<p>It’s dumb and I wouldn’t get involved. But I don’t patronize starbucks anyway. </p>
<p>Busdriver–in that case, I’d be even less likely to! 
And I think I have thoroughly demonstrated my curmudgeon credentials many times over.</p>
<p>“This stupid Starbucks pay-forward chain is all your fault, Pizza”</p>
<p>I knew it! Just had to be someone on cc who started all this silliness.</p>
<p>If I were asked to pay for someone’s drink… I would refuse to take my paid for by someone else “freebie”, pull out my smartphone, and make a $7 donation to any worthy organization, right there, on the spot. Or I would ask for a big cup of ice water, do the ALS challenge and then tag the next sucker in line. That would stop the stupidity!</p>
<p>An actual kindness would be to pay for a cup of coffee for someone who has not already indicated that they can afford it by getting in line!</p>
<p>@LasMa…you nailed it! B-) </p>
<p>A real kindness is to, when you are fortunate enough to get upgraded on a flight, is to give your free drink coupons to a harried looking couple with a few kids making their way to the back. Now THERE is a true look of joy on their faces.</p>
<p>@busdriver, even better than just giving the drink coupons, I’ve actually given up my first class seat to a soldier</p>
<p>Now that I’ve looked into this some more, I have some details. Apparently, at least some people were only paying for one drink - chain breaker guy was told that someone had paid for one of the two drinks he had purchased and did he want to pass that on. Not that it matters to the big picture, but I wanted to get that off my chest.</p>
<p>Chainbreaker got in line purposely to break the chain and make the “stupid” point and get some attention for his blog. Not that there is anything wrong with that, imho.</p>
<p>Yay, GMT. Good one.</p>
<p>This actually happened to me years ago - youngest son wasn’t driving yet and I was taking him to school and we swung through SB because he liked a morning wakeup drink - car in front of us paid for his coffee and I was so taken aback I paid for the guy behind me. It did may be smile the rest of the day though - getting your day started on a positive note really can make a difference for the next 8 hours at work.</p>
<p>FWIW the one time it happened to me I didn’t feel pressure to participate, just surprise. I wasn’t asked to pay for the next guy, just told the guy ahead of me had paid for me. . Sure, you can call me a sucker and tell me I shouldn’t have done it, that SB was trying to create a chain, especially since my drink was simple and cheap, but it was a harmless enough thing to do. But maybe it was spontaneous on the part of the guy in front of me. Maybe he had cut me off and I didn’t notice or maybe I let him go ahead of me in traffic somewhere on the way to SB. </p>
<p>I like being a compassionate flyer on the airlines. I have been that woman flying alone with two small, restless children, so I try to be patient and if I have any little distractions to offer I do so. I really like the idea of letting a soldier sit in my first class seat (if I ever have one!).</p>
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<p>Exactly. </p>
<p>Any one of those 438 people or whatever it was could have said No. Rather than be alarmed that Starbucks “pressured” so many people to participate, I think we should be alarmed that 438 consecutive people were incapable of saying No to a cashier. </p>
<p>“busdriver, even better than just giving the drink coupons, I’ve actually given up my first class seat to a soldier”</p>
<p>Not to keep being the Grinch, but that’s another one that I have an issue with the airlines asking people to do. American, apparently, does that a lot. Now it’s one thing for an individual to see a soldier, talk to them, find out they are on their way to a deployment, and offer up their seat. That is kind and classy. However, sometimes airlines will try to guilt the entire first class section into giving up their seats for soldiers onboard, and that’s just wrong.</p>
<p>People may have paid several hundred dollars extra for that seat. Some people have terrible back or weight problems, and it was worth it to get that seat. Would you just walk up to someone in uniform and give them $700? The soldier might just be flying from their home to their base in Hawaii, not deploying or never have deployed to a combat zone at all. The first class passenger may have just worked all night and is exhausted, has served themselves in a war, and would never have considered asking someone else to give up their seat (cough cough). I am also annoyed by the “thank you for your service” lines. It seems so hollow and insincere. If you’re going to express gratitude, make it real, and not just a canned sentence. </p>
<p>As I don’t drink coffee and rarely have been to SB, have never had this situaiton arise. I have no problems saying no to cashiers who are always trying to see if one wants to donate to a charity or another. I choose the charities I know are doing well and not spending the bulk of their resources of fundraising, not at the cash register when I’m buying other things.</p>
<p>It’s not good will is the point. No-one is alarmed that people were pressured or outraged by a coffee chain. It’s just silly to act like this is a random act of kindness. There’s nothing random about it.</p>
<p>Plus, it slows down service because they have to explain what they are talking about … Even a minute added to each transaction is an extra five-minute wait for the fifth car in line. </p>
<p>Reading about people’s reluctance to pay for the hypothetical extra pump of hazelnut ordered by the next driver makes it completely clear to me why we can’t seem to get a new bridge built over the Columbia and the 520 expansion took this long to get off the ground. </p>
<p>What? Are you comparing fancy coffee drinks to road projects? Or manufactured good will to taxes? Or what? </p>
<p>I’m saying that in our state we have four interdependent economic relationships: the East/West divide in our own state and the North/South relationship between each of those regions and the state to our South and the country to our North. There are crops that need to get to port and economic drivers in several directions but votes on major projects seem to come down to an idea of not wanting to pay for something that you personally don’t use much even for people who live in areas that get more money back dollar for dollar than they put into the pot. And no . . . I’m not advocating government waste or runaway spending so don’t even go there. </p>
<p>I understand that some people resent what they considered to be a good will gimmick, but there have been enough comments of the “what if their drink is more expensive than mine” variety to cause me to extrapolate a bit. </p>