Starbucks customers have something like $1.4 billion in balances in the Starbucks app at any given time.

We give them a billion and a half dollar loan, no interest, and only ask for it back when we want to buy some 90% margin coffee from em. Amazing.

It’s time for a thread 👇🏼

First, what is this number and where does it come from?

This number fluctuates daily, and shows up on Starbucks balance sheet as a Deferred Revenue liability.

Here are the actual balances the last 4 years:
2020: $1,288,500
2019: $1,642,900
2018: $1,269,000
2017: $1,456,500
This Deferred Revenue number includes 2 things:

- Unused Gift cards
- Unused app deposits

Everyone is familiar with gift cards, but the majority of this # is a relatively fluid flow of deposits/spending through their mobile app.

Deposit, spend, repeat.
In other industries like insurance, this is called "Float". Profit aside, the providers are touching a huge amount of cash as they collect premiums and occasionally cut a claim check.

Same w/ the balances lingering in your Venmo.

You get free transfers, they touch billions.
In addition to providing a huge float, spending on the app and cards are responsible for 40%+ of their rev.

Far and away the biggest retail loyalty program on the planet it is 3x the size of the next biggest.

GameStop and AMC, prior to being meme stocks, are the runners up. LOL
The scale and success of Starbucks loyalty programs is an ode to the convenience and customer experience they deliver to millions.

My original tweet about this had some negative reactions - they're misplaced.

There’s also nothing for bitcoin to solve here!
Anyway, the gift card industry is built on the fact that a shockingly high percentage of gift cards are never redeemed.

It's called "breakage" and the rates vary drastically by brand and industry, but are always noticeable.
Yearly, Starbucks claims roughly 10% of that Deferred Revenue number as good old fashion Revenue.

That means historically 10% of it is never used, and it can't just sit around on the books forever.

Even though the aggregate is written off as breakage, the balances never expire.
The best part of all this is that this massive cash float and resulting free revenue is just a byproduct of providing value to consumers at a massive scale.

The data and loyalty they reap from these programs is orders of magnitude more valuable than those side effects.
So, how does Starbucks stack up against other banks?

1 - They hold the 6th most consumer cash at any given time
2 - The coffee isn't free

(Get it this is a joke that they’re a bank)
Since they are a public company all this info is available in their financials:
https://t.co/RKs599GR5b

And with more context from management in their yearly 10Ks:
https://t.co/2DNni8e4Lx
If you're new here, I tweet about building businesses and cannabis consumer goods. My wife rarely likes any of my tweets but lots of other people do.

Smash that follow @landforce

And sub here to get an email anytime I drop a thread:
https://t.co/NQSnRENCrV
TL;DR

40% of Starbucks revenue is through their app/cards

That creates $1B+ of float at any given time

10% of it is never used by consumers

Side effect of providing massive value

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MDZS is laden with buddhist references. As a South Asian person, and history buff, it is so interesting to see how Buddhism, which originated from India, migrated, flourished & changed in the context of China. Here's some research (🙏🏼 @starkjeon for CN insight + citations)

1. LWJ’s sword Bichen ‘is likely an abbreviation for the term 躲避红尘 (duǒ bì hóng chén), which can be translated as such: 躲避: shunning or hiding away from 红尘 (worldly affairs; which is a buddhist teaching.) (
https://t.co/zF65W3roJe) (abbrev. TWX)

2. Sandu (三 毒), Jiang Cheng’s sword, refers to the three poisons (triviṣa) in Buddhism; desire (kāma-taṇhā), delusion (bhava-taṇhā) and hatred (vibhava-taṇhā).

These 3 poisons represent the roots of craving (tanha) and are the cause of Dukkha (suffering, pain) and thus result in rebirth.

Interesting that MXTX used this name for one of the characters who suffers, arguably, the worst of these three emotions.

3. The Qian kun purse “乾坤袋 (qián kūn dài) – can be called “Heaven and Earth” Pouch. In Buddhism, Maitreya (मैत्रेय) owns this to store items. It was believed that there was a mythical space inside the bag that could absorb the world.” (TWX)
@franciscodeasis https://t.co/OuQaBRFPu7
Unfortunately the "This work includes the identification of viral sequences in bat samples, and has resulted in the isolation of three bat SARS-related coronaviruses that are now used as reagents to test therapeutics and vaccines." were BEFORE the


chimeric infectious clone grants were there.https://t.co/DAArwFkz6v is in 2017, Rs4231.
https://t.co/UgXygDjYbW is in 2016, RsSHC014 and RsWIV16.
https://t.co/krO69CsJ94 is in 2013, RsWIV1. notice that this is before the beginning of the project

starting in 2016. Also remember that they told about only 3 isolates/live viruses. RsSHC014 is a live infectious clone that is just as alive as those other "Isolates".

P.D. somehow is able to use funds that he have yet recieved yet, and send results and sequences from late 2019 back in time into 2015,2013 and 2016!

https://t.co/4wC7k1Lh54 Ref 3: Why ALL your pangolin samples were PCR negative? to avoid deep sequencing and accidentally reveal Paguma Larvata and Oryctolagus Cuniculus?