DC Disloyal

It’s time to earn disloyalty points.

Two months after the idea was first broadcast, a group of independent coffee shops have joined together to reinvent the reward card.

The idea behind the loyalty card is one that everybody will know: You are rewarded with points, or stamps, that can utilised towards future purchases. Whether it is a free coffee after buying eight cups, half a chicken after purchasing ten meals, or five pounds – or dollars – back after spending two-hundred, we all probably have some type of loyalty card hidden away in our wallets and purses.

A ‘DC Disloyal’ card, on the other hand, invites the customer to go on a coffee adventure amongst the streets of America’s capital city. Six independent businesses have agreed to the idea which openly promotes their combined clientele to travel out and seek their coffee fix in each other’s shops. The customers will be rewarded by their disloyalty by receiving a free cup of coffee in a participating location of their choosing.

Dawn Shanks at Peregrine Espresso is the cunning brain behind the idea. Alongside co-worker Christy Pelton they told the Washington Post that the card was providing a brilliant way of getting the customers chatting; not only with the baristas but with fellow coffee connoisseurs. “I hope the card is a fun way for DC coffee lovers to…explore different shops.’

Not only is it stoking up some friendly rivalry between the independent shops but it is also potentially securing some trade between the indie union and keeping people away from their bigger, more ‘corporate’ rivals

500 cards have been printed so far, but Shanks indicates that more are on their way.

To get your free beverage as part of the DC Disloyal programme customers need to visit all six participating coffee shops.

According to the D.C version of Eater, hopeful plans are afoot to extend the disloyalty service to neighbouring states Virginia and Maryland.

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