In the world of big retail, there is a word they rarely say out loud to customers, but they love to talk about in boardrooms: Breakage.
It sounds like something that happens in a warehouse with a dropped box, but in reality, "Breakage" is the financial term for the money you give a company that you never actually spend.
It is the $5.40 left on a Starbucks card. It’s the $25 Amazon credit from three Christmases ago. It’s the "ghost money" sitting in your digital shadow—and it adds up to over $21 Billion in the U.S. alone.
How the "Game" is Rigged
When you buy a gift card, the retailer doesn't record that as "profit" immediately. In their accounting books, it’s a liability—essentially a debt they owe you in the form of coffee, clothes, or gadgets.
But retailers know human psychology. They know you’ll lose the email. They know you’ll forget the balance. And they know that after a certain amount of time, they can legally move that "debt" into the "Profit" column.
They literally make money by doing absolutely nothing.
The "Starbucks Bank"
To understand the scale, look at Starbucks. At any given time, customers are holding over $1.6 Billion in balances on their apps and cards. Because so much of that goes unspent, Starbucks earns hundreds of millions of dollars a year in pure "Breakage" profit.
They aren't just a coffee shop; they are a bank that doesn't pay you interest and hopes you forget your account exists.
Why They Don't Remind You
Have you ever noticed that you get 50 emails a week about "New Deals," but zero emails telling you, "Hey, you still have $12.50 left on your account"?
That isn't an accident. Retailers have zero incentive to help you find your lost balances. Every dollar you recover is a dollar they have to actually "work" for by providing a product.
Reclaiming the "Shadow IT" of Your Life
We live in a world of "Digital Shadows"—a trail of accounts, subscriptions, and credits that we’ve left behind over the last decade.
In the 2026 economy, attention is the new currency. Retailers are betting that you are too busy, too tired, and too overwhelmed to audit your own life. They are betting on your fatigue.
The GhostSweep Mission 🧹
We didn't build GhostSweep just to find "coupons." We built it to kill Breakage.
Our engine acts as your personal financial scout, scanning the corners of your digital footprint to find the capital you’ve already earned. We believe that if you paid for it, you should own it.
Don't let your forgotten balances fund a corporate bonus. It’s your money. Go get it.
[Stop the Bleed: Run a GhostSweep Scan Now]