I've thought about doing this myself at Starbucks. But then I wonder if the person behind me is a car packed full of kids and their parents have rung up $25+ of frappuccinos. As I don't want the awkwardness of asking the drive thru barista the total cost of what the person behind me ordered, I haven't attempted it yet.
Ma’am, Your Burger Has Been Paid For
21–30 of 137 posts
Re: Ma’am, Your Burger Has Been Paid For
#22Wow, this almost makes Chick-fil-A seem like a non-bigoted 21th century hospitality establishment. Only almost though.
Chick-fil-A employees are the most polite out of all the fast-food establishments I've frequented. The tables are always spotless, and the food is (I'll concede, this is subjective) damn good. I don't think it's particularly difficult to separate a few bigoted executives from the totality of the company.
I agree. I rarely visit Chick-fil-A, but over the summer I had to go to a conference in NC and a group of us drove down from the Northeast, urban US. We stopped at one of their locations for lunch and there were about 8-10 of us so we had to push some tables together to extend a booth and make enough room for everyone. At around the mid-point of our meal, a middle-aged female employee came to our table, smiled, and asked us if we would like more napkins and if we needed our drinks refilled.
Now, maybe I'm just a cynical Yankee, but I would say that kind of treatment is extremely rare in fast food joints where I'm from. All employees I've ever encountered are well trained, professional, and super-polite (but not in an overbearing way).
Re: Ma’am, Your Burger Has Been Paid For
#23Naples has a "long standing tradition" of something called "suspended coffee". (http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/04/24/178829301/eu-emb...)
Re: Ma’am, Your Burger Has Been Paid For
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm guessing there's a gap between place-your-order and receive-your-order where you sit while your order is prepared. So, if the place is busy, the person immediately behind you has already placed their order at the time you receive and pay for yours.
You only pay after receiving? That's not how they do it around here - you pace the order and pay, and then you want to receive it.
It varies by the type of establishment.
But all of the ones discussed are drive through restaurants. There you typically place an order through a microphone, and only later do you drive up to a window where you can pay.
On the inside of the same establishments, you typically will place an order, pay, receive a receipt, then later on exchange the receipt for your food.
Re: Ma’am, Your Burger Has Been Paid For
#25Similar story here in the UK. I was paying for my McDonalds at the drive-thru when for whatever reason I looked in my mirror and saw a young girl sat crying in her car looking deeply depressed. I asked if I could pay whatever her meal, did so, picked mine up and looking in the mirror I could see a genuine smile appear.
I hope that if I cheered her up for even 2 seconds, she can see whatever happened to make her cry isn't going to keep her stuck feeling down.
Re: Ma’am, Your Burger Has Been Paid For
#26Makes you think about how much fast food is consumed in the US. I like a McBurger myself once in a while, but people eat altogether too much of that junk over there. Nice article though: people in the US, especially outside the big cities, are often very kind. My Italian wife is always pleasantly surprised by this when we're there.
I think that's true worldwide. People are often much kinder and care about their community more outside the bigger cities.
People outside big cities have higher levels of Give A Shit Capital. http://shrik.theswamp.in/2013/07/why-people-think-what-they-...
Re: Ma’am, Your Burger Has Been Paid For
#27This reminds me of Jonathan's card, which was shortly exploited as an 'experiment' and ultimately frozen by Starbucks
Re: Ma’am, Your Burger Has Been Paid For
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think a lot of people are on autopilot and just vote up negative stuff. I think it has something to do with the fact that a lot of people here must be in a low mood because they're starting their own business and struggling, or hating their current job and wanting to do a startup.. I don't know. Just a hypothesis. Could also have something to do with the natural skepticism of a lot of smart people who are used to p…
> [..] a lot of people here must be in a low mood because they're starting their own business and struggling, or hating their current job and wanting to do a startup.. You're the one being cynical... It's just a bias, people don't comment if the only thing they have to say is "oh that's great".
I disagree... there are a lot of things you can say other than just 'oh that's great'. This comment thread is a perfect example of that. It is an article about people paying it forward in fast food lines (a lovely story about everyday kindness) and the top voted comment is about how much someone hates Chick-Fil-A.
Not every interesting opinion has to be a negative one, and not every criticism needs to be posed in a really nasty way. Most members of the HN community have been pointing out how the quality of comments on HN has degenerated of late, I was just thinking out aloud rather than passing judgment on people who come and comment here.
Re: Ma’am, Your Burger Has Been Paid For
#29Happend to us on the San Mateo Bridge (westbound) a couple of years back. We felt special but did not pay it forward. Instead, told the lady at the booth to consider the fee a tip :)
Re: Ma’am, Your Burger Has Been Paid For
#30This is quite pointless because it essentially cancels out. To get a cooperative structure you have to give away surplus -- that is, people with more have to give it to people with less.
Yes, redistribution! That seems a dirty idea in a substantial part of USA politics. So 'pay it forward' chains are a peculiar thing: they summon the feeling of cooperation, in an acceptable way, without actually being effectively cooperative.