Servers like it, customers like it, business owners like it, clearly we must get rid of it
To people replying to this saying that customers don't like it - do you have literally anything to back that up other than you not liking it?
Why Tipping Is Impossible to Get Rid of in America
21–30 of 149 posts
Re: Why Tipping Is Impossible to Get Rid of in America
#22You think restaurants are bad... you should see services like UberEats and DoorDash drivers. I have had orders cancelled by the driver because they found something that tipped higher despite me tipping $7 for something down the street less than 1 mile from my house. I have also tipped $20 only for instructions to be ignored where I put my gate code, unit# and ask for it to just be dropped off at my door step but the…
Friend of mine started driving for Door Dash recently and when he told me they can see up front what the tip is going to be I was just flabbergasted. That's not how it's supposed to work, at all.
Re: Why Tipping Is Impossible to Get Rid of in America
#23> It seems like the only way to get rid of tipping in the US is for every restaurant to do it simultaneously, either by mutual decision (ha!) or through some kind of legislation (double ha!) Another unmentioned way is if customers just get fed up with paying tips and start tipping less. I get annoyed with any digital payment screen that only offers default tip options of 18% or more and take my revenge by sometimes s…
Just last week I ordered Dominos pizza, I do carry out because the 3 minute away location is not worth $12 more with the tip. So I come in, talk to the kid at the counter, tell him my name, he grabs the order, brings the order up on the system and tells me "You can insert your card after answering the question on the screen!"
There it is. I'm picking up my pizza and there is a tip screen. Four large tip options at 18, 20, 22 & 25%. I have not taken a bite of the pizza. I'm the one picking up the food and delivering it to my house. I ordered it via the app, never conversing with a person. I paid the carryout pricing. The only interaction I had with a human was ~15 seconds at this point and it was purely to remit payment. Nobody in this establishment is a waiter so they are all required to be paid above min-wage.
The tiny 'no tip' button was tapped and the kid looked sad. I am made to feel/look like a jerk for not paying an unexpected fee. What a bizarre world.
Re: Why Tipping Is Impossible to Get Rid of in America
#24Servers like it, customers like it, business owners like it, clearly we must get rid of it
Servers like it because it gives them more money, but so would paying them properly. Business owners like it because they save money on not paying their employees good wages. Customers do not like it because it's, essentially, a hidden fee. If I had bad service, I should not be obligated to tip. But society has decided that I owe a 15-25% service fee to my waiter even if the service sucked.
>If I had bad service, I should not be obligated to tip. But society has decided that I owe a 15-25% service fee to my waiter even if the service sucked.
Says who? Just don't tip if you hate the service. That's what I do.
Re: Why Tipping Is Impossible to Get Rid of in America
#25"Customers looked at the higher prices ($25 for the chicken instead of $21, $17 cocktails instead of $14) and ordered fewer and less-expensive items, even though they were paying exactly the same amount for them by tacking 20% onto the check at meal’s end."
You know what, I worry about this sometimes. We think that we're so evolved and advanced race - that we have poetry and literature, modern medicine and rocket science. That we deserve to explore the stars, and if we met alien intelligence we'd sit at the table as equals.
But turns out a normal human has emotion overriding even the simplest logic and basic arithmetic defeats most of us - I imagine it's not even just the "average" Joe - a lot of very intelligent people will see that $25 burger and decide that they'd rather go somewhere where the burger is $20, because it "feels cheaper".
Monkey sees banana, monkey wants banana. Except this monkey can build rockets and nuclear reactors.
Re: Why Tipping Is Impossible to Get Rid of in America
#26Make no mistake, tipping continues in America because most Americans like the system. If you don't like to tip, there are plenty of restaurants where tipping isn't expected; specifically those where you carry the food yourself from the counter to your table. If enough people hated tipping, restaurants that don't have tipping would eventually out-compete those that do. They may yet do so, but presently most of the pub…
There are restaurant employees that expect a tip because they prepared your food then packaged it up. This is an insane concept to me. In that case these same employees should tip the grocery store clerk that rang up and bagged their groceries, or to their amazon delivery driver, or to the dental assistant that cleaned their teeth. It's absurd to me that the burder of closing the pay gap is on the customer. I'm not opposed to tipping for service but lets taper those expecations a bit. If you already get paid for doing the job, don't expect the customer to foot the rest because the owner doesn't want to participate in profit sharing (the business does good, so do you, hence bigger effort in making sure the business succeeds)
Re: Why Tipping Is Impossible to Get Rid of in America
#27Make no mistake, tipping continues in America because most Americans like the system. If you don't like to tip, there are plenty of restaurants where tipping isn't expected; specifically those where you carry the food yourself from the counter to your table. If enough people hated tipping, restaurants that don't have tipping would eventually out-compete those that do. They may yet do so, but presently most of the pub…
The problem is the incredibly low wages employers are allowed to pay at tipped establishments.
Federally that wage is $2.13 per hour.
Re: Why Tipping Is Impossible to Get Rid of in America
#28Impossible? Maybe. Necessary? Absolutely. Tipping was originally a way to get your food before everyone else. It's not an economic business model. Raise prices and be transparent with pricing - which is difficult with tipping since most people are bad at math and don't take out a calculator to see what $127 meal will really cost. Tipping is a service tax and becoming an entitlement to a generation of workers who have…
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Re: Why Tipping Is Impossible to Get Rid of in America
#29Make no mistake, tipping continues in America because most Americans like the system. If you don't like to tip, there are plenty of restaurants where tipping isn't expected; specifically those where you carry the food yourself from the counter to your table. If enough people hated tipping, restaurants that don't have tipping would eventually out-compete those that do. They may yet do so, but presently most of the pub…
Those places where I have to carry my food also ask for tips when I checkout.
Re: Why Tipping Is Impossible to Get Rid of in America
#30> It seems like the only way to get rid of tipping in the US is for every restaurant to do it simultaneously, either by mutual decision (ha!) or through some kind of legislation (double ha!) Another unmentioned way is if customers just get fed up with paying tips and start tipping less. I get annoyed with any digital payment screen that only offers default tip options of 18% or more and take my revenge by sometimes s…
The problem with taking "revenge" is that you only hurt the employees. Assuming the employer is not stealing tips, not tipping doesn't affect the bosses at all. If you want revenge, stop visiting the place.
> If you want revenge, stop visiting the place.
This is certainly one possible long-term outcome too. Restaurants seem to be going for the triple whammy of raising prices+adding opaque fees, and also soliciting tips more frequently and expecting to receive them in higher amounts, and also automating/paring down more and more of the restaurant's processes. This is all very exhausting and irritating to experience as a consumer especially knowing I could eat about just as well for 1/8th the price at home, so I limit eating out as much as I can.