No tipping in counters. I felt better when I read an article in some magazine that talked about tipping and agreed with this policy.
With tips from my jar, I was making $8/hr. If wanting $8/hr makes me entitled, then I’m entitled.
I don’t tip at these counter-order places either, like Panera, especially since they ask us to pick up our food ourselves at the other counter, and get our own drink (water), and then to clear our tables.
I don’t mind seeing the tip jar at some of these places - but I have heard different places treat them differently.
The local yogurt shop counts the tip jar at the end of the week, and divides it proportionately to all non-managers according to the hours they worked that week. Dunkin divides it daily, but the managers also get a share.
At places my kids have worked, mom and pop places, the tip jar is divvied up at the end of each employee’s shift, which seems fair.
If Dunkin has tip jars (I never frequent), that’s bad. Especially so if they are using them to compensate managers.
I tip them $1 to take off the pressure. I don’t agree with tipping at counter but ignoring the request is a bit tiring.
DH always tosses his loose change when picking up at the counter and paying with cash. I always pay with a credit card and just skip the tip request.
I’m a no tip at a place you stand in line, place your order, swipe your card, etc. and either pick up your food or sip waiting for it to come off the grill and eat there.
For me it depends what happens after I order my food. My favorite barbecue place is counter service but then servers come around to each table frequently to offer fresh hot rolls or sometimes free ice cream. They also bus the tables. There’s no option to tip even when paying with a credit card, but if I have cash with me I try to leave a few dollars on the table.
Anyplace with counter service where I also bus my own table (like Panera or Starbucks) I don’t tip unless I’m feeling very generous that day.
I rarely tip if i have to stand in line and have to pick up my order. H often will; mostly we use our CCard but sometime I pay cash. I hate that it feels everyone is asking for a típ everywhere you turn!
I don’t mind the tipping culture in full service restaurants. My guess is the quality of service would plummet without the incentive to work for tips. I imagine it as similar to working for commission.
I’m neutral & inconsistent about tipping for carry out or counter service.
Many countries in Europe don’t have a tipping culture and the waiters provide very good if not better service.
There are all kinds of service oriented jobs that don’t receive tips. Honestly, I’ve seen little connection between tipping and service. You get both good and bad service at a lot of places. The restaurants I like the best have excellent management. They excel at training their staff to prioritize good service. The good service comes from that training, top management, pride in their craft, and a teamwork based approach.
Of course there are a lot of service oriented jobs that don’t receive tips. I don’t claim to know exactly why some places have excellent staff and service and other places do not — applying this question to all businesses, not just restaurants.
IME, I’m just not running into fabulous customer service left and right in my world. On the contrary, sadly, I’ve come to expect poor service from a variety of businesses. This ranges from misinformation, miscommunication, to a general “I don’t care” attitude.
I don’t even mind the tip jar as much. It’s the tipping prompt on the credit card reader that just feels too “in your face”.
Yes, hate the tip prompt at counters! Ugh and never tip because of it!
@Midwest67 I don’t disagree that service is crappy in a lot of places. I just think it shows that tipping isn’t the driving force in making it better.
I honestly felt like there was an uptick in service at stores, restaurants, and the like, immediately after the bottom fell out of the economy in 2008. People obviously were valuing their jobs more. And then it disappeared again.
Regarding the tip prompt, the very first time I encountered it was several years ago at a restaurant in Colorado. We ate at the bar because that was all they had available. The service from the bartender was very good and personable and I intended to leave a good tip anyway but I was taken aback to encounter the tip prompt - one, because it was the first time I had encountered it and second, because they were preset at 20%, 23%, and 28%. The whole thing put a taint on what was an otherwise very pleasant meal.
^^This weekend I had a similar experience - at a very nice, but a coffee/pastry shop - the minimum was 20%. But if you looked below there was a “custom tip” - that’s what i clicked and just added a minimal tip.
Yes, the custom button was there but being my first time I had to figure that out and get flustered and meantime the bartender is standing right there. It made the whole thing way too awkward and… I don’t know transactional I guess. I prefer service people - or any worker in any capacity - just do a good job because they take pride in their work. Having returned from an a nice long trip to Italy several months ago it was something that was quite apparent over there and they don’t have a tipping economy. One could argue they do it because they want you to come back but in our case, being tourists, that wasn’t the drive force behind it. It’s more pride of a job well done. They also give a lot of unasked for freebies and discounts. Another unexpected but appreciated gesture that you very rarely encounter here, at least in my neck of the woods. Similar to lagniappe you’d encounter in Louisiana, or at least in the past. Is it still done there?
In Florida, the servers can be paid as low as $5.00 per hour. The tips are supposed to bring the salary up to the minimum wage. If it does not, the employer is supposed to make up the difference. In a beach area with seasonal business, this can be a nightmare to enforce. My daughter worked at such a place and was always on top of the owner and pushing for her corrected salary. During the “in” season, the restaurant was busy, tips were better, (although the area served a large number of Canadians and Brits) and this was the boss’s (illegal) viewpoint. He also had a tip jar on the counter for takeout service and he kept the money. Waitstaff was treated terribly. He would tell my daughter she had to train new staff (without compensation, also illegal) or she would be fired. She ended up making formal complaints and left for another restaurant.
We try to tip in cash. I don’t tip for strictly counter service. We leave about $2-3 for fast buffet service if we have to clean off our own table.
I figiure if I can afford to spend $3 for a cup of coffee, I can afford fifty or sixty cents for a tip. I’ve read the Barbara Ehrenreich book @prodesse references upthread, and I am grateful that I’m not living paycheck to paycheck. Some of my upper middle class lifestyle is the result of my hard work, but a whole lot is due to dumb luck and privilege.
^^
- 10000000