Starbucks Lands A Credit-Card Whale

Ari Weinberg, Forbes.com

NEW YORK - This morning the CEOs of Starbucks, Bank One and Visa met at a Manhattan Starbucks to celebrate lower transaction costs.

It's not exactly the stuff of headlines. But today's introduction of the Starbucks Duetto Visa, both a credit card and a stored-value card, is the most significant admission by a major retailer that there's money to be made when customers charge a not-so-simple cup of coffee.

The card, targeted to "Starbucks enthusiasts," the top 20% of customers who visit an average of 18 times a month, puts 1% of every Visa purchase onto the customer's Starbucks (nasdaq: SBUX - news - people ) card, a stored-value feature that lets latte-lovers pay for their java without even signing a receipt. Die-hards who charge an automatic reload of their Starbucks card will get a 3% perq.

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