My Last 102.51 Dollars
$4.03 Starbucks Coffee on The Corner
Spent on a venti black tea lemonade with no classic syrup, extra tea, and light ice- my go-to order at Starbucks. Ordered from my Starbucks app, I know this beverage purchase will earn me 7.3 stars towards my collection of 125, all adding up to the end reward of a free item on the menu. Because the money I use at Starbucks is pre-loaded onto my mobile app in order to be a part of the rewards program, it is not transferrable anywhere else. I am establishing a commitment to Starbucks each time I load money onto the app that I will continue to purchase products from their company, as long as the balance remains.
Because these transactions are done through a mobile application on my iPhone, I was reminded of Jennifer Ferreira and Mark Perry’s article, Building an Alternative Social Currency, and our corresponding classroom discussions regarding how the designs of money impact interaction. Using a mobile app as a method of payment “adversely affect(s) the social interactions around the face-to-face transaction,” which is exactly what Starbucks mobile ordering eliminates. When I mobile order my black tea lemonades, I am not maintaining the sociality that is expected of the typical transaction at a café. There is no involvement of the buyer and seller smiling, establishing eye contact, and making small talk associated with placing an order at Starbucks. Completing a mobile transaction via my iPhone is an impediment to the existing social expectations involved in making payments.
$5.00 Cavalier Advantage
Spent on printing a lengthy study guide in Clemons Library for an open-note test. Each semester, my parents load a certain amount of money into my Cavalier Advantage account to cover these sorts of expenses. Once the money is deposited into Cavalier Advantage, it cannot be withdrawn or transferred; it can only be spent on the services around Grounds that accept it as a form of payment.
Cavalier Advantage is especially reminiscent of “special monies,” a concept outlined by Viviana Zelizer in her article, The Social Meaning of Money: ‘Special Monies.’ Money deposited in Cavalier Advantage is assigned with a different meaning and designated to certain, specific types of transactions that can be completed on Grounds with a Student ID from the University of Virginia. Zelizer uses the term “earmarking” to help explain how money is socially differentiated. My parents have earmarked the balance they decide to deposit into my Cavalier Advantage account each semester as going towards academic needs, such as printing, bookstore purchases, and library snacks from Greenberry’s. It is a special money.
$19.65 Boylan Heights on The Corner
Spent on “The Bird is The Word” grilled chicken sandwich, a beverage, and cookies and cream milkshake.
$4.75 Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream at Barracks Road Shopping Center
Spent on one scoop of “The Tonight Dough” in a waffle cone. Caramel and chocolate ice creams with chocolate cookie swirls and gobs of chocolate chip cookie dough and peanut butter cookie dough are no doubt worth the price of $4.75, even if I did have a milkshake the night before. The heart wants what it wants.
$9.25 The Juice Laundry on Preston Avenue
Spent on a Coco Verde smoothie. The Juice Laundry has a rewards system similar to Starbucks where when customers have collected a certain number of stars, they receive a free smoothie. This smoothie earned me my fifteenth star, and the cashier congratulated me on being halfway there.
It is interesting to compare these reward systems because at Starbucks you receive two stars for every dollar you spend, but at The Juice Laundry, you only receive a star each time you buy a nine-dollar smoothie. If you do the math, you have to spend $62.50 to earn 125 stars and receive a free item off the menu at Starbucks, while at The Juice Laundry you have to spend $270 to earn 30 stars and receive a free smoothie. The two companies certainly have very different ideas for rewarding loyal customers when it comes to implementing a reward system.
$8.04 Take it Away Sandwich Shop on The Corner
Spent on a turkey and Havarti cheese sandwich on wheat bread with house dressing on the side and a bag of kettle cooked salt and vinegar chips.
$4.03 Starbucks Coffee on The Corner
Spent on a venti black tea lemonade with no classic syrup, extra tea, and light ice… again. As I mentioned earlier, this is my go-to order, and, might I add, a particularly good pairing with the warm weather we have been having. It is always great to have an ice-cold beverage accompanying you on the walk to class.
Upon a second analysis of my Starbucks mobile ordering habit, their star reward system can also be related to Zelizer’s concept of “earmarking” money with meaning. Users of the Starbucks app earmark their money used towards beverage purchases with the impending 125-star free menu item in mind, understanding that the money loaded onto the Starbucks app is a “special money” that will result in a reward.
$18.41 Charlottesville Whole Foods
Spent on what should have amounted to around seven to ten grocery items at a lower priced grocery store, but really only amounted to four items at Whole Foods, a grocery chain my mother refers to as “Whole Wallet,” due to their unusually high pricing.
Ever since we discussed Frederick Wherry’s article, The Social Characterization of Price: The Fool, The Faithful, The Frivolous, and The Frugal, which categorizes people based on how they spend money, I have decided that my spending habits at Whole Foods most closely align with “The Faithful” spender. A faithful spender is someone who is willing to spend more money on what is important to them, “with their social values and their material constraints in mind.” I like shopping at Whole Foods because they have healthy options, an impressive hot bar with pre-made foods, and genuinely enjoy the shopping experience the store has to offer, even if it is high priced. I think they have excellent produce and a much friendlier staff than Harris Teeter and other chain grocery stores around Charlottesville, so I am willing to be a faithful spender. My spending here is calculated, although I am sure others could view my Whole Foods purchases as foolish and frivolous.
$15.00 Charlottesville tread HAPPY
Spent on a forty-five-minute work out class.
Similarly to my Whole Foods purchases, this is also something I am willing to spend money on, but others could view as foolish since I could always go for a jog outside instead of paying for a structured environment where people run on treadmills with loud, pop music.
$7.35 Venmo
Spent on an IOU to a friend who picked up my burrito bowl at Chipotle.
This transaction reminded me of Bill Maurer’s article, The Evolution of Money, and his argument that money is inherently a product of our social relationships. Money comes into being by convention, agreement, and a set of relationships and obligations, which is exactly what Venmo is good for: holding your friends accountable. Before Venmo, it would have been difficult for me to come up with the proper amount of cash for reimbursing my friend, specifically the thirty-five cents, and we probably would have just gone along with the notion that ‘it all comes out in the wash’ and I would spot her next time. Venmo not only makes these transactions exponentially easier but also adds a social aspect to the act of returning money to a friend and helps establish financial relationships. “It is not that money is ‘just’ a relationship. It is that all that we are, as social beings, is ‘just relationships.’ These relationships include our monies.” In saying this, Maurer emphasizes that we need to understand the complex infrastructures and social relationships money relies on, which Venmo serves to highlight.
$8.00 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Spent on a student membership to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts that is valid for a calendar year for free admission to the museum. I had to visit the museum to look at potential abstract and non-figurative art pieces for my Modern Art paper, which required me to renew my student membership, which had expired since my last visit.
My student membership directly corresponds to Brett Scott’s article, So You Want to Invent Your Own Currency, in regards to the understood trust and faith put into a money system. We all trust each other to value money, which is why I trust that my eight dollars will equate to one full year of free admission to the museum, “but this still means that every monetary transaction is a leap of faith, and faith has to be carefully maintained.” The US dollar is useful for overcoming barriers between people who do not know or particularly trust each other, so I feel confident that I will get what I paid for, as promised.
