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NYT: $3 Tip on a $4 Cup of Coffee? Gratuities Grow, Automatically

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Mr. Hyde

Member
Thats the thing isnt it. They just tricked you into tipping $1 for something that never in history has been considered worthy of a tip.

By presenting $1, $2 and $3, when the standard is and should be $0, youre being pushed into tipping any amount.

At least mcdonalds has a "tip jar" that goes to a childrens charity.



You dont leave a $5 taped to your door for the UPS guy?

Shit man, he probably spit on your package

Ehh. Every coffee shop I go to, except places like Starbucks which I tend to avoid, have some sort of tipping option. Be it a jar or an option on an ipad. However, I've never been to a place that didn't have a no tip option on the screen. That's somewhat slimy. When two baristas are working through a gigantic line while most people want some sort of pour over that takes four or so minutes to do, a tip is not a bad idea.

Edit: Wait. There was a no tip option? I am not sure why this is a big deal, then. I missed that part of the article.
 

Enron

Banned
People are intimidated by this? Grow a pair. Push the goddamn button and who cares what the barista thinks. If my service was rude I got no problem hitting a NO TIP button while looking them straight in the eye!
 

slit

Member
Why is delivering a pizza deserving a tip, but not making you coffee?

Why don't we tip the cashier at Target or Walmart who puts our stuff in a bag? Why don't we tip the UPS driver who deivers our merchandise? Why don't we tip everyone who performs any motion at all in their jobs and serves people?
 

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
The cashier at Café Grumpy, a New York City coffeehouse, swiped the credit card, then whirled the screen of her iPad sales device around to face the customer. “Add a tip,” the screen commanded, listing three options: $1, $2 or $3.

In other words: 25 percent, 50 percent or 75 percent of the bill.
4r2QGpM.gif
 

SmokyDave

Member
I happily and generously tip in the appropriate situations. Ordering a coffee ain't one of them, and coming with your hand out is another no-no. The chip & pin machines over here often say 'add a gratuity?' and the cashier inevitably says 'just hit the red button to get rid of that' because they're almost embarrased at the e-begging.
 
I don't usually tip a guy for pouring a cup of a coffee for me. Maybe if they actually had to prepare it or something, but I'm a no frills guy when it comes to coffee so this hasn't happened to me before. Even then, I would have taken the few seconds to tip an amount lower than $1, regardless of whether the guy was looking at me or not.

Now that I think on it, I've seen this iPad thing before at coffee shops before; that time I remember hitting "no tip".
 
Remember folks, in California, and in a few other states, theres no "special minimum" wage for tipped employees.

Delivery folks, waiters, bar tenders etc etc all make $9.00 an hour, not the $2.25 the service mafia likes to throw around. That lower amount is true in backwards states, but not where the people live.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
I'm typically not going to tip for counter service. That's pretty much the base level of doing your job. If you make me feel especially welcome or entertained while I'm waiting I might toss a buck or two into the tip jar.
 
There was a “no tip” and a “customize tip” button, too, but neither seemed particularly inviting as the cashier looked on. Under that pressure, the middle choice — $2 — seemed easiest,

This makes no sense...

1. Why didn't the "no tip" or "customize tip" seem particularly inviting? Just press the damn buttons lol...
2. Why did $2 seem "easiest"? Why not $1?
 

styl3s

Member
Yet another of the vast plethora of arguments against the institution of tipping in the United States.
I don't think most of us are against tipping we are just against tipping someone for handing us a cup of coffee.

There is a difference in tipping someone who is waiting on you for 1-2 hours or delivering you food from miles away to someone who is literally spending 6 seconds of their time making you a cup of coffee. Do you tip the people who make you smoothies at places like smoothie king?
 

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
Remember folks, in California, and in a few other states, theres no "special minimum" wage for tipped employees.

Delivery folks, waiters, bar tenders etc etc all make $9.00 an hour, not the $2.25 the service mafia likes to throw around. That lower amount is true in backwards states, but not where the people live.

Good to know for when I visit.

I'm assuming they still expect at least 15% though?
 
This makes no sense...

1. Why didn't the "no tip" or "customize tip" seem particularly inviting? Just press the damn buttons lol...
2. Why did $2 seem "easiest"? Why not $1?

Some people want to be seen as good so they tip decently. Is that so hard to understand?
 

see5harp

Member
I might tip my change like a quarter. I've never given a tip at my local coffee spot getting drip coffees. If I ordered a flat white I might think about it.
 
Ehh. Every coffee shop I go to, except places like Starbucks which I tend to avoid, have some sort of tipping option. Be it a jar or an option on an ipad. However, I've never been to a place that didn't have a no tip option on the screen. That's somewhat slimy. When two baristas are working through a gigantic line while most people want some sort of pour over that takes four or so minutes to do, a tip is not a bad idea.
Why? They are there to make coffee. They don't have to do anything else. You go to the counter, get your coffee and pay.

I'll only tip if the coffee was brought to me at a table and I've sat down for a bit there. Then there is a service included. Maybe they check up on you, you order something else, etc. Otherwise, what am I tipping for?
 
i only tip when the restaurant seats me and takes care that my experience EATING or DRINKING while being there there was good. Takeaway and coffee trips shouldnt count
 
I think the difference between your generation and my generation is that I can live with shame I don't care about shame so whether I choose to take or not is based solely on how I feel now bottom line if you didn't deliver something to either my house or my table you're not getting a tip.
 
I have never tipped for a cup of coffee, and I buy a lot. The people working at the two to three coffee shops I frequent still are nice to me, even after years of not tipping.
 
Top I would ever tip for a coffee is like 50 cents, and that's only if it's damn good coffee and fast service

It's coffee, I'm not asking for anything special, and if everyone tipped 50 cents thats still a shit load of tip money going around.

But 25% tip? 50% tip? That's how you piss people off.
 
Some people want to be seen as good so they tip decently. Is that so hard to understand?
$1 of that $4 coffee is 25% of the total. A 50% tip is only considered decent to you? Seriously?

All of this is moot anyway considering the ridiculousness of tipping someone for pouring you a cup to drink.
 
The problem is the stare down and pressure on you. There are people who believe you are bottom feeding scum for not tipping. Businesses feed on this so they know people will give a tip when its pushed in your face. Not every one has the balls to say no when they want to and businesses know that.
Well they should. And it's their problem if they can't find them to do so. I know people that can't find the balls to ask for extra sauce packets.
Why don't we tip the cashier at Target or Walmart who puts our stuff in a bag? Why don't we tip the UPS driver who deivers our merchandise? Why don't we tip everyone who performs any motion at all in their jobs and serves people?
Because all of those are examples of people finishing a transaction. There is no extra service being provided. UPS's whole business plan is to deliver you things, and if they're supposed to and they don't they owe YOU something. A pizza place has no obligation to bring the food to your house, their job is to make pizza, and bringing the pizza to your house is a bonus service you're opting into. A pizza place wouldn't owe you anything if they decided they weren't going to offer delivery services. If you don't want to pay the tip for a pizza being delivered you still have the option to go pick it up yourself.
 
$1 of that $4 coffee is 25% of the total. A 50% tip is only considered decent to you? Seriously?

All of this is moot anyway considering the ridiculousness of tipping someone for pouring you a cup to drink.

It's just as bad when people tip $1 at a bar when the bartender spends 3 seconds pouring a beer.
 
It would be more cost effective to get a custom coffee machine whose investment will be made up in 2 months than tip such an amount on coffee 5 days a week
 

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
But the barista was looking, man! Too much pressure!!!

I only tip if they've earned it. I don't drink coffee but if I did I don't see what would be worthy of a tip from pouring a fucking cup.

The problem is the stare down and pressure on you. There are people who believe you are bottom feeding scum for not tipping. Businesses feed on this so they know people will give a tip when its pushed in your face. Not every one has the balls to say no when they want to and businesses know that.

I do agree that the pressure and "shaming" associated with no tipping is rough, but thankfully, I don't care. :)

I tip when I go out to eat or get my haircut: 10-20% of food purchases, $2-3 on my haircut.
 
I don't mind tipping but it irks me when I pick up a pizza and the dude at the counter hands me a slip to write in a tip. Wtf, I picked it up brah.

Also, I try to pay in cash like another gaffer said to avoid the state down lol.
 

thiscoldblack

Unconfirmed Member
People don't share the same sentiment, but people expecting tips out of their job services annoy me. Be mad at your boss for taking advantage of such system to pay you a miserable wage.
 
The mandatory 24% gratuity at the buffet is a little much, but the story about how the barista made the author tip $2 was dumb. There's a $1 option, just choose that if you only want to tip $1. I'm pretty sure the cafe near me has the same thing - Square on an iPad as their POS system, and it gives the same choices. I just tip $1 and don't feel like a dick about it because it's a $3 cup of coffee.

The fact that "feeling like a dick" even crosses your mind over a 33% tip is sort of the point of the article.

It's insanity and getting way out of hand.
 
$1 of that $4 coffee is 25% of the total. A 50% tip is only considered decent to you? Seriously?

All of this is moot anyway considering the ridiculousness of tipping someone for pouring you a cup to drink.

Well they should. And it's their problem if they can't find them to do so. I know people that can't find the balls to ask for extra sauce packets.

People are shamed if do not tip. Even happens in GAF threads! It's not hard to believe people don't want to be shamed because they didn't give the waitress $2. There are lots of stories how people are given worse service because they don't tip, or heck ignored at bars because they don't believe the $1 rule. It's silliness all around.

It's decent because people expect you to be decent and if you're not then you may face ridicule.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
It's just as bad when people tip $1 at a bar when the bartender spends 3 seconds pouring a beer.

I always open a tab with my credit card, to avoid getting nickel and dimed like that. If the bartender is awesome and spends time making me feel welcome I don't mind leaving a good tip, but the expectation of "keep the change" I see a lot is nuts.
 
Half the time I have no clue what I am supposed to tip for anymore.

I was a local bakery not long ago picking up a loaf of bread and I got a dirty look when I used the ipad checkout app and didn't tip the girl that helped me. All she was doing was running the register and turning around and picking up a loaf of bread....why does that require a tip?

Yeah its just absolutely ridiculous how they don't tell you anything or have any hints at tips being required and then they have the audacity to get mad at you for not tipping like you're psychic or something.
 
I live in Scotland and I quite happily never tip unless the service I recieve is exceptional.

The guy that cuts my hair gets a £2 tip on my £8 haircut because he knows I don't like small talk and I just want the haircut and then to leave, he says nothing and neither do I, exceptional service.

In restaurants if I have some change I may leave a tip if for some reason the service was massively memorable or better than elsewhere or the food was fantastic but we are talking 2 or 3 £'s here at the most.

It's bad enough that a coffee or tea costs upwards of £2 nevermind tipping as well haha.

You should leave a tip if something is out of the oridinary or utterly fantastic. Leaving a tip as standard makes no sense and just develops in to what we see now in the OP where tipping $3 on a $4 drink is a thing.
 

Septimius

Junior Member
Why would someone making coffee deserve a tip but not a cashier/cook at McDonald's?

I have no idea. Honestly.

you seriously dont know the difference?

Nope.

Why don't we tip the cashier at Target or Walmart who puts our stuff in a bag? Why don't we tip the UPS driver who deivers our merchandise? Why don't we tip everyone who performs any motion at all in their jobs and serves people?

That's the point. The post I quoted said it was "just pouring coffee", but it seems equally mundane to deliver a pizza. I don't get the arbitrary line between "just making coffee" and "just delivering pizza". They're both just two jobs. Why does one deserve to get more money from you in gratuity, but not the other?

To clarify, I'm Norwegian. We don't tip our pizza delivery men or cab drivers. I have tipped cab drivers, and I get gratuity deals with service, so it feels arbitrary that someone that services you for the 30 second interaction with your pizza in their hands is more worthy of a tip, which I see as a "I feel you deserve something extra for your service", than someone making you coffee for 30 seconds. Feels equally much as a service profession. I'm trying to understand what feel very arbitrary to me.

Well the coffee guy didn't drive to my house during the rain or snow, did he?

So do you tip your UPS guy?
 
I sometimes go and write w/a friend of mine at a small, mom-and-pop type coffee shop. The barista there not only makes my cup(s) of coffee, they also heat up any snacks or food I buy there and bring it to my table. And they don't charge me until I leave, which is sometimes (read: often) several hours later. On top of that, they have good free wi-fi without any ads or ad portals or anything.

...so them, I tip. The service is above and beyond simply making a cup of coffee or handing me a donut or something.


...and they STILL only get like $1 or 2 extra for each cup of coffee or whatever. Tipping is crazy in America now.
 
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