Paying for the order of another customer—starting a pay-it-forward chain if in the drive-thru of a restaurant or cafe—can be a simple, kind gesture—as long as those participating are willing to pay the price.
Not everyone is ready to jump on board when a pay-it-forward train—many college students have shared that they effectively killed a pay-it-forward line at their local Starbucks.
One customer thought to pay for the order of the customer behind her—and then found that the total was much higher than she expected.
TikToker @samantharetner says she was expecting to pay $5, maybe $8 for the coffee of the older woman behind her in line, and was surprised to hear that the actual total was more in the ballpark of three times that.
“I saw this lady all by herself behind me at Starbucks, and I said, ‘Maybe I will pay for her order,’” she says in the video. “She’s all by herself, her order will probably be like, $8 tops for a coffee. She was an older lady so I was like, she probably just gets coffee. Like a grande hot coffee, that sh*t’s probably like $5. Let me pay for her behind me. I got her. The girl goes and looks at me, and she’s like, ‘Her order is $22.50, are you sure you want to pay for that?’”
She decided to pay it anyway, having already locked herself into the idea of a pay-it-forward chain.
“I was like, what am I going to do?” she says in the video. “Say no now? After you tell me it’s $22? Whatever, I guess I’ll pay for it.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to @samantharetner via comment on the video.
@samantharetner Lady if you see this I want my $22.50 back #fyp #starbucks ♬ original sound – sammyjo
Multiple baristas shared their experiences of pay-it-forward chains and what made them successful in the comments section. Some wrote that they didn’t particularly care if people passed it on.
“I used to work at Starbucks and when we said the price people said no or just didn’t want to,” one user wrote. “It’s so real to say no.”
“When I worked at Starbucks we had someone donate a 100$ giftcard and he said see how far it goes,” another user said. “So I would pay for one and until they didn’t pay it.”
“I promise no barista cares if you say no,” another echoed. “Pay it forwards are annoying.”
Other customers shared their own opinions of pay-it-forward lines, and what they might do if they were faced with a similar situation.
“Girl just say ‘oh cool can I put $10 towards that?,’” one commenter wrote.
“I did this once thinking i was buying a lady a mid day snack and ended up paying for her whole family’s feast,” another said. “good karma will find me tho right?”
“If someone asked to pay for my coffee I’d tell them to just put an amount to a tip instead,” a commenter wrote.
