steve kwan user experience designer

Strange...

(April 20th, 2004)

A while ago, I witnessed something odd that I thought I should mention here.

I was at Starbucks by the counter, and a homeless man wandered in. I recognized him; he was one of the regulars and I see him around all the time. He went up to the front and made a move for the tip jar. Now, the Starbucks tip jars are frequently raided, and so as soon as I saw him move for it, I got a little mad. But then, instead of taking money out of the tip jar, he put money into it.

Odd, isn't it? Now, I think the local homeless get along well with the baristas at this branch. I suspect that this was the man's way of thanking the baristas for the free whipped cream they give out (the homeless people always ask for it). But even so, I find it strange that a man who lives on the street and owns almost nothing is tipping the baristas, when many of the bank executives next door and software engineers down the street likely don't tip at all. Kind of puts an interesting perspective on society and the homeless.