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Why Is Tipping Everywhere You Checkout?

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Re: Why Is Tipping Everywhere You Checkout?

#181

Post by snowwrestler »

soperj wrote: post #69
snowwrestler wrote: post #44

This is exactly how I think about tipping. I, and many friends and family, worked retail and food service jobs when we were young. Now I’m professionally successful and will not miss a couple extra bucks on a cup of coffee. So I’m happy to help boost the person serving it to me. I know it means way more to them than it does to me. This also explains why people (including me) get SO MAD if they find out that tips don’…

I used to work shipping & receiving, where I got minimum wage, and didn't get a tip for anything. That's why I'm happy to let people working retail & food service jobs just do the work for their wage. See how that works?

No, I don't. I don't understand that mindset at all.

Re: Why Is Tipping Everywhere You Checkout?

#182

Post by orwin »

xfitm3 wrote: post #110
2fast4you wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is an acceptable outcome. Take out the social aspect and just pay people.

Tipping incentivizes good service. When I travel to countries without tips I always have to chase down someone for service..

And when the service is relatively bad, ie too slow to come probably because they didn't have enough personnel in the kitchen this particular night (happenned to me yesterday), i don't tip, AND i don't feel bad for the waitress who isn't responsible for the lack of professionnal cook, because they are paid correctly.

Re: Why Is Tipping Everywhere You Checkout?

#184

Post by ac29 »

pcurve wrote: post #127
dheera wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in the US and I HATE tipping. Just multiply all the menu items by 1.15, 1.18, 1.20, or whatever you need to ensure your wait staff is happy, and re-print the menu. Don't make ME have to bust out a calculator and do math after my meal, and then have to decide which of the above numbers I should use.

I always tip 20, but I honestly hate doing it for many reasons. I also hate separate sales tax. Just build it into the menu. I just got back from Portugal. 99% of places took cards. When you are ready to pay the bill, they bring out the portable POS machine, you tap your card, and you're done. No awkward tipping screen. No separate calculation for sales tax. No pressure to buy bottled water or charging of table fee l…

> I also hate separate sales tax. Just build it into the menu.

Presumably this is in part for the same reasons as the article's take on tips. If one business includes sales tax in their prices and another doesnt, the one who doesnt is going to look cheaper to customers even though its actually the same price.

Sales tax is also surprisingly complicated in the US. At least where I live, there is sales tax from the State, County and City in addition to a variety of special sales taxes for things like transit districts. It means, for example, its easy to find places where the sales tax is different on two sides of the same street (because there is a city boundary there or something else).

Re: Why Is Tipping Everywhere You Checkout?

#185

Post by Larrikin »

xfitm3 wrote: post #110
2fast4you wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is an acceptable outcome. Take out the social aspect and just pay people.

Tipping incentivizes good service. When I travel to countries without tips I always have to chase down someone for service..

What country are you referring to? Tipping is considered rude in Japan and the service there is almost always better than the service I get in the US for a comparable job.

Some how the country hasn't collapsed and all the hotels, restaurants, bars, etc continue to operate just fine and with good service.

Re: Why Is Tipping Everywhere You Checkout?

#186

Post by loco5niner »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #22
pwdisswordfish9 wrote: post #6

> If a coffeeshop wants to pay their employees more they will have to raise prices This does not follow purely from the facts presented. Consider: "If a coffee shop wanted to pay their employees more, the coffee shop itself might take a smaller cut and keep prices the same."

In practice coffee shops have tiny margins so they can’t afford to do that.

I refuse to believe that bean water has tiny margins.

Re: Why Is Tipping Everywhere You Checkout?

#187

Post by gamblor956 »

focusedone wrote: post #53

Wait staff are not paid enough. At least in my state, the minimum wage for tip-accepting employees is horrific. I was a waiter twice and understand all of that so I always tip and try to be generous. Also, I'm pretty bad at math in my head so I usually guesstimate tips too high. A downside of tipping on the checkout systems I see is the baked in 15 / 20 / 25% options. OR tap custom and probably stand there like a mor…

Where I am, wait staff are paid too much. They are guaranteed minimum wage ($15.96/hour), and tips are in addition to minimum wage, not in lieu of it because CA does not provide employers a "tip credit" that would let them offset their employee wage obligations with customer tips.

Wait staff, who do the least work in a restaurant, can easily clear 3-4x what the kitchen staff gets, even though the kitchen staff does 90% of the work.

Re: Why Is Tipping Everywhere You Checkout?

#188

Post by ac29 »

Aunche wrote: post #154
maerF0x0 wrote: post #33

Some (many?) countries have demonstrated that no-tipping can work just fine. > makes them less competitive to any nearby coffeeshops that haven't raised prices Maybe I'm an outlier but for me I'm sick of the mental game of "Am I good member of society for the % I selected, and how much will my date judge me if I choose what used to be the norm -- 10%-15%... and am I the sucker if I choose a high amount while other pe…

> Why cant we just give employees dignity and a fair wage? We do and that's tipped wages. A career waiter in a major American city can make over 100k, which is several times more than what they would make in Europe. Even if you adjust for cost of living and median incomes, it's still going to be much higher. On the low end of the spectrum, tipped wages and untipped wages would be both at minimum wage.

> A career waiter in a major American city can make over 100k,

Yeah, but this is counter service we are talking about. The person making your latte is not making $100k/year. When I worked at a coffee place ~20 years ago, tips were about $1/hour per employee and that was like 10% of my income. Certainly wages and presumably tips are higher now, but these jobs still dont pay much over minimum wage.

Re: Why Is Tipping Everywhere You Checkout?

#189

Post by asdff »

Mikeb85 wrote: post #32
pwdisswordfish9 wrote: post #6

> If a coffeeshop wants to pay their employees more they will have to raise prices This does not follow purely from the facts presented. Consider: "If a coffee shop wanted to pay their employees more, the coffee shop itself might take a smaller cut and keep prices the same."

Lol foodservice margins are already miniscule. No, you'll pay more.

I can see that for restaurants, the price of a good portion of meat at home isn't all that cheaper, but for coffee shops? That $6 lattee probably cost them thirty cents of milk sugar and beans and less than a dollar in labor to put in front of you.

Re: Why Is Tipping Everywhere You Checkout?

#190

Post by rufus_foreman »

I don’t tip because society says I have to. Alright, I mean I’ll tip if somebody really deserves a tip. If they really put forth the effort, I’ll give them something extra.

But this tipping automatically, it's for the birds. As far as I’m concerned, they’re just doing their job.

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