Current Events > Customer ends pay-it-forward line at Bojangles after finding out person behind

(+) Yeah! (+)

him ordered $45 worth of food.

https://www.tiktok.com/@chefboyardarius/video/7179590069936917806?is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=7179590069936917806

A Bojangles customer revealed that he ended a pay-it-forward chain at the chains drive-thru when the total for the car behind him was $45three times the total he was expecting to pay for his own order. The customers decision, which he shared on TikTok, has sparked discussion about the pay-it-forward practice.

Posted by user Darius (@chefboyardarius), the storytime video has been viewed over 1 million times, with nearly 3,000 comments from folks debating the situation.

On his way home from work around 8am, Darius explains that he stopped by Bojangles for three sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits.

As Im pulling in, this lady in this big black Buick about runs me over trying to get in front of me in line, and Im like, dang big hungry, the food aint going nowhere, calm down, he recalls.

However, when he gets to the window to pay, the employee tells Darius the customer in front him paid for his order.

I was like, well thank you, the fact that she paid $15 for somebody else, thats wild. Because I didnt want to pay it for myself, but you know I appreciate it. So the lady was like, do you want to pay for the next cars food?'

Darius was shocked. I was looking at her like, what you mean, how you going to ask me something like that? he says.

Hearing that the total for the car behind him was actually $45, he declined to continue the pay-it-forward line.

Whos spending $45 at Bojangles? he concludes the video. I dont mean to sound broke, but Im not doing that.

The Daily Dot has reached out to @chefboyardarius via Instagram direct message for a comment regarding the video.

In the comments section, many viewers agreed with Darius, claiming that they will always be the ones to end a pay-it-forward line.

The pay it forward line ends with me, one user wrote.

the pay it forward will ALWAYS stop with me, another commenter stated.

Me: All trains have a caboose, guess im the last car, a third shared.

Others offered their own pay-it-forward experiences, pointing to the vast range of payments in the pay-it-forward practice.

i offered to buy the car behind me, the cashier said baby take your free ice cream and go on their order is fifty dollars,' say less, one commenter wrote.

At Starbucks someone paid for my $4 drink and the next person was $19 and I just stared at her and said..,no thank you,' another added. she said I dont blame ya.

I was a whataburger i ordered a $11 meal, a third explained. It was paid. the people behind me had a $67 i broke a 20 car chain.

SomeGuyUO posted...

folks

this word is back in vogue?

Fair, I guess.

I don't blame him.

Tbh thats when Id ask to pay for the car behind them instead lol

There is no such thing as a free meal...except when I end the pay it forward line

the person ahead of you wanted to help you, not make you still have to pay for something possibly more expensive lol

i'd offer to pay my expected total towards the next car. i don't like handouts anyway. but if they can't/won't then i'm probably just leaving. there's being nice, and there's trying to be nice so badly that you end up being stupid.

I never even heard of this really being a thing like that.

I don't blame him either. I'm not paying a vastly larger amount than I expected just because someone was kind to me first.

I'd say sure if it was a similar price to what I was expecting to pay, though.

voldothegr8 posted...

There is no such thing as a free meal...except when I end the pay it forward line

Probably helping the employee too. From most accounts I've read they mostly hate having to deal with pay it forward lines.

"Pay it forward" is stupid.

If someone appears to have an unexpected financial problem, or if you hit it off with someone in line and just want to do a nice favor for a friendly acquaintance, sure, pay a stranger's tab.

But "hey, let me pay for some rando" is dumb >_>

This is the perfect onion article

EmbraceOfDeath posted...

Probably helping the employee too. From most accounts I've read they mostly hate having to deal with pay it forward lines.

If I was a worker and someone tried to do that I'd 100% immediately pivot to thinking they were trying to commit some kind of fraud.

These pay it forward things are dumb, only the last person actually gets a free meal

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


That's a good idea. I've never actually encountered one of these things in person, but I'll do this if I ever do.

Yeah, this is dumb. Even if this ran infinitely, how does it help anyone?

Normally when people say Pay it forward it doesn't mean right then and there. I mean that deletes the help that you got.

FAQ-Checker posted...

Yeah, this is dumb. Even if this ran infinitely, how does it help anyone?

makes some people feel good

not saying its logical, but thats what it does

VampireCoyote posted...

makes some people feel good

not saying its logical, but thats what it does

True

I think pay it forward stuff is kind of cringe. But this dude sounds like a poor

Is this stupid thing making a come back?

How could anyone be shocked at his decision lol

Like im all for generosity, but this is such stupid forced fake generosity social media cringe i can not get behind.

If a person is in line already, they already plan to spend what they want it on.

Dunno what Bojangles is, but I'm gonna repeat what everyone else said. The initial generosity is nice, but pay it forward makes no sense at all.

Tiktok making news articles is whack

The concept of the phrase pay it forward is about doing a good turn to someone for a good turn done to you, not an obligation to pay for someone else's lunch

I would magine anyone doing it just wanted to be nice or were inspired by this chain; I don't hold it against anyone for not being able to go along with it. You're nice if you do, and super nice if you pay extra but going out to buy a cheeseburger shouldn't require someone to take part in all that. No shame in just being like "thanks" and not doing it also. Perhaps you can pay it forward the way that phrase meant, by helping an old lady across the street or something if you want to spread good vibes. It doesn't have to just be with fast food.

It wouldn't have even been news if the fuckwit hadn't gone on Tiktok to blab about it.

Just shut up and continue with your day. The rest of the world doesn't need to know or debate over whether you should've continued the stupid chain or not.

--Zero- posted...

Tiktok making news articles is whack

Articles based on reddit posts are worse

FAQ-Checker posted...

Yeah, this is dumb. Even if this ran infinitely, how does it help anyone?

I'm not sure why it turned into things like "pay it forward chains" but that isn't the main point.

The general idea is that you show someone a random act of kindness. It will brighten their day and maybe make them want to show someone else the same random kindness that you showed them. Hence pay it forward.

It doesn't have to literally be paying for someone else's food. It can be something as small as letting someone get in front of you in traffic (instead of speeding up to block them), or telling someone that you appreciate everything that they do. It's putting kindness out into the world and hoping that it spreads from there.

What the fuck is a pay it forward line?

I've had this happen twice in my life and both times I ended it. Fuck outta here with that bullshit chain. Pay for ur own shit and move on. If there's a homeless dude around i don't mind paying for them but fuck average customers.

Wtf is this nonsense. A pay-it-forward line sounds so dumb. Who started this shit

Never seen one of these irl before. I'd be willing to pay what I was going to pay for my meal, but not three times what I was going to pay.

America will never have free healthcare because we americans are selfish tbh

There's always that one asshole......

I'd apply my total to the next but no more

I get the gesture but there's better money spent elsewhere and overall it's just one meal that's actually 'paid' for another person. Kinda useless really

If you spend 15, credit the next guy 15.

Happened to me once at a Krispy Kreme. I had an iced coffee and a dozen donuts and it was like $15. I was surprised and appreciated it. However there was nobody behind me so it ended there... I guess I would have paid for someone behind me as long as it wasn't exorbitant. It kinda made my day and I would have liked to maybe make someone else's day too. But oh well...

KainWind posted...

Dunno what Bojangles is, but I'm gonna repeat what everyone else said. The initial generosity is nice, but pay it forward makes no sense at all.

Bojangles is a Chicken Place in the South. Named after a Black Tap Dancer .

BurmesePenguin posted...

What the fuck is a pay it forward line?

In a drive thru line, you pay for the person behind you.

cjsdowg posted...

Bojangles is a Chicken Place in the South. Named after a Black Tap Dancer .

I knew a man Bojangles and he danced for you

cjsdowg posted...

In a drive thru line, you pay for the person behind you.

Why?

That's the most obnoxiously American concept I've ever heard of.

Does the 'forward paying' have to be the other persons whole order?

who gives a fuck? I worked a drive-thru for years and never saw a "pay it forward" line go more than like, 2 cars. usually the first one just resulted in a "oh wow, that was nice of them!" from the next car.

I suppose if I was paying cash I might still put the 15 I expected to pay to the next car's total? but i'm not gonna throw a split payment between two cars at the cashier if i'm putting it on plastic.

Fuck that I'm not paying it forward. Otherwise, the person in front of me wasn't exactly paying it forward, you know?

I ran into this once or twice as a passenger a couple years ago. My wife told me about it and that it was trending. It happened at Starbucks. Something in my mind tells me one of the times it was organized/planned, or maybe it seemed that way because it was trending and she was telling me about it and then it happened. She paid for the car behind us and it was around the same price as our order.

I remember trying to understand the concept of it and asked, "but what if the car behind you is way more expensive? You just have to pay for it?". Which you don't.

And thinking about it more now, how does it turn into a chain of pay it forward anyway? It doesn't make sense. In my mind:

1) The cashier would tell the next car, hey they paid for you. The end. No chain.

2) The car pays for the next car and tells the cashier to keep it going and cashier obliges

3) The cashier says hey they paid for you and starts the chain themselves by asking if this car wants to continue it

4) The first paid for car for whatever reason chooses to say hey I'll pay for the next car too

Hmm...2-4 sound stupid to me

SomeGuyUO posted...

sparked discussion about the pay-it-forward practice

what discussion is there to have other than that its the stupidest shit ive heard this year?