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Sometimes things happen at Starbucks that I just can’t imagine ever happening. Take today, for example. A guy walks into my local Starbucks. He is carrying a Domino’s pizza in a box. It is a personal-sized pizza and box with one piece on top. He also is carrying a tub of pennies, a Fanta, and some napkins. I didn’t pay too much attention to him until I realized he was still standing at the register.
At this point, I realized he was having a conversation with the barista about his pennies. He wanted to pay for his drink in pennies but wanted her to reach into his tub of coinage to pick out about five dollars of pennies. He was told this wasn’t something that could happen. When I glanced up again a few seconds later, he was diligently taking pennies out of his box and creating piles of pennies on the counter. Each of these was then counted a second time by a barista. This was for his first drink. If I heard properly, it was $4.65.
Then came the second drink. Where the first one was a refresher, the second was a frappuccino of some sort. More pennies were required for this. This became quite the process as he continued to count out piles of pennies over the course of the next fifteen or so minutes. As the process moved forward, he would confirm how much his drink was. After being told, he would reach back into the tub to pull out more pennies. If I heard correctly, his second total was $5.45.
After quite some time, he reached $5. However, he still needed to pull out forty-five more cents. He pulled more pennies out. As the baristas (help had been brought in by this point) carefully counted coins, he left all of his stuff on the counter. He would then walk around the store. This happened multiple times. Sometimes he would take some pizza with him and continue to work his way through his lunch. Throughout the process, both baristas were incredibly patient and kind.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity the barista asked for his name and put his coins in the register. While his order was being made, he paced back and forth. His tub, pizza, fanta, and napkins remained on the counter. Finally, his drinks were finished and he piled them all in his arms made his way out the door, and disappeared.
You never know what you are going to see while sitting at Starbucks. This one was a unique one. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen so many pennies used to pay for something in public… or anywhere really. It was a bit entertaining though!
On to the next adventure!
