Many of my Buzzy’s Country Store friends will come into the Store, grab a beer, and ask everyone there “Who else needs a beer?” And then they will buy a round for everyone present. Sometimes they’ll even say “Also, take out one for so and so. I just saw him up the road and he’s on his way down here too.”
Nice gesture. I call it the Buzzy version of “pay it forward.” Of course Buzzy helped to incentivize folks to do so by “ringing the bell.” It was his way of recognizing the person who bought the round as well as letting everyone there know that they had a beer coming.
Re: paying it forward, check out this article here on the fast food drive-thru phenomena (click here) where someone will pay for the person behind them. (Maybe it should be called “pay it behind.”) There is even a report from Canada that 228 folks consecutively paid for the folks behind them. That’s a little hard to believe.
Re: buying a round, here’s an article on how and what to do when the urge strikes you to buy for the house (click here.) (However, as good as the article may be on the subject of round buying, note that there is no mention made of buying a round for someone who hasn’t even yet arrived at the establishment.)