They can't skip you though, because your ticket already got paid. They can't just move the payment, that looks like criminal activity. They could void the payment that happened and let you pay, but it breaks the chain.

as a non American if someone else bought my drink I'd just think... wow, cheers mate. and probably wouldn't think about doing it to the person behind me. isn't that the point though? if I'm obligated to pay for someone else, it's no different to just paying for myself

As an American who doesn't go to Starbucks (why does anyone? The coffee is shit.), I also think this is really dumb. If I ever get coffee, I usually just get plain black coffee, which is probably less than half the price of any of the other crap. Why should I pay for the overpriced junk someone else gets. I assume that's the point though, and it's designed by Starbucks to get people to not care about the price and get the most expensive things, because someone else is picking up their tab.

Theoretically he could just have been doing cash jobs for the last four decades. That's definitely still a thing in rural areas.

Well he did say “Abra kadabra” during a crescent moon on a leap year while holding two silver coins in one hand and a fig in the other, while facing exactly northwest while standing barefoot in an open field, six feet down in a hole because anything past 5’11” down isnt government property anymore, it’s technically the underworld, so…maybe he’s the first successful sovcit ever.