r/tipping

I see “being cheap” mentioned as an insult at least once in almost every thread here. Personally, I can’t even wrap my head around how someone could think being frugal is a bad thing. I’ve worked in food service/retail and tried to make people aware of deals or sales that could save them a bit of money, and most people are happy to do so because it allows them to spend what they saved on something else they need. Some of the most successful people I know are also the most frugal or “cheap” and pride themselves on being so because it allows them to stretch their money further and the only downside seems to be some social stigma that still lingers. Idk just needed to vent because it’s driving me nuts

If restaurant owners were to pay servers a decent wage then we could end the expectation of those entitled owners and servers. What are your thoughts?

So YOU deserve a tip for providing service but the person who’s cleaning up after the customers, cleaning their dishes, making their drinks, and cooking their food doesn’t?

A common rebuttal for servers who complain about people not tipping is “you’re cheap so just stay home”.

But isn’t it being considered poverty/greediness if the server is relying on “cheap” people to give them free money, for doing the job they are supposed to do?

I went to a bar last weekend with some friends. We ran up a tab, I was a bit tipsy when I closed out so I take some responsibility for what happened.

I paid like I normally do and left a 20% tip.

I then took a photo of the itemized receipt so everyone could pay me back. 18% GRATUITY was ALREADY INCLUDED!

The bartender did not tell me that gratuity was already included.

This seems like a bit of a shady business practice. I would not have tipped on top of the 18% they already included.

This is crazy to me. None of the drinks were very complex, mainly beers and shots.

Then it is not conveyed to a tipsy patron that tip is included??

Yes I take partial blame, but my lord. This has gotten out of hand.

This wasn't some fancy establishment where we were seated and served. All drinks were ordered at the bar while we played pool.

I did my job today. You should pay me extra. It's optional, but you should pay me.

I know I have an employment contract with my boss, and I agreed to get paid a certain amount per hour...

But you should pay me extra because I'm doing my job.

And if people don't pay me extra, I'll call them cheap, curse them under my breath, tell them to go f themselves, and tell them to stay home.

I might even go on Reddit and tell them to f themselves, and yell profanities at them.

~|~|~

This is the logic they use. It's up to you if you want to perpetuate this system or not.

What happens if we all decide to NOT tip anymore?

As I evaluate my experiences in the USA vs Europe.. tipping is all guilt based. Even when I travel abroad to countries where tipping is not the norm.. servers hunt American tourist and throw a tip screen.

We will never see these people again.. so why are we being generous with our money? They might get mad, but why should we care? Why do we owe the business anything when capitalism greed is at an all-time high now? The “support local business” mentality is dead to me because most businesses are weaponizing the system (inflation, tip culture, economy) and hurting the communities they serve.

Corporations have proven they can get away with shrinkflation and consumers cannot do anything.. so why are we feeding the system to give them more profits by willingly tipping for the cost of doing basic business.

🚩Paying by card is a convenience for the BUSINESS, and yet we’re penalized and charged extra for using cards?

🚩They charge a fee for take out orders? The price to make and package the food is literally the business!!

🚩They want a tip for taking my order and bringing the order.. so literally the business!!

If we refuse to tip, then restaurants will find creative ways to add extra fees into our bills.. but after a while the word “tip” will be meaningless because we start to give value to the total cost (food + junk fees) instead of worrying about the extra surcharge we all pay out of guilt (food + junk fees + TIP). Do you think this will work?

Which do you really prefer:

A) tip screens
B) total bill without tip screen

I’m sick and tired of tipping culture in Mexico, they want tips for everything!!

A tip for my traffic ticket, a tip for getting caught with weed, a tip for an escort through a dangerous city, a tip after visiting the massage parlor….

I’m completely done, starting tomorrow nobody is getting a single tip on MY VACATION !!! 💯

Went to a coffee/smoothie place the other day.

Standing order, usually no tip unless for coffee or beer, then I tip $1 per drink. Smoothie seemed to fit the bill, so I tipped $1 on a $24 charge. (Suggested was $5.60 or something)

Barista was super cold to me after that. She served my sandwich kinda quick, but then while making the smoothie, let it sit on the counter behind the glass, while I was sitting 2 feet away. Moved it a bit closer, left it again. I swear she moved it 6 times, inching closer and closer to me. Before this, I had a dry throat and was audibly, but lighting coughing a bit, I almost asked for water, but I figured she was getting close to handing it over.

Also, she didn't give me a napkin (not a big deal), and when I went to the order area to ask for a couple napkins, she grabbed 10, then put 5 back, then out of that pile, handed me a 1 single-ply napkin. and put the other 4 onto the counter for others.

It was obvious to me she was upset about the tip, and kept looking at me while I was eating, seemingly pissed off.

Crazy work. Not tipping next time. I was kind to her, quiet, and took care of my own trash when I was done.

Often I read about teachers or nurses who have left their professions to become waiters and waitresses because they earn more based off tips rather than in their own professions

This is wrong. They are simply food runners. They take your order and they bring you your food and keep your drink filled up. A robot can do the job. A high schooler can do the job.

Everything they do is within their job description.

Do not perpetuate this toxic cycle of entitlement.

Tipping is optional. Don't tip.

When I ordered my food to go online, it asked how much it wanted me to tip.

I tipped 15%.

I went to pick up my order, and the guy handed me a piece of paper to sign.

And it had a tip line.

I asked him why is it asking for a tip? I gave a tip.

The guy told me, this is an additional tip.

I told him I already tipped.

He said yeah, but this is if you wanted to tip more.

Looking closely it displayed my tip, and sure enough the line said additional tip.

The guy tells me if you don’t want it don’t put anything.

I said, sorry, but there’s no way I’m leaving that blank.

And wrote the total on the total line.

And the guy said sarcastically “great! Thanks!” and walked away mad.

Am I crazy here?

Be the change you want to see. Tip 0 every time.

Force the conversation between the employee and the employer.

You are the customer. Let them do their job that their employer pays them to do.

Tipping is optional.

Tipping is reserved for when the service goes above and beyond the call of duty.

Edit:

Above and beyond the call of duty examples are:

• cutting your steak for you

• taking the shells off of food for you

• if you're a tourist, maybe they give you a plethora of recommendations, sit down with you, and help you plan your trip

• amazing outstanding service that is memorable (yes, think back to the time where the service was outstanding and left a smile on your face, this happens, rarely, but it happens). The service is so good that you insist on a tip.

These waiters and waitresses are willfully employed in their professions. They choose to work there

They choose to work there purposefully to take advantage of customers and exploit them for additional money, on top of what their employer pays them.

They are exploiting you.

They are taking advantage of you.

They are pressuring you. It is their entitlement.

Tipping is optional.

Tipping is reserved for when the service goes above and beyond the call of duty

Every time I order a meal on Uber Eats or DoorDash, whatever delivery service, I always tip the same amount. (This is for single meals, not groceries.) no matter what I spend, there is the only one bag to grab. No matter if it is from the nicest steakhouse in the city and a $200 plus order or a single taco from the local hole in the wall, that is five dollars. I of course will consider if there is a longer wait than expected for the Driver while food is prepared or delivery distance, etc.. but for the majority of orders, if it’s a routine pick up within a few miles, and only the one bag, I don’t see a need to tip on total check, especially when there is no actual restaurant service.

Do you tip based on check out when it’s delivery?

I generally tip well but I didn’t leave a tip this time. But since I’m still pro tipping overall, I guess that’s what the flair will be.

Went to lunch with my mom. My mom takes insulin before her meals. Now my mom is vegetarian so she customized a meal and I had no problem paying extra for it. I got a vibe from the waitress that she wasn’t paying attention to the customizations my mom wanted. My mom took her insulin and was ready to start eating but the food got delayed by 45 minutes.

When it finally did come, it was completely messed up but at least there was no meat on it. My mom felt like she’d pass out so she ate half of it anyways but since it was messed up and not what she wanted she didn’t eat the other half. She was fine after that but didn’t feel like finishing her meal.

I called the server over and explained the entire situation. The server gave a nasty attitude about how she’d already ate half. I just smiled and said that’s fine.

Bill came out to $83. Normally would have tipped $20. But I tipped $0 and wrote a somewhat nasty message on the receipt.

Now that I’m not as pissed off, I guess it is true that we weren’t entitled to a free meal. But the entire situation really pissed me off, especially the nasty attitude from the waitress.

As someone from outside the US, American tipping culture is a really unique phenomenon to observe. From what I see, a lot of servers agree that the system has its issues, but most of the frustration seems to land on customers who don't tip, rather than the system itself.

​I’m genuinely curious if any servers have tried to address this from the inside. For example: ​Have you ever asked management for a higher flat wage instead of relying on tips? ​Have you tried working at a "no-tip" restaurant with a fixed hourly pay? Did that business model manage to survive? ​Have you taken any other small steps to move away from tip-dependent income?

​I have little exposure to this system firsthand, so I’m just trying to understand if there are active efforts from workers to push for change, and what those experiences have been like.

why do we need experts to tell us? it’s always OK not to tip.

EndTipping did a poll asking what tipping should be replaced with. A 52% majority chose "No increase or fees, prices remain the same, employer is forced to pay living wage".

They view tipping as an extra cost driven by greed, which is why they often slander restaurants that swap tips for mandatory service fees. And look at the very first commented restaurant on EndTipping's "List of No Tip Restaurants" (Sultan Madison). A "Small Plate" menu featuring $32 for 4 chicken wings, $6 for bread, and $16 for potatoes and spinach among other grossly overpriced items.

What anti-tippers really want, is to be able to walk into a full service restaurant with the same pricing and for tipping to simply cease to exist.

What's the only system that allows them to do that?

Ironically, the tipping system.

Tipping is completely voluntary; anyone can walk into a restaurant today and leave without giving a dime. This should be their golden era, yet they continue to fight it, pushing for changes they don't even realize are making things worse.

States have or are in the process of legislating-away the "tipped minimum", which allows businesses to pay $2.13/hour.

Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington got rid of tipped minimum under the guise of forcing employers to pay for the service "instead of customers". Did tipping disappear in those states? Did customary tip percentages drop? Not at all. Businesses simply raised menu prices to cover the higher base wages. Because tips are calculated as a percentage of food costs, tips actually increased alongside menu prices!

TL:DR - Anti-tippers are trying to destroy a voluntary system they can opt out of without realizing it spawns worse alternative models they can't.

Tried to post a question about tipping in the server life sub and got booted. Are the mods there typically so sensitive?

Edit: my bad for being dumb, was trying to make sure I didn’t get banned on here too before getting feedback.

About the banned post. There were multiple questions, like if someone was gonna be a bad tipper would they wanna know before seating them and how would their service change. Also asked how they would feel about the idea of letting the customers know upfront what tips they should get for the level of service they would provide.

I learned that some places, if not all, make the servers tip out even if they didn’t get any tips from the customers, was also trying to figure out how tip wages work if no one tips but I was booted.

Someone on there talked about knowing servers who remembered bad tippers and would rub utensils on the bottom of theirs shoes before bringing them to the table, they didn’t seem to condemn those actions tho.