Tipping, what's the deal with

Discussion in 'Random Thoughts' started by Stuff Jones, Sep 10, 2019.

  1. Stuff Jones

    Stuff Jones Friend

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    So there's two newish trends in tipping, or tip expectation, that grind my gears.

    1) Tipping before any service than taking your order has been delivered and 2) tipping for service limited to operating a cash register and making a drink or sandwich. Both are becoming increasingly common.

    These two modes of tipping or tip solicitation violate the spirit and purpose of tipping, which is to incentivize and reward good service. They both strike me as ways for business to exploit customer sympathy/guilt towards service workers to subsidize the business' bottom line. It would be much more honest of the business to simply charge the price they need to charge in order to pay everyone reasonably and earn a profit. Instead, these businesses impose on the customer a thorny dilemma: take a stand against the pervasive spread of inappropriate tipping or feel like a wealthy and nice person in the eyes of the cashier.

    How do you all deal with this major problem?
     
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2019
  2. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    Don't tip. Or tip small. Why tip, for instance, when the meal is a buffet?

    Tipping before service is not tipping, it's bribery.

    Remember: tipping is your choice.
     
  3. crazychile

    crazychile Eastern Iowa's Spiciest Pepper

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    Yeah that bugs me too.

    Especially when I have to come back up to the counter when the food is ready and get it myself. Refill my own drink, and bus my own table...you know, stuff that an employee would do in a slightly more upscale restaurant...Or is the bribe just to ensure they don't spit in my food?

    Homey don't play dat.
     
  4. Superexchanger

    Superexchanger Friend

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    I hadn't thought about this; is it generally correct that the tip given at the counter does not go to the employees or into a pool, but to the business?

    Since I'm uncertain in this case, I generally split the difference. On a meal with full service, 20% is my minimum unless something has gone horribly wrong (it's never happened to me). For counter service, if a tip is asked, I usually just tip 5-10% with the off chance that it will end up in the employees pocket.

    But yeah, agree that if this is just a short-circuit for net profit to the business, it's indefensible.
     
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2019
  5. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    I normally do 15%, I should do more since in FL tipped employees who actually have their salaries based on tips don't get much. Well it depends on how busy a place is. I believe tipped employees in FL is about $5/hr before any tips. Depending on a place tipped employees can get $20-$30/hr, but it changes often.

    My cafes do have the tip jar at the time of service. They normally use the tip jar to split the tips with everyone who is working on a shift. The indie cafes all the tips goes to the person who takes your payment and makes the coffee (my indie cafe you see everything done manually). The corporate places tax tips regardless if it was done by cash or on a card.

    I know people who have to rely on tips, that's where most of their income comes from. Some also say that tipping has a racist origin: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/07/17/william-barber-tipping-racist-past-227361
     
  6. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    Given how people in the service industry are not often given sufficient wage to continue surviving without the aid of tips (among other things like taking out loans or subsidizing expenses by sharing them with others), I'm inclined to think that minimum wage should at the very least be generous enough to ensure employees are able to make an actual living before addressing this topic in full.

    Tipping here isn't like in the USA where it's as contentious a matter as politics often can be. I give tips when I get good service, be that a fun conversation in an Uber/Grab or speedy deliveries with no attitude— to be pressured into tipping would only make me less inclined to do so, but at the same time, I have to force myself not to worry about how someone carrying my food over could collapse halfway from the kitchen if I'm being so callous.

    I frequented a 7/11 near my old office where I became nodding acquaintances with a guy behind the counter. One evening around 2AM (stayed the night at work, it happened a few times) I saw he was still at the counter scanning and bagging stuff. I had some snacks and soda in hand (shh, I know) and when my turn came I saw that both his eyes were ridiculously bloodshot and he had dark enough circles that he looked like a 50 year-old scene kid despite just being in his 30s last I checked. The dude made Marie Curie circa 1935 look like the picture of health (she died in 1934). He was manic, accelerated rate of speech with notable stuttering that was atypical of him and moved in abrupt motions; he was either on his 5th energy drink of the day or something stronger. I didn't ask, not my business as long as I didn't get a stray bullet in the back from some fanatic anti-drug vigilante— this was back when Duterte was actively encouraging people to gun druggies in the streets. I just got my shit and walked back to the office.

    Whatever other factors might be in play here, I can't help but want to kick someone who deserves it in the gonads when I think that some people's basic needs can only be met when they keep working themselves to near collapsing.

    Part of the problem is that, at least in my experience and as far as I'm aware on my end, the people who determine wages are themselves so far removed from the same living conditions and financial realities as those whose survival is contingent on a few dollars/few hundred pesos' difference that they haven't the faintest idea how much people actually need to live. Might as well ask a f'ing seagull about food disposal regulations.

    Here's a fun tidbit: in my neck of the woods the minimum wage is 1/3rd the estimated cost of living. It's bullshit.
     
  7. Stuff Jones

    Stuff Jones Friend

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    But when, after swiping your card, you select "0% tip" instead of 15, 20 or even 25 percent, the cashier probably sees it from the other side and judges you to be a cold-hearted member of the bourgeoisie. And for a moment you might think that they're right!
     
  8. netforce

    netforce MOT: Headphones.com

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    Tipping sucks, tipping allows for business owners to pay their employees less and have them rely on tips. That being said, even though tipping sucks, I tip. California our servers at least gets our states minimum wage but we are an expensive place to live. Few places charge higher menu prices and encourage patrons to not tip but I could probably count all of those places I have been to in the last year on one hand.

    If I am buying a boba and you have a screen asking for a tip before you make my drink, then nope. If I am paying cash and don't want coins in my pocket, take that.
     
  9. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    If you go to a restaurant with a server just f'ing tip. Alot of these people literally can't pay their rent without tips. It's not even a matter of courtesy, it's life or death unless you're in a state that's joined the 21st century. If you can't afford to tip or don't like tipping don't go out to eat. Blame the business owners.

    And yes tipping has racist origins. It's a holdover from slavery days when white business owners tried to find ways to not pay their black employees, instead relying on customers to make up for it. Today business owners just do it because the state allows them to get away with it.
     
  10. Stuff Jones

    Stuff Jones Friend

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    I'm talking about places without servers. For example, a cafe where you order a coffee, pay with your card, and then on the signature screen are asked how much you want to leave as a tip.
     
  11. RobS

    RobS RobS? More like RobDiarrhea.

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    I don't calculate how much to tip. I see folks who pull out their phones to calculate 15% and I'm WTF put that phone away.

    If I had to guess my tips are probably around ~40%. Barbers, servers, whoever. If the service goes beyond my expectations, I tip more. I usually do 100% match if it's someone I regularly see, like my barber.

    My mechanic and his crew get beer and pizza.

    I don't think I've ever encountered a situation where I've had to tip in advance. If I'm going out on a date to a nice restaurant, I'll order and pay ahead for both, then leave cash for the tip after. Nothing annoys me more than going on dates fumbling with menus.
     
  12. Jozurr

    Jozurr Facebook Friend

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    You send the menu to your date ahead of time and have them pick their food and drinks and pay all that before reaching the restaurant?
     
  13. RobS

    RobS RobS? More like RobDiarrhea.

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    I order for my date ahead of time. More time to focus on my date and less on what to order. It shows that I give them my full attention.

    I'll have an idea of what to order from previous conversations. I don't really do first dates at a restaurant. Usually I'll go out for coffee or something first.
     
  14. Jozurr

    Jozurr Facebook Friend

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    So based on your previous conversations, you kind of guess what they'd like to eat that night at that restaurant, fumbling with online menus (?), call the restaurant and order food on their behalf ahead of time, devoiding them of actual choice, to show them that you've giving them full attention, so you don't have to fumble with menus at the restaurant. Someone ever tell you hey why did you order on behalf of me? or I didn't really want to eat that tonight? or are you guesses always spot on?
     
  15. JoshMorr

    JoshMorr Friend

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    This might be the most insane thing I've read on this forum. Good work man
     
  16. JustAnotherRando

    JustAnotherRando My other bike is a Ferrari

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    Question not the dating traditions in Outer Mongolia.

    To keep it vaguely on topic- one of the benefits of living outside North America is that when I tip, it's totally unexpected and the recipient is happy about it. Sometimes the results are a bit unexpected though- the guy who came to wall mount my clothes drier a couple months back started arguing with me and would only accept half what I wanted to give him ($25 for doing manual work in the middle of a sweltering summer).
     
  17. RobS

    RobS RobS? More like RobDiarrhea.

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    LOL I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition!

    I have a few trusted local spots I've known for years and know what's good from the menus. Never had any complaints, women find it charming.

    It just allows me to be fully engaged and attentive. I ain't doing this shit on every single date, or even in a relationship. It all depends who I'm seeing. Shit just happens organically.

    But little things like that set me apart from 99% of other guys. When you have my personality and physical defects, every little bit helps.

    And to bring this on topic, yeah I've had one woman end things with me with how generously I tipped.

    I'm dying.
     
  18. JoshMorr

    JoshMorr Friend

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    Im ok with dragging this painfully off topic to address a much more interesting topic - @treboR and his dating life. Look at his profile picture. Man is clearly well liked by the ladies. We need more dating advice my man.
     
  19. RobS

    RobS RobS? More like RobDiarrhea.

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    If we get into dating advice, I might need a few gigs of storage space to receive the incoming private messages.

    Just kidding.

    Not sure you want advice from me though. Almost the first question everyone asks to whomever I'm with is: "Why are you with HIM?"
     
  20. Syzygy

    Syzygy Friend

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