Starbucks has become the latest coffee chain to weaken its customer loyalty scheme, requiring shoppers to spend significantly more to earn a free drink. The move follows a wider trend among high street coffee retailers of quietly reducing the value of their reward programmes, prompting frustration among regular customers who feel increasingly short-changed by schemes originally designed to encourage repeat custom and brand loyalty.

Under the revised terms, customers now need to spend around 20% more than previously to qualify for a free drink through the rewards programme. The change places Starbucks alongside other coffee chains that have recently scaled back loyalty perks, as retailers look to manage costs amid ongoing pressure on profit margins, even as such moves risk alienating the very customers the schemes were meant to retain.