tipping

I will confess that I tip very generously (there were a few categories in that guide that I am not quite there with, but the general thrust is not far off from what I do).

Because the individual workers did not create the system that shortchanges them Punishing them for its existence doesn't work for me.

Theoretically, nonparticipation may EVENTUALLY change the business model, but I can't look a busser in the eye and tell them that my resistance to tipping culture is ultimately in their long-term best interest. If this makes me an enabler of capitalism, well, put me against the wall when the revolution comes.

For now, I just calculate generous tipping into my dining / drinking / carryout budget. If I can't afford to tip generously, I'll just go get some food from a grocery store and cook it.

Yo, tip your grocery store cashier.

Tips for takeout is normal to me but most places I worked we had a person on dinner shifts dedicated to takeout - it was usually a bridge between hosting or food running and waiting tables so they were getting $2.13 an hour + takeout tips.

I draw the line at tipping for buying a bottle of water.

Coming from a non-tipping country, I find the idea of tipping a grocery store cashier bizarre - I do find it stressful having to deal with tipping when I'm in the US, so any explicit guide as to what and who you should tip is welcome to me. But why US employers can't just pay their employees what they fucking deserve instead of leaving it up to the customer to make a judgement call is beyond me.

Yeah it’s weird how everywhere else in the world everyone gets paid fairly. It’s just in the US that they aren’t paid a fair amount.

where is the galaxy brain take that points out the "everybody gets a tip" approach supports businesses underpaying their employees?
i waited tables for 17 years and never expected to get a tip for takeout

Fwiw, most of the people I hear complaining most about the omnipresence of tipping prompts in places they previously haven't been isn't so much about not wanting to tip or being anti-tipping, just more that it feels extra annoying since it seems to be popping up more and more just as prices on almost everything are going way up.

just so we're clear on the level of the discourse(tm) associated with this pronouncement, here are several more NEW RULES that accompany the tipping section:

40. Do not touch the small of my back to move around me at the bar if you’re ugly.

44. You and Bobby De Niro may go way back, but to everyone else, he’s Robert.

59. The correct number of slices of pizza to order for a group of X people is 2X + X/3.

68. Disperse — don’t clump — the superstars at the table.

82. It’s fine to use COVID as an excuse to get out of almost anything.

120. Even when a kids’ party says “no gifts,” you’re supposed to bring a gift.

basically clickbait works and also people like being told what to do

I’m an American and I have never tipped a supermarket cashier. Where in the US of A is this done?

It’s not. That I’m aware of.

I used to get tips as a bag boy tho.

it's talking about getting a bottle of water at a Starbucks or something not the grocery store

Bodegas near me have 15%, 18%, 20% and 25% tip options for buying a muesli bar or a can of beer.

sharing is caring

I came across something tonight that I've never seen before. When I got my check at a somewhat pricey bar, there was an Employee Wellness Charge added on that amounted to an automatic 20% gratuity. I wasn't sure what was expected for a tip on top of that. I added another $20 which was about 17% of the pre-tax bill, but even that felt like a lot. Don't know if I'm being a cheapskate and should have added a full tip, but it really felt like a lot.

I’m curious about this too…I’m generally a generous tipper but at place that do this I assume that means the work is done for me?

It's not the tip.

It's a surcharge to pay for employee health insurance.

what does "the tip" mean to you then

I mean I'm assuming most other restaurants arent covering health insurance, should I be tipping 60% everywhere else?

They make it clear it isn't a tip, but it's already 20% on top of a fairly high bill. No matter how you look at it, it feels like asking too much to expect a full tip on top of that. I don't love the fact that the charge isn't just factored into the food and drink prices, most likely because those are already pushing the limits of what's acceptable, so it's easier to get it by when customers may not be reading the fine print.

Most places that have that surcharge charge between 3-5%. 20% is a lot

i just ate at a place in durham nc that added a 20% living wage charge and suggested 5-10% on top of that.

i’m completely fine with the auto 20% bit as a society it would be nice to agree on what the guest’s obligation is after that.

otm

and then asa society incorporate it all into prices and have staff get proper pay and healthcare?

What is this "society" you speak of that can come to agreement on things.

The last thing we as a society agreed on was, iirc, the cuteness of Shirley Temple.

What is this guy's beef? Is he saying it's a pain for bartenders to put through the payment or something else?

At the bar last night, the Zoomers were all paying with credit cards and closing out on every round. This is psycho behavior. Someone needs to teach these children how to go to the bar.

— willy 🌜💧 (@willystaley) July 14, 2023

The former. It's time consuming and almost guaranteed to create a bottleneck for other people to get their drinks. Do one transaction instead of several, please, especially in the middle of a busy service. Even if several people in the party are each buying a round, timeshift that pile of transactions to the end.

The reason doing this (which is obviously convenient for the customer) is time consuming are the US’s regressive tipping system and its primitive digital payments system. Tap to pay per pint is not slow anywhere else.

in Dublin last month just about every person buying pints tapped for it.

I was recently at a crowded bar connected to a music venue, and there were lots of young people there, most of whom seemed to be paying with cards. The bar did have a touchscreen payment system, so it wasn't like the bartender had to go back and swipe the card himself every time. But I did feel a little old because I would almost always rather pay with cash at a bar that's busy. Just seems simpler.

Until about a decade ago, I used to hate using a card for anything less than $10, even at the pharmacy or grocery store. I got over that, but I still have a lingering feeling that paying for a single beer with a card is an asshole move.

the guy is a bit of a nutbar. a few tweets later he admitted he had no idea if these people were having more than one drink (as opposed to his original tweet where he insinuated they were having several but closing after each one), and then he dropped this doozy

Wait till big brother decides you had enough to drink and that your digital $$ won't work.. (just temporarily you know till big brother decideds it's ok for you to drink again- after all they pay your health care costs...)

— Jason Miller (@jbmp51) July 15, 2023

that's not the OP tho

meh. i must have seen his post earlier up the thread and mistook him for OP. disregard my stupid ass

Willy, ftr, is a NYT Magazine editor (tho that doesn't preclude him from being a nutbar)

the way people pay for things will never be systematized at a global scale. we're always going to have local differences and lags. this is why we regional customs around payment arise.

a bartender in the thread is asking people not to be rude, oblivious, and a drain on his time.

saying some "why can't it be like europe" shit and implying it's okay to inconvenience others because it's more convenient for yourself is so whack

This morning I went to my favorite bagel shop, I owed them $6.49. Looked in my wallet, which contained precisely $6.

Now, this shop has been famously cash-only for decades. They used to have an in-store ATM that cost about $7 to use (built-in ATM fee plus an additional fee from the bank). No longer. They put in a card reader but there is a $10 minimum. (Their explanation makes sense - card fees make it hard to exist when most people are only spending three or four dollars. Blah blah economies of scale.)

Anyway I added some orange juices until it got over $10, but it was awkward. I ended up tipping a bunch just because I like them and want businesses like them to survive and/or thrive.

But the upshot is that the economics of a $40 transaction are different from four $10 transactions. Being a considerate customer is worth it just for the karma points.

I like to bop the card on the reader where it instantly deducts the exact amount and removes the requirement to make change. Makes a little beep as well

The reason doing this (which is obviously convenient for the customer) is time consuming are the US’s regressive tipping system and its primitive digital payments system.

Two horrible tastes that taste even more horrible together. I'd love tap-to-pay and I'd love a pre-tip living wage.

Cash is rare enough at my bar that I worked five slammed hours last night and my cash tips were $11.50. Plastic ubiquity works out to my advantage in one way: servers don't share their cash tips with bartenders, but we get 10% of credit card tips, even on checks that don't include alcohol. I assume/hope the two inequities are a wash. In this newly-wet, uber-Baptist town it probably favors the bartenders.

We recently added a $1.45 card-transaction charge, which I warn customers about if they're buying a single drink. They don't care.

yeah we were slammed last night and with four bar staff on, we each took only 20 each in tips— but the plastic tips look to be in the 100s ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

20 cash, sorry

Xxp surcharges on card transactions are illegal (at least in my state)

Until about a decade ago, I used to hate using a card for anything less than $10, even at the pharmacy or grocery store. I got over that, but I still have a lingering feeling that paying for a single beer with a card is an asshole move.

I'd love a pre-tip living wage.

And so say all of us. We would all like that! But unless and until it gets there, I will continue to try to compensate for my society's failure to take care of people.

In the interim, I keep seeing onliney people saying stuff like "fuck that, I won't pay" [this or that surcharge for health care or whatever].

Waw, such brave, many justice. Great job being so principled that you screw over precisely the wrong people.

Refusing to tip in this environment, or refusing to pay additional money that might get to the real humans who bring you food? That only punishes the people who bring you food. Not the real villains (the people who decide how much to pay people who make food and/or bring it to you).

My response to those people as a tipped worker is get your own food and make your own good time at home then. Don’t wanna pay? Don’t avail yourself of the service.Why are you posting about how you’re not going to pay? Stay home.

When it comes to that impulse to compare how the US handles tipping and how it’s done elsewhere, I truly would like to know what the point of that is. First, this place is not that place. Second: Do you have a better idea? If not, why are you bringing this up? Idgi. This is the world I live in, so…who cares??

Finally, a lol:
a European (idk from where) four top asked me to add egg to their pizza. We don’t offer egg as a pizza topping. He tried to negotiate with me and I humored him by asking the kitchen. Sorry but no. I can’t magically make eggs happen.
At the bottom of his cc receipt he wrote in all caps NO EGG NO TIP

I took a pic of it, shared w the group chat and we all laughed at this jerk. No egg no tip has become my contribution to the arsenal of coworker in jokes. It’s funny but also this is just a portion of what we have to deal with. I could go on.

Still think about a family that didn't tip me because the wife ordered a filet well-done and I had the temerity to ask if she wanted it butterflied (the steakhouse's standard question so that those diners didn't get hockey pucks). Guess I was puttin on airs.

A filet well done request? You should've called the NSA.

i don’t know about others’ experiences, but it’s always the nicest people who don’t tip— as if by smiling and being friendly they make up for not tipping me when I am making them their fucking $10 cocktail. or like the $1 tip on a $28 bill— please, fuck off and die, shithead motherfucker.


lol sorry , had some real “customers” last night

When it comes to that impulse to compare how the US handles tipping and how it’s done elsewhere, I truly would like to know what the point of that is. First, this place is not that place. Second: Do you have a better idea? If not, why are you bringing this up?
God forbid pointing out that your precious country is pretty fucked up when it comes to tipping. What a relief living in Asia where they just add 10-15% automatically to every bill and you don’t have to worry about it anymore.
Apparently this needs to be pointed out again and again, but the US is not the world, so don’t act surprised that non US people find it fucked up having to tip 40%.