Reddit Supports This Suggested Alternative To Starbucks' Pay It Forward Movement

We'd venture to guess that many people, at some point in their lives, have been involved in some type of pay-it-forward chain in the drive-through line. You're just pulling through your preferred coffee chain's line-up, trying to get your morning caffeine boost, when the employee at the window informs you that the car in front of you has already paid for your order — so, you make the decision to do the same for the car behind you, and so on. It seems like a positive thing to do, but one thread on the Starbucks subreddit suggests you should consider switching up your definition of paying it forward and supporting someone other than the other customers around you (via Reddit).

Reddit user kaetb shared a graphic with text over that urged individuals to "stop doing 'pay it forward' at Starbucks," explaining that "the person behind you can pay for their own drink, that's why they're there." Instead, as the text explained in succinct language, "if you want to be generous, tip the workers more."

Kaetb shared the image with a simple post title, "support the workers," and within less than 24 hours the post was 95% upvoted with 84 comments from individuals who seemed to agree wholeheartedly with the new approach to drive-through generosity, in which the hard-working baristas crafting those hot and iced beverages would receive a little extra love.

Reddit user kaetb's post about supporting the workers rather than fellow customers seemed to strike a nerve, and many other users took to the comments section to share their thoughts — and the response was overwhelmingly in favor of putting a few extra dollars in employees' pockets rather than paying for another customer's coffee.

One user commented, "this is such a good point" while another who agreed with the post wrote, "support the baristas that get yelled at everyday!" Reddit user Background_Science96 put the situation into perspective, demonstrating how a particular amount of money could either be an incredible tip or just an average coffee order, implying that one made much more of an impact: "I once tipped 20 bucks and the barista nearly died. People pay that much for the car behind them and don't bat an eye. Tip 20 bucks."

While employees who work at restaurants may be able to rely a bit more heavily on tips, at least some Starbucks baristas have said they weren't raking in sizeable amounts. In 2017, a user took to the Starbucks subreddit asking about what other baristas averaged per hour for tips, and the totals were pretty dismal. Quite a few commented that their tips worked out to roughly a dollar an hour, although even that seemed steep in some cases, with one barista writing "it averages like .20c an hour."