The more we don't tip the more it becomes normalized. I've stopped tipping all counter service other than bartenders. At first I felt guilty but the more I did it the more it became normal to me.
What a mindfuck. At one point you/I/we are blindly making assumptions about what the human on the other side of the counter is thinking - or being egotistical enough to believe the employee's transaction with me (and the potential $1) was of any significance to them.
My guess is that the decision makers/consultants at that business are aware of these potential reactions - if they're any good at being greedy, they've dug far deeper. They just play the game of guilt to get the patron to subsidize employee wages.
Because if the tips aren't enough to make ends meet for the employee, it's the customer's fault.
Sometimes I disengage from my personal viewpoint and marvel at the complexity of it all. Using humanity against itself for personal profit without incurring a proportional amount of public disdain. Then I resume being disgusted.
We have sooooo much potential as a community. I would give literally anything (of myself - not of the ones I care about) for a star trek future. But I also like Dune, The Expanse, Foundation....
Final thought - I'm rewatching 2000's battlestar atm and it made me wonder:
If humanity has an AI war and we won - how could we ever prevent someone/some thing creating a new homegrown AI later? We almost have to merge at some level?
If I recall correctly, there was a bug in the McDonald's order screens that allowed one to remove almost everything from a burger, and get enough negative money to buy another burger with it.
I sort of get it though. Who in their right mind would actually try to buy the cheeseburger bread. Just the bread, without any of the cheeseburgery parts.
That's how these bugs features get overlooked.
What service am I tipping for? Making the food and handing it to me isn't a service, that's the expectation. If they did any less I would be making the food.
Handing it to you is an exchange of goods, but making food is a service. Yes, even if they just microwave something for you. I don't think tipping for that particular service is usually warranted either, but foodservice is kind of literally called that
The ‘making the food’ and ‘handing it to you’ is the price of the good. A tip is for how well they do that service and the atmosphere and experience they provide in the exchange.
If you have counter service and don’t clean up the table after me, there isn’t much opportunity for you to have good enough service to warrant a tip.
Everyone should follow the tipping guidelines from the olden days of when I was a child (80's). I was taught that you tip your server, your barber/stylist, your driver (taxi/delivery) and the bell boy/valet. For the most part this still works today.
20% used to make you a damned hero. Now they act like you're short changing them. I'm not tipping someone for running a fuckin cash register. I've actually started paying cash again just to avoid this whole emotional trap bullshit.
pay extra for meh is just brilliant. you're all brainwashed to subsidize companies paying their own workers and act like this is remotely normal or acceptable.
I only tip when they provide a service. If the service sucks I usually leave a small tip or nothing and if it is good service that makes my day I leave a bigger tip.