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This Freakonomics episode from 2013 is well worth spending 37 minutes on before commenting. Or tipping... http://freakonomics.com/podcast/should-tipping-be-banned-a-n...
slightly related: I've never been to the US but have been aware of the mandatory tipping situation for a fair while. I'm curious though; when I was first made aware of it (2 or 3 decades ago), I am sure that the 'standard' tip was supposed to be closer to 10% than 20%. Is this correct? Has the actual % amount changed?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I was in the US, I also had to mentally adjust for the incomplete, tax-less, pricing at places. At the airport, I thought I could buy one last thing from my last few coins and bills of change. Quite a bummer at the register when it turned out it was actually more expensive. In Europe, sometimes prices even list both the VAT included and excluded prices.
What's the point of even having a price sticker if what's charged is more than what it says? Are some people exempt from the sales tax added? Is it dynamic depdending on the total amount charged?
slightly related: I've never been to the US but have been aware of the mandatory tipping situation for a fair while. I'm curious though; when I was first made aware of it (2 or 3 decades ago), I am sure that the 'standard' tip was supposed to be closer to 10% than 20%. Is this correct? Has the actual % amount changed?
Two or three decades ago 15% was modal (and it might still be), but I hear the mean crept up to 18% sometime in the past five years.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I was in the US, I also had to mentally adjust for the incomplete, tax-less, pricing at places. At the airport, I thought I could buy one last thing from my last few coins and bills of change. Quite a bummer at the register when it turned out it was actually more expensive. In Europe, sometimes prices even list both the VAT included and excluded prices.
What's the point of even having a price sticker if what's charged is more than what it says? Are some people exempt from the sales tax added? Is it dynamic depdending on the total amount charged?
I don't see why they can't just keep prices the same and add a "mandatory 20% service charge" at the bottom.
Because then you're just adding a mandatory 20% tip, when a tip is supposed to reward good service. Of course, it really doesn't mean that any more (they're more or less expected/required) but I usually get pretty annoyed when I see a "Mandatory 18% gratuity for parties of 6 or more" thing at the bottom of a menu (even though I usually tip 18-20%). If you're going to require a 20% gratuity, increase all prices by 20%…
The case of Walmart would seem to go against your point; they're much closer to the tip-free model. "You see this price? That's what you pay." (With the caveat that some items are taxed.)
If anything, modern/Western retail stores closely parallel the transition that tipless restaraunts are making: there used to be an ad-hoc, inefficient, confusing, anti-introvert system for vending goods. It was called "haggling". It was replaced by a higher-volume, fixed price system that provided greater assurance that customers weren't getting ripped off or subsidizing those who were better at the dance.
Lots of parallels to how tipping works.
Edit: A closer parallel would be if Walmart replaced pretax prices and "you just have to know that some of these are taxed at whatever-the-current-local-rate is" with tax-inclusive prices.
Surprised it doesn't mention the somewhat unspoken agreement that at least some of tip wages go unreported by those that receive them, although, I guess that is possibly disappearing with the increase in credit card tipping perhaps?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That happens all the time at many restaurants for larger groups.
I know, I was a waiter for years. We had to get rid of that policy because we were losing business.
No tipping is tricky when it's not mandated, because prices always look and feel more expensive comparatively, even if it works out the same in the end. People are very impressionable to their initial sub-conscious impressions. Hence pricing like $9.99. It seems marketers have been aggressively going the other way over the last few years: do whatever it takes to minimize the sticker shock, then siphon as much as poss…
It reduces the effort of making the decision, and so makes it the easiest path.
All you can eat restaurants are probably the simplest counterexample for your list.
It can remove the decision between places from "Well X is a bit less than Y but then the service is better, what's 20% of that vs 15% of ... added..." to just "It costs $X".