starbucks a 0% interest rate loan they use to invest in other non coffee stuff.

On top of that, other banks provide cash so people could withdraw. But you can't withdraw from the Starbucks. You can't cash out their gift cards and many of us will never use it.

It's like depositing money in a bank and the bank saying you can only spend money in the bank.

*the Starbucks app.