For about 11 hours, the customers of a Florida Starbucks kept a pay-it-forward chain going. Almost 400 cars each paid for the order of the customer behind them in line, continuing the chain from morning rush hour until dinner time. Are these chains inefficient? Sure. Do they brighten the day of both customers and employees? Generally.

Of course, there are the occasional grouches who say that they would have ordered something more expensive if they knew that someone else was paying the tab. Ignore those people. They are actively working against the spirit of generosity. It’s the person who starts the chain who is awesome.

How it worked in St. Petersburg yesterday was that customers would place their order at the drive-thru menu board, then learn that it had already been paid for when they pulled up to the window to pay. The barista offered them the opportunity to pay for the order of the person behind them in line in turn, which almost 400 people did.

According to employees, the final customer who broke the chain simply didn’t seem to understand what was going on, and chose not to pay for the customer behind her. Other outlets have solved this problem by keeping a rolling fund in cash for future orders, which is how a store in Connecticut kept their chain going for almost 1,500 customers over several days.

Is this a world-changing effort? No, of course not. It’s just a nice example of a few hundred people choosing to do something nice for a stranger.

Nearly 400 people ‘pay it forward’ at St. Petersburg Starbucks [Tampa Bay Times]

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