What would the tip at a grocery store be for? Grocers aren't serving us, nor cleaning up after us, nor personalizing what we buy. They're just selling their product like any other retailer.
I agree with this to a point, but the store clerk does clean up the blood from the pack of chicken and the milk spilled on the floor and bag the groceries and lift the heavy packs of soda up and over and back again 50 times a day, and often carry out everything from TV's to air compressors while watching for shoplifters, handling money and cashing paychecks.
I still don't think they should be tipped, but I've never understood why waitresses should be tipped while no one else should. Eight to ten hours on your feet dealing with cranky people is hard whether you're working in a store, a bank, or a restaurant. I've done all those jobs and waitressing was the easiest for me.
They don't ask for tips, but some will ask if you want to donate to some cause either by rounding up to the nearest dollar or allow you click a preset amount like $1, $5, $10, etc.
I get tired of that. I usually say, sure, but one day I wasn't in the mood and just said, "No." The clerk, a young man came to a screeching halt and said, loudly, "NO? You don't want to help sick babies?"
I said, "I do actually, but I'm not sure the March of Dimes has done all that much to help babies since the last polio epidemic and I do wonder why every single year you collect for The March of Dimes and never for anything else. For example, why not collect for schizophrenia research, it's the number one disabler of young people and yet I've never ever seen a penny asked for or donated for them. Do you know they make up the majority of homeless? Don't you care about the homeless? I give my June social security to Brain and Behavior Research every year? How much did you give them?
Nothing? Don't you care about the mentally ill?"
They need to be careful which old lady they tweak.
