There are many restaurants asking you to give tip when you order food at the counter now.
You get in line, order food at the counter, swipe your credit card on the tablet PC. Then there are some checkboxes you need to choose before you can sign for your credit card charge: No tip, 10%, 15%, 20%,… Then you take your number to a table you can find.
How much do you tip?
I find that so annoying. At those restaurants, they should be paying their employees more than tip wage, but they have the iPad set up that it looks cheap not to tip. I tip the minimum but honestly feel bullied into it.
We went to a sit down restaurant for lunch, ordered 2 sandwiches and tipped the waitress more than 20%. A week later, we went to a fast food place (it was local, but was middle eastern chipotle type place), where we waited in line for 10 minutes. Ordered 2 sandwiches and I don’t even remember their being a place for no tip so I tipped 10%. The bill was $6 more.
One place I got to sit down, the waitress was good, we got drink refills and had a really nice lunch. The other we got to wait in line, get our own drinks and bus our own tables. For $6 more.
Maybe I’m not the person to chime in on this. But no more than 10% and at sit down restaurants I am a 20% and even a little more tipper.
What? Where is this happening? If I walk up and order, no tip.
I don’t tip if it’s not sit down and I’m not being served. I also started to get tired of asking if I wanted to donate to some organization every time I purchased something. I just started saying no.
In our area a lot of take out places – pizza shops, delis, ice cream parlors, etc. – have the option for a tip on the device where you pay. Some even have tip jars. I don’t tip for counter service. And I don’t contribute to organizations at the grocery store either. Some ask for a $1, others ask if you want to “round up” to an even dollar amount. I always say no, thank you, and I’m trying to avoid the places that do it. We can’t solicit on their premises, but they can harass us every time we purchase something? I don’t like it at all.
If I order at the counter, no tip. If someone brings it to me and clears the table I leave few dollars. If it is a buffet style where the wait staff would clear my plates multiple times I would leave 15-20%.
I don’t tip at all for an experience that is strictly counter service - whether it’s the “tip jar” at Starbucks, the “employee college fund” jar at our local ice cream parlor, on the credit card slip when I am picking up carryout, or in any other form.
We do the @oldfort method.
If there is a jar at the register…the most they would,get tossed in there if I’m not being served by them is the coin change I get…and that’s not because I feel like they should be tipped…it’s because I don’t like all,that extra change in my purse.
It depends on what service I get and the relationship. At the neighborhood Euro style coffee shop, where the servers are so sweet (and the guys flirt a little, even with the older ladies,) I often throw change in the pot. But the staff is stable, same folks on duty, over time. We know them, they know us.
But I often order non-standard at other counters and when they get it, are pleasant, and try to give what I asked for, yes, I’ll also add something. It’s small potatoes to add 10% to a $3 or $5 tab.
When I dine alone, I do tip at least 20%. It’s not the server’s fault he or she is working for one guest, not two or more.
Adding: at a buffet place, usually only a dollar. There’s a difference, to me, between bringing drinks, an extra napkin, versus taking an order, bringing the parts over several trips, and checking back. (Eg, drinks, salad, then the main.)
Tip Jar = teaching our youth to be entitled.
A tip is for service, not scooping the ice cream or pouring the cup of coffee you just paid for.
I decided a long time ago that when i meet my maker, so to say, I’d rather be faulted for being a wee bit generous than stingy with pocket change. Counter help rarely gets more than minimum wage.
It’s not entitlement. After all, they’re there working. It’s the old notion of rewarding service. Strangers, a generic coffee or ice cream order, sure, I may not. But pleasant service, why not? Or stay home.
I picked up a gift card recently at a local coffee shop. There was absolutely no cooking, stirring, mixing, whatever involved. All the server did was swipe it through a machine to activate it. I was taken aback when the payment screen asked me if I wanted to tip. I didn’t and the server gave me the stink eye.
I always think it’s silly that they turn the pad towards YOU to sign and tip or not tip - like it’s giving you privacy to do this - when the reality is it doesn’t feel private at all!
Sometimes there is the option to “customize your tip” - so to just give a flat $1 or whatever instead of a % - I prefer to sometimes do that.
I wonder if the management at these places feel like “why not” in terms of offering this option to customers. It might be nice instead of turning the pad to see that tip prompting to see something like, “THANK YOU FOR ENJOYING OUR FOOD AND FREQUENTLY OUR BUSINESS!”
The other thing I’ve wondered - maybe the owner of a small business here on CC can tell us…these pad readers - I assume they are all through something like Square Up - a very easy way to set up a business account, collect fees/charges and get it deposited into your account (I used the portable Square readers recently for an event) - there is usually a charge for this service - like 2 or 3% per transaction…I hope the tips aren’t covering these expenses for the business!!!
I also don’t like that grubhub’s default tip for delivery is 15%. Delivery is a tip situation, but not 15%!
I usually pay cash at the counter for amounts less than $10, so no tip issue at all.
I’ll give the change or a $1 or so but I’m not a fan of almost everyone having a tip jar out. You can give fast food giants credit for one thing - they don’t have that practice.
My belief is that the tipping economy should just disappear and be replaced with living wages. Standards of service can and should be determined by good management expectations and training not tips.
@hebegebe I agree, pay cash and you don’t get harassed by iPads.
I do use tip jars, because the low-wage workers won’t get their paychecks for probably 2 weeks and cash tips get divided at the end of a shift. It can mean the difference between eating and not, between taking the bus and walking.
My attitude toward tipping changed radically after reading Barbara Ehrenreich’s book “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.”
If it’s a staff of teenagers? I am happy to encourage them in getting a job. They are learning work-life balance, maybe helping out with family finances, saving for college. My kid put all the paychecks into savings, and kept the tip money as spending money. It wasn’t much, either.
Oh give me a break that the tip jar is teaching young people to be entitled. Some people really grasp at straws to make “kids these days!” gripes.
I despise tipping culture but I recognize that I live in it and act accordingly.
That said, no I don’t tip at counter places unless I’m doing a huge order. I might then but that happens like once a year.
I don’t toss my change anywhere but in an empty Chinese soup container at home and take it to the bank every so often to be added to my account.
I don’t throw money in tip jars and I don’t tip if I stand on the line and order. I do tip at the buffet because I usually only go with at least 5 or 6 people and the servers wind up bringing us extra napkins, etc. I tip about 10% then.
Most recently, I have just been doing takeout because it saves me so much money. I don’t have to tip, I can drink my own (cheaper) wine or soft drinks, eat my own (cheaper) desserts and take off my work clothes before I eat. I have also experimented with things like buying naan at the supermarket to save money on my Indian takeout food…
I also do not like the tipping culture. Going out to dinner is supposed to be a stress free event, but instead we have angst about if and how much we should tip. We pay one way or another, why not just include it in my bill. I have been to few restaurants where tip is not allowed (included in the cost of food), and it is so much easier.