Paying it Behind At a Coffee Shop

--by James Lynch, posted Jun 2, 2009

A couple of times a month I play a game in the Starbucks drive-through lane. When I get to the cashier I pay for my coffee and the coffee of the person in the car behind me. The configuration of the drive-through makes it easy to hear the car behind me call their order into the speaker phone so I don't risk paying for a dozen caramel macchiatos and a pound of Sumatra.

You may be saying that it's not technically a "game"; it's more like a "stunt". Well the game part of it comes as I try to get away from the store and into traffic before the person with the free coffee can catch up to me and get a look at me. I want to stay anonymous and leave them guessing; I think it gives them a longer lasting impression.

One time it was friend of mine but he didn't know it was my car so, Todd, if you're reading this, it was me buying you that venti Pike's Peak in March; now you know. Mostly though, it's someone I don't know and I've done this at toll booths and the occasional beach or park entry. It's never cost me that much and I get a lot of fun out of it.

I was paying for myself and the woman behind me yesterday and the cashier seemed suspicious and almost a little uncomfortable. I was unsure how to briefly explain what I was doing. I assured her I was just doing a random act of kindness and she seemed to light up and called a warm "Thank you" after me as I drove off. It was only as I was driving away that I figured out I could have said, "Tell her I'm rewarding her for a good deed she'll do today".

I thought then of the movie Pay it Forward in which an 11-year-old character played by Haley Joel Osment comes up with a plan in Social Studies class to encourage people to each do a random good deed. The theory is that if instead of paying someone "back" for an act of kindness you encourage them to "pay it forward" to 3 other people and ask them to do it for 3 others who'll then each do it for 3 others, etc. In a period of two weeks you would affect close to 5 million people. That's a lot of java!

So here we are, you and me, and the state of the world is one of fear, economic panic, rising unemployment, swine flu, wars and global terrorism; what are we up to? The internet, especially with the advent of 2.0, Twitter, Facebook, and all of the other social networking tools offer a larger than ever opportunity to reach out and touch others.

Pay it Forward is a 10-year-old movie but the concept wasn't new then and it's not used up yet. The potential to virally spread goodness and beauty is more fertile now than ever and, like I said, here we are: you and me? What do you want to do about it?

How about this -- I'll get you to do a random act of kindness or beauty and you'll get 3 others to do something. Whatever you come up with or your network gets up to, please share it here and, just maybe, someday I'll pull up to the cashier at the drive through at my Starbucks and the cashier will tell me, "The person ahead of you paid for your coffee as a reward for 3 good deeds you'll do today".

6306 Reads

Posted by James Lynch
Jun 2, 2009
Comments (20)

Readers Comments

Jacinda wrote: Wow what an amazing story! I love it so much i'm going to start doing the same.

Thanks once again. You have given me some awesome inspiration for the day :) big smiles to you, jacinda

Jorge wrote: I love stories like this. I have done the same thing at the drive thru of jack in the box. I did it for breakfast so it would not cost me a fortune and paid for the person behind me and drove away very fast to remain annonymous.

iferlamb wrote: Awesome! I do the same at the toll both sometimes. The cashier gets the smile card to pass to the car behind who's toll i just paid. They get a big kick out of it and it's fun to involve someone else in the game. I hope to get one of the smile cards one day too! Thank you for the great story!

arnee wrote: Fantastic idea! Thank you for sharing. :] i'm sure this inspires a lot of people to do the same.

James M. Lynch wrote: Thanks, everyone, for the great comments and carrying this forward. Please also visit me athe the source, huffington post, or use my free 'do it yourself coaching' site, www. Starofyourownlife. Com. I love hearing all the great energy that is out there.

Norman wrote: Well said james, will sure play my part.

cary wrote: Thats so very awesome. Im startin it now. Mite reach ya sooner than u thought buddy. Thnx for sharin. Keep smilin. God bless.

Peggy Gorman wrote: I always say "pay it foward",when i gave a ride to a bank cashier because i was the last person of the day and we started talking ,she was worried that her daughter wasn't going to pick her up. I waited until she finished and gave her a ride. She tried to give me money and i told her to "pay it forward"
I try to do a randon kind act everyday

Leatha wrote: I do this frequently at drive troughs. I don't listen to the "order," i just give the cashier and extra two or three dollars and ask that she please apply it to the bill of the person behind me. I then tell to the cashier to tell the person behind me to "have a good day and to pass it on! " it always brings a smile to the cashier's face and i leave feeling that maybe i have made another person's day a little more pleasant.

cozy wrote: I do this frequently at drive troughs. I don't listen to the "order," i just give the cashier and extra two or three dollars and ask that she please apply it to the bill of the person behind me. I then tell to the cashier to tell the person behind me to "have a good day and to pass it on! " it always brings a smile to the cashier's face and i leave feeling that maybe i have made another person's day a little more pleasant.

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