100s of Customers Pay for Each Others’ Starbucks; 1 Jerk Ruins it All

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

53. The reason I brought up exact change was that my assumption

was that in order to 'pay it forward' on orders of probable uneven sizes, you'd need each person to be paying with credit card, and to swipe the card and leave the order open until the next person came through to see what to put on it. Then close that order and open the next order with that person's credit card before they left. You also couldn't 'skip' cars if that's how you were doing it, unless you had another cash register right there, since you'd have to close off the prior order. You also can't simply leave somebody's credit card order open all night long on some types of POS software - I don't know if it's possible on Starbucks' particular machines - to 'start' the chain up again the next day.

I don't think she's a jerk, but she might have 'ended the chain' simply by being unwilling to simply leave her credit card open to whatever charge might be put on it next, IF that's how they were keeping the 'chain' going.