A "pay it forward" chain at a Florida McDonald's lasted for 250 drive-thru customers last week as each paid for the order of the person behind them.
McDonald's employee Marisabel Figueroa said she was working the Lakeland drive-thru on Wednesday when a woman told her she wanted to pay for the
meal of the customer behind her, Fox 13 reported.
"But I want you to tell her that I said, 'Have a Merry Christmas,' not 'Happy Holidays,'" Figueroa said the woman told her, and she followed through. "Then, that next lady paid the next order and it kept going and going."
The woman who started the chain, identified as
Torie Keene of Lakeland, told ABC News that she was "only trying to brighten someone's day" and never expected that her act of kindness would be continued for another 249 vehicles.
Figueroa said that the person in vehicle No. 251 appeared to be confused by the goodhearted gesture and left.
"She was speechless," the cashier told Bay News 9. "She said, 'What do I do?' And I said, 'You just have a Merry Christmas,' and she went off, and it stopped right there."
It is not the first time a Florida establishment built a long line of goodwill. In August 2014, the
Tampa Bay Times reported that 378 Starbucks customers paid it forward at one of its cafes.
"It makes your day better, I think," Lexie Kane told the Times back then of the pay it forward chain that started at 7 a.m. and lasted until 6 p.m. in the evening when customer No. 379 declined to accept someone else paying for her drink.
Social media responded positively to the McDonald's pay it forward gesture.
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