For 11 hours Wednesday, customers ordering at the drive-through window at a Starbucks in St. Petersburg, Fla. paid for the cars’ order behind them, Tampa Bay Times reported.
The Starbucks in St. Petersburg, Fla. (Photo: Tampa Bay Times via YouTube)
The “paying forward” began with a random woman at 7 a.m. who paid for her own drink, then asked to pay for a caramel macchiato for the person after her.
Photo: Tampa Bay Times via YouTube
By 1:30 p.m., the kindness had reached 260 customers.
Photo: Tampa Bay Times via YouTube
When drivers pulled up to the window of retrieve their orders, the barista would tell them their drinks had been paid for by the driver before them, and asked if they’d “like to return the favor.”
Photo: Tampa Bay Times via YouTube
As the window baristas realized the pattern wasn’t breaking, they started to keep a tally.
Photo: Tampa Bay Times via YouTube
Customers who were the only car in line at the time of their order bought a gift card to pay it forward.
Photo: Tampa Bay Times via YouTube
By 6 p.m., 378 people paid it forward.
Photo: Tampa Bay Times via YouTube
Unfortunately, according to the Tampa Bay Times, car 379 didn’t quite understand the concept. She said she “just wanted to pay for her $2.25 drink and not someone else’s.”
Photo: Creative Commons
Bay News 9 says this isn’t the Starbucks location’s first time to facilitate an impromptu chain of events. Their previous “pay it forward” record was 141.
How many hours of caffeinated kindness will it take to break 400?
