Has the tipping culture reached a breaking point?

[Fritz]

everyone wants a tip for everything. door dash...Uber...everyone. they've all got their hand out and they get ticked off if you don't wanna tip but they get paid by these employers. if my groceries cost $200 i don't have money to tip the delivery guy. that's just absurd. door dashers get paid to deliver food and groceries. it costs me almost $20 for a burger meal here. sorry but i can barely afford the meal let alone a tip.

i don't ask for a tip for every toilet i clean and everything i do at work. we're not even allowed to take tips.

 

[Oldeagle66]

I don't have a problem tipping good or good service. I used to wait on tables and know how it is. Even the tip jar at the grocery store. Just this week I went to the local grocery store and left some meat I had paid for. After I got home and realized it, I figured it was gone and forgot about it. I had to go back a few hours later and the cashier stopped me and went back to the freezer and returned my package of meat. That's service.

 

[fuzzybuddy]

How can staff get paid below minimum wage?

Here we have a minimum wage and also a slighly higher living wage. Anyone who pays less than a living wage shouldn't be in business.

It depends on local laws. There are certain occupations, like waiter/waitress that are exempt from minimum wage limits. I think ?, they get a base wage of 40-60% of the minimum wage. Supposedly, tips make up it rest.

 

[Fritz]

It depends on local laws. There are certain occupations, like waiter/waitress that are exempt from minimum wage limits. I think ?, they get a base wage of 40-60% of the minimum wage. Supposedly, tips make up it rest.

true but not usually the case. as budgets get tighter so will the fists around the tip money. we'll be stuck using kiosks and picking up food like at mcdonald's.

 

[jujube]

I've noticed that hotel and restaurant employees in many of the countries I've traveled in provide such good service. They are constantly wanting to do something for you. Yes, they're hoping for a good tip....but....so are the employees here in the U.S. but they're often not willing to work hard to get it.

I also wonder why we base the amount of tip on the amount of the bill. For instance, if I'm out to dinner with a friend and I order the Lobster Bisque at $15 and my friend orders the Chicken Noodle Soup at $5, my tip at 20% would be $3 and her tip would be $1. The waitress takes our order at the same time, puts the order into the kitchen at the same time and delivers both soups at the same time. She hasn't put in any more effort for my soup than she has for my friend's. But I'm tipping 3x as much.

I'm a good tipper, not a ridiculously-good tipper, but I do tip 20% for anything but the most abysmal service and a bit more for good service.

 

[Ted01]

I used to always hear about tipping cows, when I was young, but never got around to actually trying it.

And likewise... since I rarely go out to eat anymore, I've only heard about some of these tipping schemes
y'all are talking about. I do occasionally swing by Starbuck's, and they have that "tip the cashier, whatever
you'd like, (hint, hint)". It gets me a little annoyed but not as annoyed with myself after I actually do the
thing that I don't want to do... tip. (Or more correctly, Give a gratuity).

Whatever happened to the idea of boycotting such stuff?

 

[OneEyedDiva]

Several months ago, my two sisters and myself had lunch at Panera Bread, and none of us even thought about tipping.

You didn't get table service, right?

 

[JustDave]

At a recent hotel stay they offered an QR code to tip the room cleaners. While I think they should be paid fairly by their employer I tried to leave a tip using the code. Then up popped a messge informing me that the QR service provider was taking 50 cents of the tip, AND WOULD I LIKE TO ADD ANOTHER 50 cents to compensate the cleaning staff for that deduction from the tip. I did not respond. I assume the cleaning person got some of what I left her. I hope so.

I've wondered about those less personal tips where you don't leave cash on the table. How do those tips get to the waiter/waitress who served you? How much does the restaurant take for itself? And now, here's a company that provides no service whatsoever except to collect tips is taking a cut. Tipping has lost it's meaning, it's becoming a surcharge, not a gratuity intended as a special thank you.

 

[Trade]

I tip but I don't like it. It's demeaning to the person having to rely on tips to make a survival income and it's also a way for managers and owners to get away with paying sub starvation wages.

 

[MACKTEXAS]

I tip 20% when in a full service restaurant. I do not tip when ordering fast food at a cash register or when prompted by a screen. If I hire someone to do work at my house and they have given me a very reasonable price, but they do an especially good job, or do anything extra, I give them a tip.

 

[Michael Z]

What I am seeing is service at a fast food joint after the tip (or no tip). We had burgers at a Mall of America, we left no tip ant the counter, and waited forever for shakes. More like a protection racket!

I am done with this. I will get my sandwich at a gas station.

 

[JustDave]

Alternatives to the company designed formats for paying extra:

Bring your own waitress and pay her a fair wage.
Deduct 25% from the bill and leave 20% on the table for the waitress.
Charge the restaurant for making your own adjustments to the bill.

 

[Sunny]

Recently, a new opportunity to pay someone a tip has popped up. When I'm leaving the food market with my cart containing bags of groceries, heading for my car, some guy appears out of nowhere and asks if I need help loading my groceries into the car. I always say no thanks, as I do not need help. I used to think, "Gee, these people are so nice!" until - duh - it occurred to me that they were expecting a tip.

I wonder, if I needed that help, how I was supposed to unload the groceries once I got home. Do they think I have a staff like the Downton Abbey residents?

 

[JustDave]

Oddly, after watching this thread, I decided to eat a restaurant dinner this evening, just to get a feel of the thing. It's the first time since before Covid. My favorite restaurant nearby had closed during Covid and its location was bought out by a competitor where I had eaten an unimpressive meal before . But dining is limited here. It was the best I could do other than one of the normal chain outfits.

I had broiled shrimp, the small portion, a baked potato, a small salad, and three hush puppies. The best part was the baked potato with sour cream. As it was, the food was marginal, probably healthy, but mostly filling, and nothing to order again the next time I'd be there. The bills was $23, and I tipped the waitress 5 dollars because it was the smallest bill I had in my wallet. So a meal for one cost $28.

Now without considering quality of food or service, or belly aching about inflation and extra charges (I paid in cash), my take away is simply "not worth it." I can make a more satisfying meal at home, with very little effort. There is no anger or disappointment or some emotional bias to influence this review. It just isn't worth it. I know I could make a better baked potato with trimmings at home, and I would include some kind of sauce for the broiled shrimp which did not come with the meal. Hush puppies, were good, but not something I would normally eat. I left two of the three on the plate.

Tipping has not reached a breaking point for me, but eating out most certainly has.

 

[JBR]

I've wondered about those less personal tips where you don't leave cash on the table. How do those tips get to the waiter/waitress who served you? How much does the restaurant take for itself?

I know a number of people around here who earn money as a server in a café or a restaurant. From what I've been told, the tips provided digitally, in addition to those put into a tip jar, are divided equally among the servers. The eating establishment itself isn't taking any of the tip money.

I suppose that the only way this can work fairly is through some sort of formula that can take into account the number of hours each server happened to work within a given shift or day. I've never actually asked about that aspect.