Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Tipping Is Impossible to Get Rid of in America

kottke.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 149 posts

Re: Why Tipping Is Impossible to Get Rid of in America

#101

Post by ghaff »

hgomersall wrote: post #73
ghaff wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With respect to Europe, in the UK it's pretty common to see a "voluntary" 10% added to the bill for table service these days. The expectation of tipping for more and more things and the ratcheting up of default amounts in digital payment systems are somewhat annoying. But knowing that you'll be paying 20-25% more or so in a lot of situations between tipping and sales tax isn't really that much more of a mental burden…

I'm actually ok with that if it's clear and up front - as in, written on the menu, which in my experience it usually is. It's not like you have to guess the additional expected fee at the end.

Well, yes, but how many people going into a sit-down restaurant in the US don't know that they're on the hook for about a 25% add-on when they get the bill? Maybe if it's the first time visiting but certainly not in general.

Re: Why Tipping Is Impossible to Get Rid of in America

#103

Post by distortionfield »

hotpotamus wrote: post #91
distortionfield wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had delivery drivers give me my order only after explicitly telling me to tip more - which was frustrating because I actually increased my tip from $5 suggested by the app to $7 cause it was a snowy night. Some people won't be happy no matter what you do for them.

$7 seems pretty good to me, though it's pretty mileage dependent (I assume the suggested tip is probably taking that into account), but I wonder, how much would I have to offer you to complete a Doordash order?

The tip isn’t the price of delivering the order though, you’re conflating the price and the tip into the same thing, which they’re not.

For the record, I’ve been a delivery driver before. Getting tipped at all was amazing, so I literally can not imagine pounding on the door, handing the person their pizza and telling them that they should tip more because I want more money.

Re: Why Tipping Is Impossible to Get Rid of in America

#104

Post by josephcsible »

jzb wrote: post #50
colejohnson66 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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." I wish folks with this attitude got docked some of their pay when their co-workers or boss decide they weren't happy with their work. I just consider tipping the surcharge for not having to do service / restaurant work myself any longer. Been there, done that, don'…

The equivalent of not getting a tip is not getting a bonus. It isn't having your base pay docked.

Re: Why Tipping Is Impossible to Get Rid of in America

#105

Post by nebula8804 »

RajT88 wrote: post #95
gambiting wrote: post #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 sci…

It's even more dire than this. Anna Gunn played the emasculating wife of Walter White in "Breaking Bad". She was not a popular character (and wasn't supposed to be, at least at first). She received a myriad of death threats on social media for that portrayal. https://www.vulture.com/2013/08/breaking-bads-anna-gunn-conf... I cannot express how bananas that is that people can't separate fiction from real life in this w…

There was that side character in The Office called Cathy Simms who tried to get Jim to cheat on Pam when they were at a conference together. This scene led to fans threatening the actress who played Cathy and they still harass her to this day despite the show ending in 2013 (OMG has it really been 10 years?!)

[1]:https://netflixlife.com/2020/08/12/the-office-lindsey-broad-...

Re: Why Tipping Is Impossible to Get Rid of in America

#106

Post by josephcsible »

LarryMullins wrote: post #12

Make 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 plenty of restaurants where tipping isn't expected; specifically those where you carry the food yourself from the counter to your table

I assume you haven't eaten at any of those kind of restaurants since 2019.

Re: Why Tipping Is Impossible to Get Rid of in America

#107

Post by nebula8804 »

rcme wrote: post #98
RajT88 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's even more dire than this. Anna Gunn played the emasculating wife of Walter White in "Breaking Bad". She was not a popular character (and wasn't supposed to be, at least at first). She received a myriad of death threats on social media for that portrayal. https://www.vulture.com/2013/08/breaking-bads-anna-gunn-conf... I cannot express how bananas that is that people can't separate fiction from real life in this w…

(To me) it's abundantly clear that a certain percentage of the population is no better than feral beasts trained to live in society. For instance, some people report having no inner monologue. If such people are not introspectively evaluating their thoughts, then what are they doing? Most likely mindlessly going through the motions of their life as a simple stimulus/response machine.

Isn't that chalked up to the normal distribution? Can you really blame people who fall under the left side of the curve?

Look at page 9 of this PDF.

[1]:https://www.westga.edu/academics/research/vrc/assets/docs/th...

Re: Why Tipping Is Impossible to Get Rid of in America

#108

Post by rcme »

nebula8804 wrote: post #107
rcme wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(To me) it's abundantly clear that a certain percentage of the population is no better than feral beasts trained to live in society. For instance, some people report having no inner monologue. If such people are not introspectively evaluating their thoughts, then what are they doing? Most likely mindlessly going through the motions of their life as a simple stimulus/response machine.

Isn't that chalked up to the normal distribution? Can you really blame people who fall under the left side of the curve? Look at page 9 of this PDF. [1]: https://www.westga.edu/academics/research/vrc/assets/docs/th...

I’m not sure where blame is entering the equation. Is it possible to describe a phenomena without assigning blame?

Re: Why Tipping Is Impossible to Get Rid of in America

#109

Post by hotpotamus »

distortionfield wrote: post #103
hotpotamus wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$7 seems pretty good to me, though it's pretty mileage dependent (I assume the suggested tip is probably taking that into account), but I wonder, how much would I have to offer you to complete a Doordash order?

The tip isn’t the price of delivering the order though, you’re conflating the price and the tip into the same thing, which they’re not. For the record, I’ve been a delivery driver before. Getting tipped at all was amazing, so I literally can not imagine pounding on the door, handing the person their pizza and telling them that they should tip more because I want more money.

When you were a delivery driver, were you a W-2 employee? Doordash is not that - it's more like a live service market where you bid for delivery from a driver and Doordash attempts to match your order to a driver, all of whom are self employed (1099). They've got to pay all their vehicle expenses and in theory get something for their time, meanwhile Doordash is a middle-man and trying to squeeze both sides of the transaction. When it works, it is pretty impressive, but mostly it just seems like a Mug's game.

Re: Why Tipping Is Impossible to Get Rid of in America

#110

Post by xboxnolifes »

distortionfield wrote: post #103
hotpotamus wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$7 seems pretty good to me, though it's pretty mileage dependent (I assume the suggested tip is probably taking that into account), but I wonder, how much would I have to offer you to complete a Doordash order?

The tip isn’t the price of delivering the order though, you’re conflating the price and the tip into the same thing, which they’re not. For the record, I’ve been a delivery driver before. Getting tipped at all was amazing, so I literally can not imagine pounding on the door, handing the person their pizza and telling them that they should tip more because I want more money.

For the modern food ordering app, the tip is the price of delivering. It's really a misnomer. More accurately, it should be called a bid, since you're placing a bid on your order and hoping a delivery driver will pick it up.
Post reply on HN