Starbucks Corp. offers customers a chance to grab free coffee for 30 years to overturn the seismic shift from last year.

According to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, the company will try to reverse the decrease of customers during the same period last year, after more customers opted to do online shopping for holiday gifts. Schultz said this has caused a major impact to offline retailers including the coffee giant firm.

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Starbucks said the company has experienced a decline in sales after the winter holidays in 2013. The coffee chain said the decrease was caused by fewer mall goers and shoppers resulting to lesser people visiting cafes.

Data firm ShopperTrak reported that holiday traffic in malls and shopping centers last year were only about half compared to three years ago. The data firm also recorded online retailers to have generated double revenue compared to conventional retailers.

Starbucks wanted to drive more people to coffee shops this holiday season. This is the reason behind the company’s newest and first ever initiative of offering customers the chance to win free daily coffee for 30 years.

Schultz said the company has been eyeing new ideas to transform the 2014 holidays right after last year’s winter holidays ended. He also added the unique giftable item would enable 10 people in the United States to win free Starbucks coffee for life.

The company was able to sell more than 1 billion gift cards during last year’s season.

The Starbucks top official said the idea came after people started asking if the coffee giant would ever let people get free Starbucks drinks for life. Schultz also said the latest initiative would surely drive people with excitement and would also boost traffic in their stores.

Starbucks will give away 10 lifetime Starbucks cards and other surprise items. The contest begins on December 2 until December 25.

TagsStarbucks Corp, Howard Schultz, ShopperTrak, lifetime Starbucks cards