Well, maybe the free publicity is the whole reason that Schultzie and crew came up with Starbucks' (SBUX: sentiment, chart, options) latest marketing brainchild. Let's get this out of the way I like SBUX, I like the product, I don't like the price, I am intimidated by ordering for fear of turning the wrath of the snarky barista upon me ... but those are my issues (at least that is what my therapist tells me). To prove that I am not anti-SBUX, I wanted to praise their latest promotion - $2 grande-sized iced drinks in the afternoon (after 2 PM). That is a good price; in fact, it is 50% the normal price of a chilled-coffee treat. Good idea, but it turns out that there is a catch.

Said catch is that you have to have already visited SBUX and dished out whatever you pay for your morning java and bring along your receipt to prove that you purchased coffee in the morning. Always a catch, eh Howie? Yes, this is a nice attempt to try and boost your afternoon traffic, and a sneaky way to make sure that it doesn't come at the expense of your morning traffic. Honestly, I don't have a big problem with this repeat customers are key for food chains. What bothers me is that the company's vice president of customer relationship management would state, "I think we've kind of hit the nail on the head." No, no, you haven't. In fact, you haven't hit the nail on the head until you issue across-the-board price cuts and stop spending money on more expensive coffee makers and jettisoning coffee that is more than 30 minutes old ... then you will have hit the nail on the head.