The complications of being a coffee shop nice guy.

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You've probably heard of the phenomenon in which a random stranger pays for the order of the person behind them in line at a coffee shop.  According to Starbucks baristas, it happens all the time.  The victim of this generous act gets their coffee for free, having their faith in humanity rekindled by a nameless, altruistic coffee shop hero, and the hero gets to feel better than the rest of society for however long the emotional inertia of the deed lasts.  It's a win-win... so it seems.

I can't help but wonder how exactly this transaction is performed.  If you're the hero, are you supposed to guess what the person behind you wants?  It would be nearly impossible to guess the price of the order using cash.  Do you use a credit card and let that cover whatever the person behind you wants, and if so, how does that work?  You have to ask yourself whether you're still a hero if you're the kind of person who uses a credit card at Starbucks.

Scenario #1

You're totally ignorant to what's happening in front of you, but the person ahead of you in line is buying your drink.  You walk to the till and order a tall drip coffee.  No problem.  The guy gave the barista a five.  It's a great day; the barista gets a pretty nice tip and you get a free coffee.  Sweet.

Scenario #2

Same thing, you're in line at Starbucks.  You walk to the till and order a Trenta Pumpkin Spice Latte with an extra shot of espresso and whipped cream.  Surely you do not deserve to have anyone purchase this abomination of a beverage for you but somebody did.  Well, they put five bucks towards it anyway.  The barista says something like, "You know, I thought it was going to be your lucky day.  The guy behind you gave me an extra five dollar bill and said to buy your drink, but it turns out you still owe me about four dollars.  Really, I've never had anybody order a Pumpkin Spice Latte in a size larger than Grande.  So, yeah."



What it boils down to is people being nice.  It's awesome that this is something that could actually happen to me one day.  It's nice to know that some people aren't total selfish scumbags.  I just know that if I tried, I'd screw it up.  The barista would probably have already seen ten cases of this sort of thing that day and I'd give him a toonie and a loonie and he'd judge me knowing that the last guy to do this gave him a ten.  Then I would leave the store questioning my morals and telling myself I'm never doing this again.  I guess I'm just a cynical asshole.

-Daniel Greene

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