A Dairy Queen in Minnesota had a “pay it forward” chain of 900 cars at it’s drive-through, over two and a half days. Lots of gushing about all the generosity and Christmas spirit, kindness of strangers, etc. [Over 900 cars paid for each other's meals at a Dairy Queen drive-thru in Minnesota | CNN]
But no one really received any generosity, right? Maybe the last guy who just said, “Thanks” and drove away without paying for the car behind him.
Doesn’t matter how long it goes on, it’s a single gift. And it almost feels wrong for the first recipient to then pay for the car behind. The first person wanted to give a gift to that one stranger, but that person passed it on to the next person, thereby receiving none of the intended generosity. Sort of like rejecting the gift?
The “pay it forward” concept originally meant person A does something nice for person B. Person B accepts that generosity and then some time down the road, person B does something nice for another person. In this scenario, person B doesn’t actually get to enjoy the gift of a free Dairy Queen order.
It sounds like everyone enjoyed the experience, so I suppose there’s some value there, but I think turning it into a chain defeats the purpose. The news story said the cashiers would suggest that people could pass it on to the next car in line, so a single mom couldn’t just enjoy the surprise $10 savings on dinner without looking bad.
But it did rake in $10,000 for the Dairy Queen.
So, am I just being curmudgeonly or is this all just a lot of hype over people thinking they did something generous, when they really didn’t?
It’s a nice corporate moment, and if you don’t pause to think about it, it’s got that christmassy glow to it.
But if you think about it for a quarter second, as you have, and can do some basic math, it’s a net zero for the customers if they were remotely reasonable about their orders, or had limits imposed on them.
So in short, I’m with you. It’s a wonderful feeling for the corporation and a net zero for the participants.
The only times I’ve been a recipient has been when I let another person ahead me at the drive-thru at the Dunkin (there’s a side-street entrance to the main entrance).
I didn’t pass it on because I figured they were thanking me for being nice and it wasn’t just a random act.
I concede that from Dairy Queen’s perspective, if you add it all up, it’s a net zero. But look at the individuals. Every single one of those 900 customers had the option of taking the gift and driving off. But they didn’t, until the last guy. That last guy did absolutely nothing wrong by accepting the gift, but the people before him were generous and not required to do so. That is a big compliment to them.
(As a side point, consider the calculation that approximately half the customers paid for an order that was more expensive than their own.)
The problem I have with pay it forward is what if the cashier just decides to call it a tip and still charges the person behind you. How would you know if you didn’t stick around and ask the next person in line? This kind of defeats the purpose of it being basically being an anonymous gift.
The people who kept it going aren’t heroes (i.e let’s keep it in perspective) but their collective act should be celebrated.
I would say yes to this.
It’s not about the money. It’s a symbolic act.
I have mixed feelings about it. DQ is a treat, as is Starbucks maybe McDs too so it’s not like it’s giving a meal to a needy family though maybe some folks in line are experiencing food insecurity and a random freebie is something to celebrate. So it did happen to me, at McDonald’s, the cashier was excited to tell me, I told her no thanks pass it on after me. She was all kinds of confused because I guess my total was paid up and she was ready to collect from me the amount owed for the guy behind me? I messed up the karma conga line and didn’t feel bad about it.
I don’t love the guilt factor but I guess that’s Christmassy too. Lol.
I’ve been on the losing end of this twice this past week at Starbucks. Get up to the window to pay my $5.50 and they tell me the car in front paid. So to avoid the bad holiday juju I of course offer to pay for the next car. $16.25!!
This is what brings out my curmudgeon. Save your charity for people who need it, not to make yourself feel smug by paying for someone who can’t be bothered to make a cup of coffee at home. If someone has already decided to buy themselves a Starbucks, presumably they can easily afford to pay for it. (Granted, Dunkin Donuts may be less expensive.) Now I need to go pour myself another cup of coffee.
Well, it’s sort of a feel good story I guess. Did the event benefit the employees at DQ? I could see that being helpful to the community, at least.
I would break the chain without hesitation. Either the next guy is higher than me in which case I’m paying for his meal, or the next guy is lower in which case I’m putting an intangible social burden on him by continuing it. Either way it’s better if it stops right now.
This too! No harm at all!
If it feels good do it! 
What are the logistics of this? Do credit card systems allow a merchant to swipe a card and just hold it open and enter the amount later? Is like a hotel where they put a “hold” on some maximum amount on the card like a deposit for incidentals, and then put in the exact amount later?
I agree. Obviously the economics are pretty much a wash, the cool thing is that without any reputational consequences for “defecting”, nobody did so for a such a long run.
No, it’s just that if there’s people waiting in line, their order is already made at the speaker but not picked up yet. So the driver at the window just pays that bill.
Ah, of course, I forgot about the line of cars. So I guess this 900-long chain was dependent on there being a constant line all day?
Well that sounds like a long line so I decided to actually read the article. Lol. From there:
Now you’re just trying to make everyone else look bad.