Woman Says Drive-Thru Worker Was 'Disgusted' When She Didn't Pay For Another Customer's Order
Some people think "paying it forward" is an act of kindness, others just think it's an unnecessary hassle.
@samantha.says / TikTok A woman on TikTok named Samantha posted a video online talking about a strange encounter she had as she was buying her own meal in a McDonald’s drive-thru.
Like most people, she was minding her business — she took her order and went up to the pay window to pay for her meal. The woman standing at the register, however, asked her a question that she thought was strange.
The drive-thru worker asked her if she wanted to 'pay it forward' to the police officer behind her.
“Guys I just had the weirdest encounter in the McDonald’s drive-thru,” Samantha said in the 37-second clip she posted July 7th, 2023. “So I pull up to pay, and then, as the lady is still holding my card, she goes ‘just letting you know that there’s a cop behind you.’”
Confused as to why that might’ve been any concern to her, Samantha simply said, “Oh, okay?” before the drive-thru worker continued their encounter by asking “Do you want to pay it forward?”
Likely causing even more confusion, Samantha wondered why the police officer’s meal was any of her concern. She came to McDonald’s to buy herself some food, not the police officer. “She goes ‘their total is $17.42, do you wanna pay it forward?’” Samantha continued telling the story.
“Paying it forward” is a phenomenon that occurs at drive-thru windows all the time at any store, where customers will pay for the order of the person behind them. It could be McDonald’s, Dunkin, Starbucks, a Chick-Fil-A — really anywhere.
The general idea is that, out of some random act of kindness, you’ll pay for that person’s order and everyone will have a good day knowing that they participated in a kind deed. The person paying did something nice for someone else, the worker gets to tell someone the good news that their order is free, and the person receiving their free order is happy with the outcome.
However, many workers have come out against the “pay it forward” trend and called it a hassle to deal with. Sometimes it becomes a lot to handle and introduces too many factors that may mess up someone’s order. Not only that, but the people paying it forward may end up spending way more than they bargained for as it’s impossible to predict what the person behind you is ordering.
The McDonald’s worker was ‘disgusted’ that the woman didn’t pay it forward for the police officer.
“I was like ‘no, no,’” she explained, expressing with her face that she was completely uninterested in paying for the police officer’s meal. As she posted in the caption, “My total was $2.19 like brooo.” But the worker didn’t seem to take too kindly to her reaction.
“She goes ‘oh,’ and she looked really disgusted, and she’s like ‘[it’s just that] a lot of people do that around here for cops,’” Samantha explained, adding that she responded by saying, “Honey, in this car, the blood type is ACAB+.” The worker looked even more disgusted.
Apparently, the worker wasn’t lying and many people in the comments revealed that police officers “never” had to pay for their meals.
In a second video, Samantha said the same thing, adding that McDonald’s themselves actually “comped” a lot of their meals. “So why was boot-licking Becky so concerned that I didn’t want to pay?” she asked, mocking the worker at the drive-thru.
If McDonald’s would end up comping the meal anyway, why was Samantha being asked to take care of the bill? It’s a good thing she stood up for herself — no one should have to pay nearly nine times their bill just to make someone else happy.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor for YourTango who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics.