It's happened.
A couple of days ago, I wrote about how it would be simultaneously wonderful and evil if Starbucks had some sort of frequent drinker card. The opportunity is there to do so many interesting things with it.
Today, I see that they do in fact have the "Starbucks Gift Card". It's a stored value credit card doohickey, just like the Barnes and Noble, Borders, Gap, [every other american retailer] gift cards.
Perhaps Seattle's Best Coffee will start its move eastward, and bring back the idea of remembering your customers (in the good sense).