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?
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.
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.
I've never felt awkward hitting the no tip button. I didn't even realize that people felt it was an obligation for the longest time. I would just hit the "no thanks" button and think nothing about it. I also never got the impression that the person working the register thought any less of me.
I tip delivery drivers and waiters. That's about it.
I will only give the server a cash tip if its been great sevice, and if the food has been amazing a separate cash tip for the kitchen. Im not giving you a tip for just doing your job. Tips should be for being good at your job, not just doing your job. Thats what your employer is for.
The way they sneaked up on us was: during the pandemic, I started tipping a dollar or two for take-out because "we're all in this together" and "these are extraordinary times." Then those Clover bastards came through and turned that dollar or two into a baseline 15%.
My new rule is if I'm swiping the card, I'm not tipping. It's arbitrary, and I'm sure that wait staff could use the cash, but it's gotten unsustainable.
You plan to walk into the counter? Daring strat, but I can see it freaking out the cashier enough to cancel the tip himself if you also maintain eye contact while walking, like an Oblivion NPC
Is there an advantage to doing a 360 spin before walking away? It seems easier to rotate 180 degrees before walking away. Less rotations that way and it’s more efficient
Can someone more tech-savvy than me make a smartphone app for customers to request tips from servers? i.e., the customer inputs their own bill total and the app presents a 10%, 20%, custom, and no tip option and asks for the server’s payment details and then would forward money from the server’s bank account/credit card/PayPal to the customer’s bank account/credit card/PayPal. If enough customers swarm tip-screen stores with this as a response, the stores may find their tip-screens no longer worth the time to deal with.
We fight obnoxious tipping culture by showing it a mirror.
While the servers are the ones getting most of the tips, they have no control over this. Its entirely the point of sale processor (clover, square, etc.) who push it. They get a ~3% cut of the total transaction; if you tip then it's a bigger transaction and their cut is a little bigger too.
This plan makes servers lives worse but doesn't incentivise the people actually in charge to change anything.