I had a guy give us $100 to pay it forward with and it’s like……. That’s a lovely sentiment dude but all of these people were fully prepared to pay for their drinks! Like idk feels like a waste of money compared to just… giving it to the workers who are making all of those drinks…

Exactly. Like what do you think you’re accomplishing by paying for a $6 drink that someone was in line and prepared to pay for anyway? Meanwhile me & some of my fellow baristas are wondering how we’re going to get hot meals now that they’re cutting food markouts on our days off.

I think about it every single time they wanna "pay it forward"

I always wanna say, "You know ten years ago we used to get great tips, but now because of this 'wanna do good for another' we suffer."

TIP your Barista, TIP anyone in a service industry that requires or takes tips.

We had a guy come through our drive thru and ask how much the order behind us was and we told him and he was like "that's not bad. They can pay for their drink. Besides you guys are doing all the work." And he gave us a $20.

Literally think about this every time I'm in the middle of trying to sort out one of those pay-it-forward lines and the customers are willing to shill out $20+ for the orders behind them. Like, dang, y'all have that much to spare and can't toss a couple dollars our way too?

I'd just tell them the next car is a mobile order

Tbh management at our store always did put it in the tip jar. Like if it's the person behind them, fine. If it's a hundred bill with 'pay it forward' it always hurt drive times so much more then it needed too so we used it for tips.

I agree it is a dumb practice.. just a way for starbucks to still get money by making people feel good but also not supporting their own staff.

I am now even more grateful for the guy who comes in and throws a $20 into our tip jar every week just because. Oh, and he's a total sweetheart and knows most of us by name. He's just too pure for this world.

I'll never forget when this super nice dude paid for 3 cars back. I told the last person that they had been paid for and they were so fuckin ungrateful. She rolled her eyes and said "must be nice having so much money."

I didn't know how to tell her the guy paying for everyone was in an 30 year old, rusted out truck and extremely worn clothes while she whined about being paid for.

Anyways, I hate pay it forward chains

I’ve had multiple times where someone has left a like $500 gift card to pay for everyone for the night or morning and I’m just like…these people were already budgeting this coffee trip into their day…my gas tank has 30¢ worth of gas in it and I have holes in my shoes but sure. Make sure the rich people around here get a free latte. And one time it was a pastor????? And I mean this was a RICH neighborhood (that I commuted 45 minutes to) and I was just like ??????? SO confused!!! All that free money!!! For rich people!! This was like 6 years ago and I’m STILL pissed off. Wrecked our tips for the night too because no one had change to put in the jar! And of course the bastard didn’t tip and left looking so proud of himself.

I have been saying this for the 8 years I have worked here. The person can pay behind you. We worked thru a pandemic. :)

I’m like maybe a month in to working here and I HATE when people start those chains in the drive thru. It gets super confusing super quickly and it’s also just awkward for the customers who don’t want to continue it.

People at my work only do the pay it forward because they get pissed someone else got their points, so they take the person’s points behind them. I seriously watch this people get angry angry about it.

How do you guys get the in-app tips? I’ve done it a few times when I don’t have cash and I always worry it goes to some Starbucks abyss.

Paying it forward is just a flex.

One time I got a drink paid forward and I just thought it was good karma. But usually that makes me tip the money I was going to spend so. Different strokes different folks

“sorry! they mobile ordered 😭” and onto the next car

I wish the app stopped hiding the tipping option. It's kinda frustrating