-By Warner Todd Huston
So, a Starbucks in St. Petersburg, Florida went on a 10-hour roll with every customer buying the order of the customer behind them in the location’s drive through. But it all came to a screeching halt when customer number 458 refused to play along.
Peter Schorsch, the dreaded customer 458, drove up into the line and delivered his order like every other customer. But when he got to the pay window and the Starbucks employee asked if he wanted to “pay it forward” and pay for the guy behind him, Schorsch broke from all the other customers and flat out said “no.”
That’s right, Schorsch said, no way, baby!
Up until mean ol’ Peter Schorsch got in line the streak went ten hours and 457 customers paid for the guy behind them.
Schorsch said that he broke the streak on purpose, not by happenstance.
“I’m really not trying to be a Grinch,” Schorsch said to the local media. “I know things are hard for baristas and I am willing to help people.”
In fact, when he paid for his own drinks, he tipped the barista 100 bucks.
But he had a reason for refusing to “pay it forward.”
“I just don’t want to be forced into doing something,” he continued. “This is turning into a social phenomenon and I had to put an end to it.”
“Although I can’t prove it, I think this has become an organic marketing ploy for Starbucks,” Schorsch said. “I love Starbucks. I have nothing against them. But this takes away the genuineness.”
Schorsch said some patrons are driving to this particular store after they heard about the pay it forward streak.
“This is turning into something ridiculous and cheesy,” Schorsch said.
“It just seems like a ‘First World’ problem to me. Middle-class people sitting in their cars at a drive-thru, sipping a $5 drink and worrying about someone breaking the ranks,” Schorsch said.
“There is a little humor being a contrarian, but I think if you really want to help, find someone that obviously needs help, like the homeless,” Schorsch said.
“Also, I got a $6 Venti Frappuccino. Someone might just get a $2 coffee,” Schorsch said. “This is unfair to that person who paid for me.”
It is all quite logical thinking. And if Schorsch had just happened to go to that particular Starbucks and had just happened to get in that line at that particular time… I would agree with him.
But the truth is, he went out of his way to break this streak and made an attempt to make himself the story, here.
You see, the only reason he went to this Starbucks was because he heard about it on the radio and so he went out of his way to go there and become part of the story.
In fact, he wasn’t being “forced” to do anything because he would otherwise not have been at that Starbucks at all.
So, while I agree with all of his points, his “I’m being forced” line is so much hokum used as a smoke screen for his fame seeking.
In the end, Peter Schorsch is just as guilty of insincerity as those he criticized.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, Wizbang.com, among many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.
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