The more we don't tip the more it becomes normalized. I've stopped tipping all counter service other than bartenders. At first I felt guilty but the more I did it the more it became normal to me.
What a mindfuck. At one point you/I/we are blindly making assumptions about what the human on the other side of the counter is thinking - or being egotistical enough to believe the employee's transaction with me (and the potential $1) was of any significance to them.
My guess is that the decision makers/consultants at that business are aware of these potential reactions - if they're any good at being greedy, they've dug far deeper. They just play the game of guilt to get the patron to subsidize employee wages.
Because if the tips aren't enough to make ends meet for the employee, it's the customer's fault.
Sometimes I disengage from my personal viewpoint and marvel at the complexity of it all. Using humanity against itself for personal profit without incurring a proportional amount of public disdain. Then I resume being disgusted.
We have sooooo much potential as a community. I would give literally anything (of myself - not of the ones I care about) for a star trek future. But I also like Dune, The Expanse, Foundation....
Final thought - I'm rewatching 2000's battlestar atm and it made me wonder:
If humanity has an AI war and we won - how could we ever prevent someone/some thing creating a new homegrown AI later? We almost have to merge at some level?
Anyways, sorry if you read this. Be well
Put a button for $1 and I'll hit it all day. And I know that ain't the person behind the register deciding, but if I get ice cream for my family and it costs 35 fucking dollars because that's how much fucking things cost these days, I'm not throwing you 15-25% in tip, let's be realistic. Put a $1, $2 option and I honestly think you'll have more luck.
Not to old man this shit, but I scooped ice cream at a restaurant/ice cream place for 5.25 back in 2004. You know how I earned tips? I played a game with customers, let me and the girl I'm working with guess questions about your life and we will give you a free size upgrade. People frequently played along, we had fun, fucked over the owners a bit (they sucked), it was really a win/win.
I was eventually fired.
You tip if you like the service. It is rude to not tip.
However, I'm not tipping someone I've never met. I only tip after they have provided some service to me
What's rude is quoting me a price for your goods and services and then expecting me to a higher price anyway.
Everyone should follow the tipping guidelines from the olden days of when I was a child (80's). I was taught that you tip your server, your barber/stylist, your driver (taxi/delivery) and the bell boy/valet. For the most part this still works today.
- 10% meh
- 15% good
- 20% exceptional
- Bell boy / valet $5 flat rate
Honestly? Just accept the social awkwardness of not tipping. Like I'm not tipping unless I'm a regular or you're really good
I've never felt awkward hitting the no tip button. I didn't even realize that people felt it was an obligation for the longest time. I would just hit the "no thanks" button and think nothing about it. I also never got the impression that the person working the register thought any less of me.
I tip delivery drivers and waiters. That's about it.
My issue is the automatic 15-20-25. I go to a deli, they make me four sandwiches, I want to throw you a couple bucks, not fucking 10.
Buying four sandwiches, you’re the one doing that business a favour.
I will only give the server a cash tip if its been great sevice, and if the food has been amazing a separate cash tip for the kitchen. Im not giving you a tip for just doing your job. Tips should be for being good at your job, not just doing your job. Thats what your employer is for.
I can give you a tip: sell the ipad and pay your clerks more
The way they sneaked up on us was: during the pandemic, I started tipping a dollar or two for take-out because "we're all in this together" and "these are extraordinary times." Then those Clover bastards came through and turned that dollar or two into a baseline 15%.
I've seen some that have prefilled tip amounts at 40%? Are you fuckin kidding me? Do you want me to punch you in the face?
The crazy thing is, the person who made that decision isn't there for you to be mad at them. It's a perfect example of turning us against one another.
My new rule is if I'm swiping the card, I'm not tipping. It's arbitrary, and I'm sure that wait staff could use the cash, but it's gotten unsustainable.
Solution: ipad starts to swivel, do a 360 and walk away
You plan to walk into the counter? Daring strat, but I can see it freaking out the cashier enough to cancel the tip himself if you also maintain eye contact while walking, like an Oblivion NPC
Is there an advantage to doing a 360 spin before walking away? It seems easier to rotate 180 degrees before walking away. Less rotations that way and it’s more efficient
It's an old meme, sir, but it checks out.
No tip. Could be worse, I could just stop coming here.
Can someone more tech-savvy than me make a smartphone app for customers to request tips from servers? i.e., the customer inputs their own bill total and the app presents a 10%, 20%, custom, and no tip option and asks for the server’s payment details and then would forward money from the server’s bank account/credit card/PayPal to the customer’s bank account/credit card/PayPal. If enough customers swarm tip-screen stores with this as a response, the stores may find their tip-screens no longer worth the time to deal with.
We fight obnoxious tipping culture by showing it a mirror.
This punishes the lowest economic level of this power structure for simply trying to earn a living.
It's the owners of restaurants (barely), the suppliers (kinda), the landlords (mhmm...), the banks (now we're getting somewhere).
It's not the servers or cashier's that need to be doing something different. It's literally everyone but them.
I don't see how the landlord, back, or supplier have anything to do with the PoS system the business used. That's all on the restaurant owner. Now, the maker of the PoS system for having things like that as a default? Hell yea, fuck them.
The servers and cashiers obviously won’t pay the customers (and surely not out of their own personal funds). The idea is to make the system less efficient for the storerunners such that they have to change how they operate. More time wasted per customer = lower rate of sales and less work done per employee. Customers en masse turning their frustration with tip screens into an issue for a business should lead to the business doing away with the tip screens. Hell, maybe it would even be a catalyst to paying the workers a stable non-tipped wage.
You expect bosses to care if their employees have to put up with shit from customers for decisions the employees didn't make?
While the servers are the ones getting most of the tips, they have no control over this. Its entirely the point of sale processor (clover, square, etc.) who push it. They get a ~3% cut of the total transaction; if you tip then it's a bigger transaction and their cut is a little bigger too.
This plan makes servers lives worse but doesn't incentivise the people actually in charge to change anything.
Well sometimes there are tip pools. The server gets a large percent but the host and the other support staff get a little as well.
for those places that don’t even have servers and ask for a tip I’d definitely do this.
