Johann Hunt
What’s your stance on the American culture of tipping service staff? According to a recent New York Post article, over 75% of Americans think the tipping culture has gone too far. For the smaller populace, it’s a way to reward excellent service and show appreciation, while the majority believe it’s an imposing system that unfairly shifts the burden of paying employees from businesses to customers. As tipping expectations expand beyond traditional scenarios, here are 15 scenarios worth examining to determine whether American tipping culture has gone too far.
Fast Food Restaurants
Fast-food restaurants’ quick service, often marked by fleeting interactions at the counter, has become a new avenue for tipping. Nowadays, when you swing by for a burger or fries, you might notice those digital screens asking for a tip, even when the service involves basic tasks like handing over a food bag.
Sports Arenas
When customers pay by card in sports venues, they often encounter tipping prompts, with suggestions as high as 25%. However, this tip frequently does not reach the service staff providing the assistance. Instead, it may go into a general pool or become part of the venue’s revenue, distorting the intent of tipping and potentially misleading customers.
Self-Service Establishments
Another seemingly audacious addition to the tipping culture is at self-service establishments, such as self-service frozen yogurt shops, where tip jars are now standard. Customers are left wondering why they should tip when they’re the ones doing the work, from pouring their yogurt to adding toppings.
High Expectations for Delivery Tips
Critiques are raising brows as delivery services frequently suggest tipping rates as high as 20%. While there’s no doubt that delivery workers deserve fair compensation for their efforts, these hefty suggested tips can feel steep for many customers and spark debate about affordability and fairness.
Automatic Gratuities for Small Groups
Many restaurants automatically add a gratuity (tip) to the bill for small parties. This can be surprising, as traditionally, automatic gratuities were only applied to larger groups to compensate for the extra service required. However, the practice is becoming more common, even for small parties. This can lead to confusion and some awkwardness, as the bill might already include a gratuity, yet the restaurant might still have a prompt asking for an additional tip.
Coffee Shops
Counter services at coffee shops, which involve relatively straightforward interactions like serving a cup of coffee or handing over a pastry, are at the forefront of tip guilt trips. Millions of Americans consume coffee daily, making the tips at coffee shops a multi-million dollar crowd-fund for some coffee outlets. Consequently, these businesses now pay staff less than minimum wage, thereby transferring the cost of labor to customers.
Tips on Takeout Orders
It’s understandable to tip at fine dining, where the service is part of the experience, but the growing trend of tipping on takeout orders needs to be fixed. Many restaurants are now setting up systems that prompt customers to leave a gratuity, even though no table service is involved.
Tipping at Salons for Minimal Services
A quick bang trim at the salon might seem like a minor service, but the expectation to tip has turned it into a growing expense for regular clients. Increasingly, salon patrons must leave a gratuity for brief and essential services.
Increased Cost of Fine Dining
These days, one establishment could have multiple tipping points, compounding the overall customer expense. For instance, an evening out at a fine-dining restaurant would involve tipping the waitstaff and the valet service, making a single visit entail multiple layers of tipping.
Multi-tipping Ride-Share Drivers
Even if you get the same driver multiple times in a day, the pressure to tip remains consistent, as ride-share apps prompt for a tip after every trip. This has significantly increased the overall cost for those who rely on these services for daily commuting and would be bound by a sense of social pressure to tip on every trip.
Pet Services Tips
The fact that the service is for a dog and not the owner hasn’t stopped the tipping expectations from ‘wagging’ their way into every aspect of pet care. Whether it’s a groomer giving Fido a fresh cut or a walker taking him for his daily exercise, tips are now often expected under the guise of groomers only getting paid 45%–50% of the service cost by pet service organizations.
Outpatient Medical Procedure Tips
Individuals undergoing outpatient medical procedures, particularly costly ones like cosmetic surgeries, are not excluded from the tipping culture’s heat. This expectation can be particularly frustrating and may even seem insensitive, given their medical visits’ necessity and personal nature.
Layers of Hospitality Tips
It’s as good as mandatory to tip at various points during a hotel stay, from the valet and bellhop to the front desk, room service, and now, more assertively, housekeeping. While all of these services enhance the guest experience, thinking about it, all these tips go to the staff of a single establishment—the hotel.
Tipping Culture at Food Trucks
The tipping culture presents a unique dynamic at food trucks, where the interaction between staff and customers is typically quick and casual. Customers often face an implicit expectation to tip, sometimes prompted by a tip jar prominently displayed or a tipping option on a payment tablet. This can feel incongruous, as food trucks typically offer fast service similar to fast-food restaurants, without the extended customer service that might typically warrant a tip.
Grocery Stores
The staff of establishments with full employment benefits, like those at major grocery chains, are also a part of the tipping culture now. More of these stores have recently introduced tipping options at self-checkout stations.
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