Thanks for this. I haven't heard of a pay-it-forward chain though??? I have occasionally paid for the person behind me when in a drive-through, but never heard of a chain and never expected anyone else to do the same just because I did.

I'm sad to hear that my randomly wanting to pay for someone behind me can cause trouble for people figuring out who gets what. It's always lit me up to be able to do this - especially when I can get away quickly before they have a chance to wave 'thanks'. I adore surprises and just enjoy giving that delight to someone else but hate to think it's messing up orders.

You raise some good points though, about tipping the staff plus you gave a great list of alternative acts of kindness.

Thank you for an interesting article.