“No tax on tips” is an industry plant

Post by crazygringo » Fri, Aug 01, 2025, 1:05 PM UTC

the__alchemist wrote: post #297

hdgvhicv wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Contactless is basically non existent in America? I know America has always been backwards (cheques were still in use well into the 21st century, card pins didn’t seem to catch on before contactless became a thing about a decade ago), but I thought contactless was quite high nowadays, especiallly with phones and watches. Certainly I’ve had no problem paying contactless in the cities I’ve been to recently - New York,…

Table-service restaurants always take your card (Not sure if they support chip and/or contactless), but most other services support chip and contactless. (2025, NC). This wasn't true in my experience until a few years ago. We lag Europe by 5+ years on payment techs. E.g. chip, contactless. There's a coffee shop holdout near me that was magstrip only until a few weeks ago.

Post by Eisenstein » Fri, Aug 01, 2025, 1:08 PM UTC

shit_game wrote: post #344

vladvasiliu wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is a mechanism to move labor costs to the consumer. How does this work? The corp already handles some form of payment to the worker, especially when you tip as part of a card payment. And in both cases, the consumer foots the bill. How's it different from paying the worker more and asking for more money upfront?

It moves the real cost of the additional labor from the prices displayed for items (like you would see in a B&M grocery store) to some tertiary part of the purchase process that is displayed 1) after the used has gone through the effort of app navigation and selecting their purchases and 2) has been through the majority of the purchase funnel and self-selected as a high-prospect sale. This helps keep the listed price…

Post by NicuCalcea » Fri, Aug 01, 2025, 1:08 PM UTC

olddustytrail wrote: post #292

petercooper wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with your post. But.. I'm from the UK and travel in the US a lot and US service is much better. I've never had to chase up the check or had to go and search for staff to serve me after sitting there for ten minutes. These are common occurrences in the UK for me. Ideally, tipping wouldn't exist and everything would be priced in, but pragmatically, incentives grant extra benefits to both parties. Potential for…

But people do tip at restaurants in the UK. So what are you saying is the difference?

Post by Lord-Jobo » Fri, Aug 01, 2025, 1:11 PM UTC

TrackerFF wrote: post #277

bapak wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The crazier part is that it's spreading to more industries and more countries thanks to Americans thinking they should tip everyone everywhere. Thanks.

My take is that it is spreading not due to culture, but due to how all new point of sale systems / card terminals come with a "tip" feature implemented. I'm from Europe, and have traveled here extensively. Tipping is pretty rare, but for the past maybe 5 years, almost all new payment terminals have the tipping option.

Post by the__alchemist » Fri, Aug 01, 2025, 1:17 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #351

the__alchemist wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Table-service restaurants always take your card (Not sure if they support chip and/or contactless), but most other services support chip and contactless. (2025, NC). This wasn't true in my experience until a few years ago. We lag Europe by 5+ years on payment techs. E.g. chip, contactless. There's a coffee shop holdout near me that was magstrip only until a few weeks ago.

This was true five years ago, not true now. When I eat out in NYC now they almost always bring the machine to your table so you can use contactless and you select the tip amount on the screen. The other week I went to a place that asked for my card and brought out the receipt for me to sign and I had to manually calculate the tip and was struck by how long it's been since I had to do that.