7 thoughts on “Tipping Over

  1. I refuse to tip at fast casual restaurants where you order at the counter. I used to be scared that workers would do something to my food if I didn’t tip, but I don’t care any more. I also don’t agree with the apparent mantra now that you must, in all circumstances regardless of the quality of food or service, tip a certain amount.

    The tipping point (rim shot) for me was going to a drive through car wash and being presented with an option to tip. To be clear – there was no person providing a direct service to me, like hand towel drying or anything like that. It was just a drive through car wash, and the machine was asking for a tip. I’ve also seen it at convenience stores, when I fill up with gas and run in for a drink or snack. The tipping advocates have overplayed their hand, and, understandably, consumers are responding negatively.Report

  2. I tip at Starbucks and Tim Horton’s (when up north) and similar coffee shops because both of my grown daughters work in that environment (one as a barista and one in store/site management). I know what their work is like, and while each is well experienced and well compensated, they are not compensated enough to cover the mental and emotional drag such works places on someone.

    Where or how you order isn’t the issue – its how hard are the people working for you in that environment.Report

  3. For most small fast food purchases of lets say 10 dollars, the difference between a 10% tip and 20% is…a dollar.

    It just not something worth worrying about.Report

  4. (One of the strangest tips I ever got was when a woman placed a piece of exotic jerky into my pocket, but that’s another story.)

    Which I hope we’ll hear soon. Otherwise, some diseased imaginations, like mine, will fill in the blanks.Report

  5. If it’s a mom-and-pop type place (one of my favorite bbq joints very much is), even if I order at the counter, I throw the loose change from paying, and maybe a buck if it’s only pennies in change, into the tipjar. Corporate places where it’s basically self-serve (Panera Bread, I am looking at you, with your order kiosk and “buzzer to signal you to come pick up your food at the window”), nope.

    If someone is actually taking my order, bringing me food, and taking the plate away? Yeah, I tip, and almost always in cash because I know the server gets to keep it. (I don’t trust the chain restaurants to not skim some of the tips for the franchise owner.)

    I’ve seen tipjars in retail (not food) establishments, and that’s bizarre to me – if you’re the business owner (and in many small businesses here, it’s the owner waiting on you) and you can’t earn enough to stay in business without guilting your customers? RAISE YOUR PRICES.

    Frankly, tipping has really spread since the pandemic; the idea then was “throw a little more into the pockets of the hardworking folks out there risking their lives for you” and I get it. But at some point we have to pull back a little, I think. It’s offputting to be told “well, here’s the price but, wink wink, if you want to throw in another five or ten bucks, here’s a jar….”Report

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