Over 700 People Paid-it-Forward at a Starbucks This Week

More than 700 customers participated in a spontaneous pay-it-forward chain at a Starbucks in Florida this week. According to the Chicago Tribune, the good deed began when one patron "offered to buy an iced triple grande latte for the next customer in the drive-through line" on Wednesday morning. For the next 11 hours, customers kept paying for the drink order of the next person in line. A store manager tells the Tribune that there around 457 drinks were purchased by the time the pay-it-forward chain ended at around 6 p.m.

The chain started back up again on Thursday with one customer even buying a $40 gift card to share with the next customer. A Starbucks spokeswoman told Today that the chain started back up again on Thursday and that the location "estimates that about 725 people have participated in the past two days." The only reason the second chain has ended is because a local blogger didn't like it, explaining that "he objected to what he perceived as a guilt trip being placed on customers."

The previous record at that location was 141 pay-it-forwards in a row. Starbucks' spokeswoman added that many of the company's locations see this sort of good deed "quite often." Last year on Christmas Eve, 1,468 customers at a Starbucks in Connecticut participated in a multi-day pay-it-forward chain. In Reno, Nevada, over 73 cars in a row bought coffee for the person behind them. At one point, Starbucks even launched a "suspended coffee" campaign where customers could purchase extra coffee and ask for the excess to be given to someone in need.

· Hundreds Pay it Forward [Chicago Tribune]
· Local Blogger Ended Starbucks 'Pay-it-Forward' [Bay News 9]
· Florida Starbucks Customers Pay it Forward [Today]
· All Starbucks Coverage on Eater [-E-]