I’m bothered by the need to carry cash just for tips, kind of like how quarters function solely as special magic tokens for parking meters. Starbucks, for instance, does not have tipping activated on their electronic check out… Who knows why? I tip with every coffee I get, except when I’m unable to because of payment technology.
Casualties of the Cashless Society: Those Who Get Seasonal Tips
161–170 of 209 posts
Re: Casualties of the Cashless Society: Those Who Get Seasonal Tips
#162Maybe we should not have tips? There is no actual need or advantage to giving people tips, and there are plenty of countries where tipping is not common (including some where cash is still favored over electronic payments). Why not just pay people a fair wage that they can live on?
>There is no actual need or advantage to giving people tips.
Sure there is. In tipped professions, tips go directly to the waitstaff the day they are earned. It's what makes being a waiter a fantastic starter job when you move to a new city, say, or get kicked out of your home by an abusive spouse, or just need to make money without waiting 2-3 weeks for your first paycheck. It also reduces the opportunity for your employer to cheat you out of wages earned: you settle your tips at the end of the night, in full view of everyone, instead of receiving a deposit or paycheck that may take weeks to "correct."
Re: Casualties of the Cashless Society: Those Who Get Seasonal Tips
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anecdotally, New Yorkers (of all varieties) carry some cash most of the time. There are just too many places that do not accept cards in NYC for people to go cashless. My friends in Denver and LA almost never seem to have cash, and are always surprised that it is a problem when they visit NYC.
New Yorker here, I can't really think of any place that doesn't take cards. Some bodegas have minimums, e.g. $5 or $10, but even those are rare and I typically pay for everything by card and carry no cash.
Off the top of my head I can think of: JG Melon (1 Michelin Star), Grimaldis, Tile Bar, McSorleys, Alta, Lil Frankies, Peter Luger (1 Michelin Star), Artichoke Basilles.
Plus at least 2 more restaurants in my neighborhood that I like and are somewhat popular with tourists. And my barber. Really, it just comes down to the fact that I never know if I'll end up somewhere that doesn't take cards, so I prefer to have it. The bodegas where I work are also serious sticklers for the $10 credit card minimums.
Re: Casualties of the Cashless Society: Those Who Get Seasonal Tips
#164Maybe we should have an app that allows us to give tips easily? I am still dreaming of a true mobile wallet, maybe Apple Pay
Re: Casualties of the Cashless Society: Those Who Get Seasonal Tips
#165Re: Casualties of the Cashless Society: Those Who Get Seasonal Tips
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the US, employees must still be paid minimum wage. Depending on the state, an employer may count tips toward this amount. If an employee reports $0 in tips, the employer must pay them $7.25/hr. While I would like to believe that what you say is true, I find it hard to be true. I think the bigger issues are at play whether it's is the fact that minimum wages need to be adjusted, a more modern solution is needed to…
There's zero reason to have elevator operator in Manhattan Co-op.
I thought the exact same thing...or rather, why have one anywhere at all?
Re: Casualties of the Cashless Society: Those Who Get Seasonal Tips
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your comment reminds me of http://blog.samaltman.com/e-pur-si-muove and http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html . In your books, either I agree with you, or I am an evil person. But if I take my clothing to a drycleaner, and my clothing comes back torn due to their incompetence, I'm not expected to pay for the drycleaning. Ditto if the valet damages my car. The fact that someone put time in does not entitle them to my mon…
The difference, of course, being businesses account for mistakes in their profit margins as a cost of doing business and purchase insurance for large losses. A server is an employee. And to that: a server is very rarely personally responsible for a bad experience. Restaurant service is a team effort and the service you get merely reflects how well management functions.
A small business usually does not have insurance for this, and the cost of making it right comes out of the owner's pocket.
Also while I can't speak to why other people don't tip, the reasons why I (very occasionally) don't are usually under the server's control. Even if the immediate cause of my unhappiness was not under their control, they had the option of acknowledging the problem and offering an apology. It takes a lot to lose my tip.
Re: Casualties of the Cashless Society: Those Who Get Seasonal Tips
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's on the business. I used to be a cashier, and during power outages, we had an old carbon copier that we could use to copy credit cards and note the amount, and then enter it in manually later. You lose the instant approve/deny, but we'd also copy ids.
How did you copy licenses if the power was out?
You're probably too young to remember, but back in the bad old days, we'd write stuff by hand. It didn't feel laborious because it was all we knew. We'd copy name, address, license number and expiration date, and eyeball that the person in front of us looked close enough to the picture.
Re: Casualties of the Cashless Society: Those Who Get Seasonal Tips
#169Maybe we should not have tips? There is no actual need or advantage to giving people tips, and there are plenty of countries where tipping is not common (including some where cash is still favored over electronic payments). Why not just pay people a fair wage that they can live on?
>There is no actual need or advantage to giving people tips. Sure there is. In tipped professions, tips go directly to the waitstaff the day they are earned. It's what makes being a waiter a fantastic starter job when you move to a new city, say, or get kicked out of your home by an abusive spouse, or just need to make money without waiting 2-3 weeks for your first paycheck. It also reduces the opportunity for your e…
And employers could also arrange to pay employees more frequently. And employers could hand out checks “in full view of everyone”. Nothing requires tipping.
Re: Casualties of the Cashless Society: Those Who Get Seasonal Tips
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
"My steak arrived cold? Try paying your rent this month now!" Unless you are an uncaring psychopath you should pay servers in the US for bad service as well - everyone should be paid for the labor they do. If they aren't doing an adequate job they should be reprimanded or fired. That's not your job though, that's their boss's job. You don't know if they are just having an off day or the problem you had was caused by…
Your comment reminds me of http://blog.samaltman.com/e-pur-si-muove and http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html . In your books, either I agree with you, or I am an evil person. But if I take my clothing to a drycleaner, and my clothing comes back torn due to their incompetence, I'm not expected to pay for the drycleaning. Ditto if the valet damages my car. The fact that someone put time in does not entitle them to my mon…
Not that I disagree with your sentiment, but you're only able to do this because this class of service providers can't effectively challenge your decision to withhold payment. If the damage is debatable (or pre-existing), the valet isn't going to sue you for his $10 tip.
Compare it to the business world, where if you ship a pallet of widgets and a few of them get damaged, you can't just tell UPS "you broke my shit, I'm not paying you." No, they delivered your shit, however subpar, so they expect payment for the trouble. If you keep withholding based on principle you'll find yourself blacklisted and have your account sent to collections.