Is Starbucks killing FourSquare specials?

Being an early adopter of FourSquare means that you both love the product and recommend it to friends, AND are constantly wishing for more features, better stats and a simplified way of seeing specials data… or maybe that’s just me.  A couple of weeks ago FourSquare partnered with Starbucks in a move that had me applauding along with everyone else.  $1 off make your own frappuccinos for being the mayor of your Starbucks?  You bet I’ll take one with at least an extra shot of espresso.

It wasn’t until about a week later that I started to notice something interesting; I wasn’t finding specials for a lot of venues that I knew had specials.  I could locate the place and then see the “special here” but whenever I would see “special nearby” in a specific area I found it to be Starbucks.  Lately I’ve been encouraging a number of restaurants to actively engage their fan base in defining a FourSquare special (FourSquare Owner).  A lot of times that leads to dishes that are off menu or unique cocktails that are still being tested out.  Now, everywhere I go the $1 off Frappuccino seems to be stalking me.

This isn’t necessarily FourSquare’s fault or even Starbucks.  It just so happens that there are sooo many Starbucks locations that they are killing the unique entries that come from smaller venues.  It’s almost as if Starbucks has blanketed the country in one giant foursquare special.  I’m happy the promotion only lasts a month but we can only assume Starbucks will continue to use this platform to reward digital loyalty in the future.

All we can do is hope that FourSquare continues to refine its location to venue algorithms or update the specials nearby tab to list multiple specials, so that the small guys don’t get left out of all the checking in action.