I was ordering a pizza online for pickup. When it prompted for a tip at checkout I canceled the order. This is the worst case scenario in my book.
I just hit 0.
When someone said something to me, I stopped picking up pizza from there….
I’ll tip and quite well (usually 25-30%) for full service stuff. But for buffet style/sandwich lines and takeout. No thanks
Same here… If I’m being served I will tip well. However if I call in my order, go pick up my order, and the “server” who took my order doesn’t even collect my money, then what my tips are really going towards is making up for the fact that the restaurant isn’t actually paying their staff a livable wage. During the COVID shutdowns, sure I was willing to help keep their doors open. Everyone is back to full business now, so what exactly are you asking me to pay for?
Yeah same mindset.
Also those other schemes like round up or add $2 to “donate to help first responders” or “save the puppies” I opt out of too. Because when I looked into it I found a company only needed to actually donate like 10% of that total donation to remain in the clear from a tax standpoint and the rest can be used to “administer the program”.
So no, never do those either.
Wow, a whole 10% you say? How can these companies afford to operate on only a 90% commission? /s
I hate the tip before service prompts so much! If I am gonna tip, it’s coming down to service. If you ask me before to tip you based on the price alone, I’m out.
Tipped wages are disgusting.
Every business should pay their employees stable wages.
I have no problem with putting some extra cash down for the waiter that looks no older than me and is working at the roadhouse down the village back road for minimum wage.
If a fuckin Pret a Manger opened up in center Philly and defaults to 30% tips, wtf man, wtf.
@Dankenstein @RotaryKeyboard as an European, US tips things is just ridiculous. Seriouly can’t understand that shit. Why don’t you pay your ppl for the work they do?
With so many things in this country, the origins are racism. While tipping originated in Europe, it became popular in the States post-slavery as a way to not have to actually pay black people. Haven’t shaken it yet.
And annoyingly, the ones who often push the hardest to keep tipping culture are the servers themselves as they can take home a lot of money on a busy weekend evening. Hopefully, we’re getting closer to getting rid of it though.
For the longest time tipping was very stable and nobody said much but with the covid-inspired tipping greed hopefully you’re right. If enough people get pissed off maybe something will happen for tipping to be eliminated. I personally haven’t sat down in a restaurant since the end of 2019, haven’t done a food delivery since 2021, and that won’t change until tipping is gone.
If you can’t afford to pay your employees a decent wage, you should raise your prices or you shouldn’t be in business.
There are a few places here in Seattle which have eliminated tipping, raised prices, and raised wages. I greatly prefer this, personally speaking. Add no, I’m not going to start tipping every random cashier just because they start prompting me to.
The problem is - restaurants in most parts of the states cannot reliably do that. They’re going to see a higher price and they’re probably walking out soon after. Or worse - they stay and leave a shit review because they set their expectations at a higher bar of food quality than was provided.
If we could unilaterally remove exemptions for tipped wages, I’d see the possibility of it becoming much more common.
Most restaurants in America as they exist now should not exist. We’re essentially all subsidizing low quality, frozen food.
So these people are willing to tip for naff food but not pay more to begin with?
I made an online order for a restaurant a while ago, and there was a tip option with a message that said “100% of tips go toward supporting the restaurant.” First of all that’s a super vague statement, and secondly, that’s not what tips are for. Tips are for supporting the specific people who serve me, not for supporting the restaurant as a whole. Why would I want to leave a tip when I don’t even know where the money is going.
Obviously I can’t be sure without knowing exactly which restaurant it is, but it is probably a message in response to how the delivery apps were capturing customer tips and delivery fees for themselves and sharing nothing with the restaurant. There was a period of time where restaurants were getting added to delivery apps without the restaurant’s consent. They’re probably trying to make you feel like you’re supporting them by paying the tips and fees directly to them.
I ordered food from a place with zero human interaction. I ordered from a tablet and picked up my food from the counter after receiving a text. I was still asked to tip. At that point, I didn’t even know what I was supposed to be tipping for.
I used to not tip for takeout (since I had thought there was not really “service”), but I’ve since learned that the packaging for take away can be rather involved. So, I do tip now for the labor of readying the meals to go
How do you know if your tip went to the person who did that labor though?
That makes sense, I just wish they included those costs in the price rather than making me guess how much I should pay, especially when it’s less clear who the receiver of the tips will be.
@wholemilk @Harold exactly! The tips should be the exception not the norm. I tip when the service, the quality or the experience was so good to me that I want reward the ppl o made it possible as complimentarily. An incentive to them keep doing an exceptional job. No job should be dependent of charity. That is subverting how a business should be run. Can’t accept it as a rule.
The problem I have with that is you have to tip before you even eat the food. They could have screwed up your order, burnt your food, etc., but you won’t know until after you’ve already tipped them.
I would not object to a law banning establishments from requesting tips before service has been provided.
They shouldn’t request tips at all. Tips are only shops be provided if a customer feels like the service was above and beyond normal.
Sure, but that’s a societal and cultural change. I’m talking about a legal change.
There is a legal solution too. It’s called: regulate the minimum wages.
FYI: Denmark doesn’t have minimum wage.
Guess what’s the difference between minimum salary of McDonalds worker in Denmark vs USA.
Keyword: labor union.
I’m sure the invisible hand of the free market will sort it out and arrive at an optimal solution soon.
That’s not true in the US. They have a tipped minimum wage; there, if you’re not tipping you’re stealing someone’s labour.
It is a sucky system, as the buried lede in that article shows:
However, data from the very checkout system that prompted tipping revealed disparities in pay. Neitzel noticed that Black employees were earning less tips than their White counterparts.
But, until it is burned to the ground, that is the system and (in the US) you should not use it to exploit people.
Technically the employer is stealing their labour, the customer is paying the advertised price in a perfectly legal exchange.
If the staff don’t like this, they need to unionise and fight the employer to pay a proper living wage.
Some areas in the US have tipped minimum wage. Some areas have an actual minimum wage that is paid regardless of tips. Don’t accuse others of exploiting people when it is truly the employer backed up by the local state law. Blame your state and do something about it.
I hate the tipping culture, and wish it would go away. But I’ll still do it for sit down service as that’s part of the deal. The ones that really get me are for pickup as well as the fastish food services where you go to the counter to order, prepay, you pick it up from the counter and bus your own tables. What exactly am I tipping for?
And why do taxis need tips? Or hairdressers?
Over covid we would tip fairly frequently for takeout. We still on occasion tip to local places, but most of the time we don’t. I’m literally picking up the food, no service is being provided.
I usually tip maybe 5-10% for takeout. Primarily because it’s my way of making sure my money goes to local folks who need it and it will help the local economy and it might take time away from serving tipping dine-in patrons. When COVID was hitting businesses hard, we upped our tipping substantially. But I think it’s time to go back to normal.
Yeah, I actually stop going out for any restaurant or outing ever since the tip inflation went out of control. I just rather spend the money on a cooking class and cook things myself. I really encourage everyone else to do the same, you save a lot of money, and you can add whatever creativity you want to the meal.
Same here. For me it was the realization that what I thought was appropriate tipping – 15% – was actually an insult to servers. Thanks to the internet, I saw how servers retaliate against what they think is a bad tipper. I realized that proper tipping is subjective, and there was no way to be sure I wouldn’t be punished for something I did wrong unknowingly. So rather than risk it, I just decided to learn how to live without eating out.
When I was a kid 10% was the standard. I don’t know of any other profession whose pay has doubled in real terms during my lifetime. As far as I’m concerned, if 15% isn’t enough, too damn bad.
Yeah, 15% was considered good in the '90s, but it’s been upped to 20% for a couple decades now.
The alternative is 0%, because i just won’t eat out anymore
It’s bonkers how much money you can save making food yourself by just planning meals based on what’s on sale this week. People don’t believe me, but chicken thighs/legs go on sale here every 3/4 weeks for 99 cents a pound. Week’s worth of meat for the equivalent price of a McD’s meal.
I don’t really eat meat. The thing that gets me are the vegetables. If I want anything fresh, it costs so much more than canned or frozen. Frozen/canned veggies are fine for some meals, but for others they can really taste a bit off. We just moved and I’m hoping there are some good farmer’s markets around where I live now with decent prices (the place I moved from were worse than the grocery store).
If you can, I highly recommends saving up for farm bot, while you might not be able to grow every food yourself, but you can grow quite a lot and those would be extremely fresh.
Goddamn that’s cool! I only wish it had a flamethrower attachment to ward off the squirrels that keep raiding my garden…
Lol, you could use electrified wire to shock the squirrel away (not to kill the little rodent, but enough that it’s deterred from raiding your plant.)
Exactly and I also love spicy black beans and beef, it’s delicious and cheap. Cost like $0.75/meal and you can cook them in a large batch that feed you for a week. People are basically addicted to consumerism and it really shows when they don’t know how to cook.
Yeah I have no idea who the tip even goes to sometimes.
And really in those cases, I assume straight to the business/owner. And then it’s like why am I volunteering to buy this at an additional markup?
Tips go to employees and it’s even illegal for managers to get tips. You know exactly who it’s going to, you’re just playing games rather than accepting you don’t like to tip
No? 1) I’m perfectly happy to say I don’t like tipping in general, too. I do it because that’s how we’ve apparently agreed service workers make any money at all. 2) I didn’t explicitly say I’m in the US, altho I did imagine our tipping culture to be a bit unique, so to be clear - I also don’t have much faith in labor laws getting consistently enforced here. 3) Who is getting tipped from self-service machine screens?
You can also take the smug armchair psych somewhere else, guy.
my favorite thing is places that have a 20% gratuity automatically added to every bill to compensate employees fairly (i am begrudgingly accepting of this even though it should really just be on the menu price) but then have an extra line for tip on top of that. and sometimes that extra tip line calculates a tip for you based off of the already added 20% gratuity. insane.
I love that vast majority of Europeans don’t tip. At least the ones thinking rationally.
Lately I’ve been at some finer diners in my country, and the payment terminals now have an option if you want to tip.
I’ve made it a rule never to tip. Even if the service was magnificent.Out of all the things I don’t want my country adopting from the US, the tipping must be somewhere in the top.
I’ve been in the UK for the past week (first time). No tips, not even an option to tip.
Tip if your enjoyed the service. That’s about it. Not to subsidise shitty employment laws.
Here in the Netherlands, we only tip for fancy restaurants, if the service was good.
can only speak to Germany, but it definitely is pretty common to tip here. Just less across-the-board and less money than in the US, usually 1 or a couple of Euros.
I’m glad to have moved from a country where taxes and (high) expected tips are on top of the price, to a country where tax is included in the price and tips are usually not expected. It makes a surprising difference in affordability when you can actually buy a €5 item with €5.
As soon as companies started asking for tips at self check-out, it became obvious that it’s just a way of trying to underpay their staff and shift that responsibility on the customer.
I was browsing a retail website and when they automatically added a +10% tip on the advertised price I noped out immediately.
How do Americans budget when you don’t actually know how much things are going to cost you? I’d be lost without my spreadsheets
We generally estimate for the same percentage tip every time, and we keep careful track and then we have an accident and go bankrupt from the medical bills anyway.
I’d be willing to bet that the vast majority of Americans don’t budget at all. I don’t. I should, but I’d probably walk into traffic if I had to look at the numbers.
I work inside at a popular pizza chain. While tips for pickup aren’t required, they are appreciated. But it’s wild to think that $16/hr isn’t cutting it and rather than pay us more than the minimum, they give us an option to shake a tin cup to our customers. Fucked up.
Bad idea. If you get enough tips they can start paying you as if you’re a tipped wage employee, shooting your pay down to like 2.13 an hour + tips federally in the US. States have different allowances that can be higher than that, but most don’t. You only need to be making 30 dollars a month in tips for your employer to legally start paying you as a tipped wage employee.
src: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/minimum-wage/tipped
That’s protected from happening in my state of Washington, thankfully.
I’ve never heard of this happening to insiders in other states, though, because other places already pay minimum wage for kitchen staff. If one place decided to pull tipped wage trickery they’d have a massive exodus to a competitor. Delivery drivers on the other hand rely mostly on tips and management figures that they can take the abuse and tipped wage if they’re making more than most inside staff anyway.
