Starbucks has a history of bringing the biggest trends to its stores — just look at the millennial pink lattes circulating in Japan. But unlike Katy Perry and 50 Cent, the coffee giant isn’t hopping on board with bitcoin currency just yet.
Last week on the company’s quarterly investor call, Starbucks founder Howard Schultz said that he doubts the cryptocurrency will ever be a legitimate currency.
“Twenty or so years later, and the question is… do you understand and are you anticipating what could happen with cryptocurrencies?” Schultz is quoted as saying. “And the reason I mention this is not because I’m talking about bitcoin, but because I don’t believe that bitcoin is going to be a currency today or in the future.”
Though the door seems to be closed on bitcoin, Schultz said that he is leaving the company open to new forms of payment in the future. Earlier this month, a Starbucks in Seattle went cash-less as a test to see how paperless transactions impacted the customer experience, Food and Wine reports.
“I believe that we are heading into a new age, in which blockchain technology is going to provide a significant level of a digital currency that is going to have a consumer application,” Schultz said. “And I believe that Starbucks is in a unique position to take advantage of that.”
Schultz continued, “I’m bringing this up because as we think about the future of our company and the future of consumer behavior, I personally believe that there is going to be one of a few legitimate trusted digital currencies off of the blockchain technology. And that legitimacy and trust in terms of its consumer application will have to be legitimized by a brand and a brick and mortar environment, where the consumer has trust and confidence in the company that is providing the transaction.”
Schultz also shut down rumors that Starbucks will be releasing their own currency, so it looks like we’ll still be buying our caramel Frappuccinos the old fashioned way.
