Starbucks waypoint?
LostBoyRamblur-ING
Posts: 2 ✭
I feel like straight name dropping Starbucks and making it a waypoint might fit most areas in the criteria doesn’t it fall into being generic and not unique?
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I feel like straight name dropping Starbucks and making it a waypoint might fit most areas in the criteria doesn’t it fall into being generic and not unique?
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It would be a very unusual situation for a Starbucks to be eligible. If Starbucks wants locations to be Pokéstops, Starbucks corporate adds them to their sponsored locations.
Thank you. That’s what was throwing me off when it popped up as a nomination for a waypoint. I knew they were PokéStops but I could also see where it was not eligible as a nomination.
generic business so a big no..
Nianticcassey did make an argument a while back that if Starbucks was the only place to socialise in a town/village like their home town was, you could put forward a good case, but people didn't like that
Not going to argue just how unlikely that hypothetical situation is, Cassey also stated that it was up to the nominator to provide the appropriate argument and proof.
I did say you could put forward a good argument, but it is pretty unlikely.
I have received gifts from international players (I'm in Australia) that are from a Starbucks, and the photo is just the logo...
Many Starbucks hire a local artist to paint a mural inside them. That mural would be valid. Often a local newspaper article can be linked.
Altho I suspect that most Starbuck's nominators do not set foot inside the shop.
Those are just sponsored Pokéstops.
Ah, that makes sense!
It’s completely hypocritical if some Starbucks are eligible and some aren’t. Either Niantic wants their money or they don’t.
When Starbucks entered into a sponsorship deal with Niantic, they paid x amount of dollars for y amount of in game sponsored locations for z amount of time. In order for a Starbucks that didn't receive an in game sponsored location to be added to the sponsorship deal, Starbucks would have to ask Niantic to add it and then pay the appropriate cost for it. It's not a case of Niantic not wanting the money, it's a case of Starbucks not caring about updating the details of their sponsorship to include more locations.
You need to take it up with Starbucks' corporate office. They are the ones that decide which locations are part of the sponsorship deal and which are not. Niantic isn't going to give away "free" Pokestops to Starbucks.
I’m not concerned about the sponsorship. I’m more concerned about the “criteria.” If a Starbucks is considered a Wayspot in some places, it should be consistent.
With every few exceptions, Starbucks isn't eligible. Some locations may have been mistakenly accepted because of the sponsorship deal, but just because some locations were mistakenly accepted doesn't mean that all other locations must be accepted.
How are they mistakenly accepted? There are thousands of them accepted.
As far as I understand, Starbucks has a sponsorship deal with Niantic, so Starbucks picks which locations can be wayspots. They don't normally fit the criteria because Starbucks is a chain store. Some people ignore the criteria, though, and approve them anyway. Chain restaurants are 1* unless the submitter makes a good argument for their importance to the local community, but that's an uphill battle.
Picking which Starbucks get to be wayspots seems to be between Starbucks and Niantic and separate from the usual wayfarer process, so I just check to see if they're duplicates before rejecting them.
Don't try to confuse Starbucks locations that were added through the sponsorship deal with those that were mistakenly added. Just because there is a sponsorship deal doesn't mean that they are eligible as Wayspots outside of that deal.
If you tap on them in game, you'll see most of them have a label at the top left of the screen that says "sponsored".
Sponsored locations are not part of the Wayfarer database and do not represent what is or is not eligible. They were not added using Wayfarer. Instead, a company like Starbucks enters into a contract with Niantic and pays for locations which will only show up in one specific Niantic game (in this case, Pokémon Go, though they get the choice of which game they'd like to appear in).
If Starbucks didn't choose a specific location to get featured, or a new location opened up after they made the contact with Niantic, then it's entirely up to Starbucks to request a modification of the contract if they care about adding these locations. Submitters should not attempt to add a location that wasn't included in the sponsorship deal, as they don't really meet the Wayfarer criteria.
Starbucks is a sponsor of Pokémon GO in the US (was it?).
But outside the US, they are not a sponsor, just a chain of cafes.
Chain stores are rejected.
That has nothing to do with hypocrisy, and everything to do with how the sponsorship contract (and compensation) is set up.
Well, yes, however, it still doesn’t make sense and leads to confusion. If something qualifies based upon criteria, all of them should qualify.
In terms of the sponsorship, though, the Starbucks don't qualify, that's why they're sponsored.
I could, theoretically, pay Niantic to make the shop I work at a sponsored location in one or more of my games, but it would only appear in the game(s) I pay for and it would not make my location any more eligible than before.
So, are you suggesting that only businesses that can meet the criteria should be allowed to sponsor locations?
This is just my feeling but it’s hard enough sometimes figuring out if something is eligible or not. Having the literal exact same thing be okay sometimes and not in other times is confusing.
And that's not even taking into account something like memorial benches that were known to be approved en masse by Niantic in the "early days" before they later clarified that those are usually ineligible 💁♂️
Learn something new everyday 😂
So you want Niantic to reject sponsorships from businesses that would not meet the eligibility criteria? Then what is the point of offering sponsorship deals then?
If only sponsorships were a thing in Australia... the only thing we got remotely resembling a sponsorship was Gucci x The North Face in January 2021. Sometimes, "generic" businesses do get through otherwise.