Paying It Forward at Starbucks and Beyond

In Connecticut, Starbucks customers were on their third day of a record-breaking pay-it-forward spree yesterday as more than 1,000 of them have cheerfully agreed to pay for the customers behind them. The pay it forward chain (or backwards since in essence the participants are buying for the people in the car behind them) began at 8 AM on Christmas Eve and when there were lulls in the action (no one behind you in the drive thru) the customers were given the option of buying a gift card to be used for the next customer yet to arrive. One person paid for a $100 gift card for just that purpose. No telling how long the streak of random kindness will continue but the employee who put a photo of the tally marks counting this streak on instagram hopes that it will inspire others to do random acts of kindness in other places in their communities too.

In 2013 I planned to take action and commit lots of random acts of kindness, myself and even though I fell short of my goal I gained a lot of satisfaction from ones I did. It was enough to give me the impetus to resolve to commit more again for 2014.