Wednesday, September 24

Punch me, please.

Nothing is better than going out for coffee on a weekend afternoon. Nothing, that is, except going out for free coffee on a weekend afternoon. Fortunately, most coffee places hand out punch cards, in the “buy nine, get the tenth free” sort of way. (tangent: I hate the places that put limitations on their punch cards, like you have to buy espresso drinks to get a punch. That’s right, I’m looking at you, Black Dog. Isn’t it enough that you forced me to listen to an entire Hootie cd while at your establishment? Have a heart, man!)

Anyway. I have a lot of these punch cards. Some places put card boxes out on the counter, so you could potentially leave your card there and never have to remember to bring it. But I do not trust The Public. What if my card is full, and I’m pumped, ready for my free drink, and someone steals it from me? Because I have totally thought about searching through those boxes for the cards that are ready for the free drink. Because I’m a bad person like that. (I could never go through with it, though. Tangent #2: this morning it was raining as I arrived at work, so I wanted to park in the garage that is attached to the building, but of course, all the spots were full. I actually pulled into one of the “reserved” spots, put the car in park, and had my finger on the power button, when I wimped out. I couldn’t do it. The sign said I would be towed! What’s a girl to do? So I left the garage and parked outside. In the rain. But! It’s sunny now! Hooray!) But back to the punch cards. I firmly believe that more establishments should offer punch cards. Why is this primarily limited to coffee shops? I do have a few non-coffee cards, as you’ll see. And I love those places and go to them partly due to their punch cards. So businesses out there, get in on this action!

Here is a list of punch/rewards cards I carry around with me:

  • Dunn Bros. Coffee
  • Black Dog
  • Aixois
  • Smoothie King (I shouldn’t carry this card—they are waaaaaay too far away to justify the extra eighth of an ounce in my bag)
  • Planet Sub
  • Spin
  • Westport Coffee House
  • Maui Express (is this place even open anymore?)
  • The Crave Café
  • Maurices (what? there is a Maurices in town? where? why do I have this card? am I in college again?)
  • The Café (this place is actually in my workplace, so technically I don’t carry this card around with me—it just sits in my desk all the time, between the extra sugar packets and a package of Saltines)

Here is a list of places I wish offered punch/rewards cards (because I would have earned, like, hundreds of free things by now):
  • Sheridan’s
  • Stonewall Inn Pizza
  • Mafia Mike’s
  • Panera
  • First Watch
  • Café Song
  • Blue Koi
  • Gomer’s
  • Chipotle

7 comments:

Jeff said...

Ooh... When we have our next hangout night (and we will, because I distinctly remember asking - nay, demanding - that we start doing this and do board games or something when we were at the wedding), I nominate Stonewall Pizza. You guys took me there once, and I haven't been back since.

That was some tasty pizza pie.

Linda and Matthew said...

Doesn't Chipotle have one of those customer cards? Or is that Qdoba? They're basically the same thing. Anyway, you have them swipe their credit card like thingy and you earn points. If it's not Chipotle, they should have one. Qdoba does.

Emoly said...

Too many cards Megan, too many cards. Do you have a super sized granny wallet?

Dan said...

They should totally have a Blue Koi punch card. I'd have earned a couple free meals by now for sure.

Molly said...

Blue Koi has bubble tea...with alcohol? And i though one could never improve on the perfection that is this drink.

Anonymous said...

We have several of those Smoothie King cards floating around in my purse/Ben's wallet. Where is the Smoothie King in the KC area? I didn't know that they had a store out there!

Lenexicon said...

Melissa - the Smoothie King is near 135th and Metcalf. I actually went there today. I love getting the pina colada smoothie and adding strawberries. Then it's practically my favorite cocktail (the lava flow) minus the rum.