I think the only people who can be defensible over American style tipping in this day and age are people with an uncommon degree of wealth and are patrons of specialty boutiques who likely never frequent places operated by your average wage earner.
So you know, wine country vegan artisan type shit. The $800 dollar hair salon appointment holders. The $60 dollar tequila shot buyer.
And while they can be defensible over their tipping, it often is the case they themselves are not defensible in their economic participation.
My rule of thumb: if they would refill my drink then this is a tipping place. Non-food places are judged case by case. The rest are laughed at and I do my best not to come back.
In Canada they don't have a "no tip" option any more, instead you have to click $ or % and put in 0. So what I do is I type in 0000 so they hear four inputs and think they're getting at least 10$ even though i'm not tipping at all.
I am sorry, I am not tipping 2$ for people to turn around and get my coffee from a tap.
Tipping waiters will be my final compromise with tipping culture. I never order delivery from app because I refuse to be forced to tip the delivery person after being charged delivery fee and serivce fee. I also do not tip countertop worker.
I’ve started giving 1 star review for anyplace that does this. Especially if before I’ve even received my food.
Please join me…
They use shame and guilt as a weapon. We can also
I think part of the issue is digital POS systems like Square draw more attention to the possibility of tipping, which in itself is nothing new, but feels more intrusive and like a demand. And ofc it is in Square's (the payment processor) interest to increase the total sale.
Tip jars have always been a thing tho. Some stores with old fashioned POS systems still use jars.
I've never seen someone watch as I selected a tip. That's just considered bad manners. They will walk away or look away, so I feel like the pressure to tip is more of an internal guilt or something.
The only thing that really bothers me is asking for a tip before I've received service.