9:02 They even have a perfect name for that currency: Starbucks.

"McDonald's is a real estate company" "Starbucks is a bank" Next: why harvard is a wealth management company

i'm a starbucks barista in a ritsy area, and customers will straight up keep hundreds of dollars loaded on their starbucks app. i'm shocked every time, like, it's a power move.

Small town friendliness is the last thing I think of, when thinking of the typical Starbucks barista.

Polymatter: McDonald's is a landlord, Starbucks is a bank Calling it, Spotify is a private military contractor

This channel makes me second guess all my knowledge. What next, McDonald’s is a real estate company? 😂

"why starbucks is actually a bank" video starts at 7:02

The genius of naming it “Star” “Bucks” now has a whole new meaning... future digital currency...

next video: Target is Really an Adult Daycare

Now you can tell bank robbers “Sir, this is a Starbucks”

"it's sorta liquid, not just because you can convert it to coffee.' -niiiiice

I’m not a financial mogul or anything, so watching this makes me that much prouder that I figured out Starbucks had become a bank back in 2015.

it aint a polymatter video without china being somewhere in it 5:24 🗿

short answer: customers put lots of $ in their starbucks card before they even make a purchase, which is the "bank" dat starbucks is getting $ from

09:50 "an unregulated bank" -- yep, any outlet from which you buy gift certs or make use of a top-up account (amazon comes to mind) is doing exactly this. And the breakage definitely makes it worthwhile. Also, should the company go out of business, it would most likely take a class action lawsuit to get the money back, as card holders are not considered "creditors".

Polymatter: Not everyone should code Also Polymatter: Everyone should learn computer science at brilliant

This video was like a magic trick. At first I was like “how can they be a bank that makes no sense.” Then I had kinda forgotten about the bank premise once we were deep into the history of Starbucks, and by the time he mentioned the Starbucks card I was thinking of this as more of a Company Man video. Like “oh cool so that concept helped save the company.” Then BOOM he hits us with the Largest Banks graph from earlier in the video and I was like “WOAH THEY’RE A FUCKING BANK HOLY SHIT”

"McDonald's is a real estate company" "Starbucks is a bank" "Chili's is a front for the Chinese mafia"

Thank you so much for all the work you put into this video!

I realized this years ago when I first got a SB card and it wouldn't allow for passthrough transactions and I had to load a set minimum amount of money on the card to make a rewards purchase. You couldn't even release the funds to your bank account. You had to spend the remaining balance at starbucks. Stopped using their rewards right after that realization. Scammy

"Starbucks is a bank" "McDonald's is a real estate company" next video: "KFC is in pc master race"

Me: Mom, I want to be a banker by working at an international bank Mom: We have an international bank at home International bank at home:

"Starbucks is known everywhere as THE coffee shop." Canada : That's not how you spell Tim Hortons.

"Starbucks is a bank" "McDonalds is a real estate company" Next video: "Burger King is a car company"

4:00 Japan didn’t have the first international Starbucks. The first international Starbucks came a decade prior to Japan’s. It opened in 1987 in Vancouver Canada at waterfront station.

next: why delta airlines is actually a pyramid scheme

Fascinating. And one has to somehow admire the business acumen, at least over recent years.

Thank you for the video, I learned a lot from you over the years!

"McDonald's is a real estate company" "Starbucks is a bank" next video: "Pepsi sells smartphones" edit: why is everyone copying my comment this was my idea....

Next video on Wendover: The logistics of Starbucks banks

this is seven minutes of a Starbucks history lesson and three minutes of why Starbucks is actually a bank

Me going in: "This will be funny" Me coming out: "Well that's horrifying"

"McDonald's is a real estate company" "Starbucks is a bank" Next Video: “Apple is a grocery store”

This is one of those "McDonald's is a not a restaurant" type videos I see. Can't wait to watch!!

Thanks for adding actual captions to your video.

Great video! Super underrated

Funnily enough a Starbucks was built in my area's old/empty Captial One bank

Me going to StarBucks *”Yes I would like to withdraw 100 CoFFee BeAns PlEaSe”*

10:03 Nice transition to your sponsor....it was so smooth, that I didnt even notice it, at first. :)

why is like 7 minutes of this just the history of starbucks

This Starbucks story is more of courage than genius. I am still thinking about the courage to ask people to pay for things they don't want now and convince them that they will need it tomorrow. The magic of brand loyalty and compound interest are on the same level

I used to always keep at least $100 in my Starbucks "bank". Since the pandemic I never go to Starbucks anymore because I can no longer sit down at a table. I may be wrong but I'd guess that I am not the only Starbucks customer in the world who has stopped "banking"

Where I live, starbucks is regarded just like apple: a place where people drink coffee as a status symbol more than to have a nice cup of coffee. People here consider them both to be overpriced, too.

Good insight with production value

“Personalise each cup with the customer’s name” You didn’t have to misspell my name to personalise it...

“Starbucks is THE coffeeshop” from a dutch perspective is this quite wrong

thank you for this incredible insight!

Love the video - dropped a like before even seeing because it's a Polymatter original.

McDonald’s: real estate Starbucks: bank Google: beverage company

Im going to put up a "Starbucks coming soon" sign in my neighborhood. Blow a realestate bubble.

It’s amazing how an empire was made based on the principle of making bad coffee

Thank you so much for this 🔥🔥🔥

While everyone is making fun of these video titles, I just wanna say it's really insightful and interesting. Pls make more of these!

Why PolyMatter is Actually a Great Channel

One of the best thumbnails I've ever seen of a educational channel

Great video!

I once went to Starbucks with my youngest daughter. She is 25. I ordered a medium black coffee. It wasnt a problem to get that, they didnt question it, but they looked at me like I had three heads. When I said my name is Mrs Hildreth they looked at me like I had six heads lol.

Just commenting to give you more engagement bc I love your channel

Okay video! Thanks for uploading!

I’ve seen so many videos from this channel that I can always predict the transition to advertisement towards the end of each video

I've had $86 on my mobile Starbucks card for the past 6 months. Just as good as cash especially in a crunch. People would keep $100s on there SB card. When it first launched the rewards program was incredible. Not so much anymore.

This is genius. They’ll Never lose money like that *looking to buy sturbux stock*

Starts at 7:05 (if you don't want to waste your time)

Great video! Totally mind blowing...

This is basically what Costco does with the executive member 2% reward

This ‘Starbucks card’ makes me realise how laundromats can make so good money - when I moved from my student housing, I still had unused money on the laundry company account. Guess lots of other people did the same as well.

8:55 no, but they have to keep lots of coffee in case of mass caffeine withdrawals...

Amazing Channel Bro

World: *literally dying into chaos* Polymatter: sup, da cofe u drink is a bank

In conclusion: Starbucks learnt computer science by using Brilliant!

this is fascinating because in the UK it's Costa (and Pret to a lesser extent) that has become ubiquitous and dominates as chain cafés. they do have loyalty cards to accumulate points for rewards but you can't load money onto it yet.

I've watched enough Polymatter videos to now correctly identify the transition to ads

I think you missed saying a very important part: you cant just pay for your starbucks drink, you have to add a certain amount of money first, and then pay for your drink from the money in your account. That's how it's different than other online food & drink ordering

I am making a video about the same topic haha

the graphics of ur vids are insane

Congratulations for making a so much incredible video

The way PolyMatter makes the transition from the content to the promotion is butter smooth!

9:03 - Starbucks could create a full fledged currency. So...starBUCKS!

Great video! Not to mention thats a great move for starbucks, especially for business.

Man this guys ad transition is one of the smoothest Iv ever seen in my life

Totally. It is a bank as much as a fast food and drink place. When I was living in the US, my Gold card was right next to my debit card in my wallet. I had my real money, and then I had my “Starbucks money” - which of course could only be spent at Starbucks. My reward for doing this was that I could get free Starbucks merch, which I could in theory resell, thanks to eBay (and to Starbucks for always varying their cup designs). I even made “interest” on my “Starbucks savings”, by buying my Starbucks gift cards at a store that gave cash rewards, and then transferring the gift card value to my Gold card. It was a core part of the economic engine of my life. And when and if I go home I’ll probably go right back to it! (Sometimes I wonder if my baristas miss me because I went to the same ones every day!)

"Starbucks is known everywhere as THE coffee shop" Not in Canada lol

Thank you for sharing!Hope everybody here becomes successful on KZfaq🥰

xD The cappucino effect is your textbook example of correlation-causation fallacy

"McDonald's is a real estate company" "Starbucks is a bank" next video: "CVS is a Hedge Fund"

7 minutes until they actually talk about why Starbucks is a bank. This could have been a 3 minute video.

You say there's no Starbucks franchise. But when I went to Milan in 2019, my friend who worked at the big non-franchise Starbucks told me that there were some small Starbucks franchises in the city. I even went to 2 to buy mugs and tumblers which were exclusive to those small franchise and a lot more expensive than what could be bought in the non-franchise Starbucks.

That's an incredible chunk of change.

The way he transitioned from the video to sponsored content, I ended up watching all of it.

Average Starbucks drinker:🍤🤓 Average Tim’s enjoyer: 🍆😎

Yooo I’m so fried dawg I love watching ur videos while I high and man ur voice dawg I get so lost that I rewind the video 3 times but I learn so much thank you much support

I love these videos

This is absolutely genius😮

"Starbucks is a bank" "McDonalds is a real estate company" "Apple is a car company"

i used to work in a starbucks in the UK and people here as a rule hate the starbucks loyalty card. the norm for other chain coffee shops is that the loyalty card is something you scan/swipe but you pay with cash/card. once you tell people you have to load money onto the card at starbucks to get the loyalty points, people become very skeptical and give up on the idea. it was only the truly die-hard starbucks regulars who used the app with any regularity. i feel like starbucks doesn't have enough of a market monopoly here (i believe costa is the most popular chain coffee store) for people to feel like loading up a card makes sense.

Rather than business pivoting this is more like a business plot twist. Great vid and thx a lot!

Goes to Star-bucks Me: “Can I apply for a car loan?”

“...first international in Japan...”

Wow very intresting video!

what does the bar length indicate when it's comparing starbucks to paypal and other banks?