::A Geek in Korea::

Loyalty cards and promotions to continue repeat customer business are really big in Korea. I’ve got probably close to a dozen cards or more in my wallet from all the different places I visit. Hair shops, coffee shops, restaurants, more or less ANY service oriented place outside of alcohol consumption encourages repeat business by tracking your purchases and offering something free as you work your way through your card.

My wedding anniversary was spent cashing in a card we have at our favorite Italian restaurant. We earned a free glass of wine. Three more meals and I’ll get a free pizza.  Seven more meals and we’ll get a free bottle! We’ve had that card for a year or more, but it pays of in small dividends to keep us coming back.

I only really started drinking coffee regularly when I had morning classes. I started to kick it up to espresso when things had me working late and waking up early. When I was working with friends at a school to cover their classes, at lunch I started stopping by a Korean coffee chain that a promotional card. 10 stamps and I’d get a free cup of coffee.

I had half the card filled, but the coffee shop closed when a Starbucks moved in across the street. Burned by the expansionist American brand, I had to go down the block to another chain to get started again working up my way to a free cup.  I have never bought a cup of coffee at Starbucks, and that’s not going to start now after they sank my coffee shop when I was half way to my free cup of coffee!

After a long break between stopping in to coffee places, the winter season has rekindled my love for a warm sugary cup of syrup. I don’t know coffee. I don’t approach it like wine like coffee snobs do. I don’t own a coffee machine. The majority of my coffee is prepackaged milk heavy cold coffee, or the instant coffee out of a machine at work.  However, a freshly brewed cup of coffee before work is a luxury I occasionally would like to partake in.

Checking my coffee card from my second coffee shop today, I saw that I was only one stamp away from a free cup of coffee. AT LAST! I went to work a little early so I could get my free cup. When I got up to the counter, I noticed there was a price maximum on the free cup that excluded 90% of the entire menu. I ordered something available and waited in anticipation for my cup. This was a cup of coffee ten stamps in the making. My sweet justification for walking an extra block for a cup of coffee.

I got back a scorching black cup of hot coffee. I walked to work and sat it in front of me on my desk. There was no real aroma. No foam or cream. No exotic flavoring. Nothing but a pack of cheap sugar to sweeten it.

It was the worst cup of coffee I’ve ever had. Without the sugar, syrup, caramel, cream, and everything else I usually have in my coffee, there was just really weak, watery crap. It was AWFUL. If I hadn’t walked two blocks to work, I would have returned my free cup of coffee and asked for something to replace it. It wasn’t worth the cup or the stamps I traded in for it. I was completely deflated from my free gift, and probably won’t order coffee from that shop ever again.

For something that was supposed to continue my loyalty, it backfired. My future coffee purchases will be made elsewhere because they served me this cup of vile brew.