kanicbird, are you possibly not in the US and/or unaware that there is a different minimum wage for tipped servers? It is $2.13 per hour, compared to $5.15 per hour for non-tipped workers.
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Since no one tips at McDonalds (because you can’t) I have another question:
Do you tip at Starbucks? I don’t, because they’re basically the same as McDonalds, IMO.
So you’ve conspired with the rich, greedy corporations to eliminate (inevitably low-wage) jobs for checkout clerks?
How heartless.
I think Starbucks is kind of between a McD’s and a waiter. But any place where you wait in a line, the reason for a tip is defeated. In a typical restaurant, the waiter/waitress has a lot more say about how fast you’ll get served, and how well you’ll be attended to. A Starbucks person could, I suppose, make you a lousy one of those fancy drinks, as opposed to a good one. (I don’t know–the rare times I go there I just get coffee.) McD’s workers are so controlled in everything they do that there’s no motivation to have a tip system.
If the cashier’s cute and female and offers to…
no, I can’t. too crude even for me. :wally
Now I know you can’t be serious. Last time I checked, people APPLY to work at McDonald’s, meaning they decide of their own volition to work at the Golden Arches. There are no roving bands of slavers kidnapping people and forcing them to hand out Big Macs.
I find it interesting that in your mind, not tipping equals endorsing slavery. In my mind, not tipping equals “they didn’t do anything requiring me to tip them.”
Corporate chains, agreed (unless a family member works there.) Citywide or regional fast food chains, very possibly. At such a fast food chain near my home in Stone Mountain, there’s a little something called, “The Hook-Up,” where my response has been to place my order and say nonchalantly “hook it up, aiight?” then peek in the bag, smile, and say “Keep the change.”
I work at one of the stores in a nation-wide convenience store chain. If I accepted any tips from the customers at my cash, I’d get in trouble–possibly fired. I assume the same goes for McDonald’s and all other major corporations.
Let me just take this opportunity to mention how much I hate when I go to a restaurant that’s not a tipping situation, pay with credit card, and find the receipt includes a tip line. >_< Now I get to cross it out, rewrite the total, and look/feel like a cheap bastard. :mad:
McDonald’s doesn’t allow employees to accept tips.
If a bartender makes me a mixed drink, that takes more effort than putting a burger in a bag and pushing a button to fill a soda cup. I don’t drink beer, only the girlie frou-frou drinks, some requiring a blender even, so I need more effort from my bartender than my counter-drone*. Probably same thing would happen if I drank coffee, so I’d probably tip a coffee-shop employee, too.
*I worked fastfood all through high school; that’s basically what we were. It’s mind-numbing, boring work.
I wouldn’t tip at McDonald’s. When I was in high school I worked there. If someone tried to tip me, I’d have looked at them funny and thought, “dude…it’s just a burger.”
If anyone there knew what service was, I might.
The service I generally get at fast-food restaurants is pretty much the main argument I use when debating people who scream, “BUT IF THEY JUST RAISED PRICES AT RESTAURANTS AND PAID SERVERS A REAL WAGE, WE WOULDN’T HAVE TO TIP THEM!”
Money is pretty much the only motivation anyone responds to, myself included. I bartend for a living; I’ve hostessed, waited tables, etc., prior to that.
And let me tell ya, if I got paid the same regardless of how well I performed, I wouldn’t give a rat’s ass.
This is why I don’t really expect good, or even particularly decent, service at McDonald’s or any other fast-food joint. If I get food reasonably related to that which I ordered, I’m okay with it. They get paid beans, and they don’t give a rat’s ass. I don’t blame them. I could whine about “work ethics” and “young people these days” (even though I’m barely 27 myself) but what’s the point? Who are these people willing to put up with food service for six bucks an hour? How do they manage?
No, I don’t tip at McDonald’s. They’re not allowed to accept them. I’ve tried it, like the half-dozen times in my life that it’s been warranted. When I get really good service at McDonald’s, I give them my name and my card and tell them to use me as a reference when they apply at the restaurant and/or bar I work at, because nobody who cares at a fast-food restaurant deserves to make the money they make.
Nope. But then I’m British.
Whoa. Your McDonald’s employees smile??
Well, how about this? I worked for Grand Auto for a decade. I would, on occasion, have to install wiper blades on customers’ cars. Sometimes people would offer a tip, rarely would I accept. Don’t think we had rules about it, but I certainly appreciated the intention. But I was performing a real service, and for only the price of the item purchased. OTOH, I would also have to lug cases of oil out to cars for people who were clearly quite capable of doing it themselves. They NEVER offered a tip.
hijack What about grocery baggers who take your stuff to the car? I can’t believe that people other than little old ladies use this service. And I’m pretty sure they don’t get tipped, not positive though. hijack
I got sprayed in the face with windex one time going through the McDonald’s Drive thru.
Should I have tipped them for cleaning my glasses?
(they also tried to give me my money back, which I didn’t accept)
They used to. If I used one now to take my stuff out, I’d tip.
Back in the mid-80’s I worked as a “courtesy clerk” for a grocery store chain in Texas. Store policy was that we were not allowed to accept tips.
On a few occasions (1-2 times a month, perhaps), someone whose groceries I carried to the parking lot offered me a tip. Most of the time I accepted it. :eek:
I never personally saw anyone get in trouble for this, but since it normally took place out in the parking lot management wasn’t in a good position to detect it. While I was working there I heard a rumor that another courtesy clerk was summarily fired for accepting a tip, but I’m not sure I believe it. Even if somebody was canned, I’d lay odds that it was a convenient pretense, or a last straw.
Not really. Not a big starbucks fan and since they now use more automated manchines than other coffee shops the line is blurred…
But a barista is much more like a bartender than a fast food worker. Frothing milk and even pulling espresso shots is an art. They have a guild for it, and competitions. http://www.baristaguild.org/
I’d tip a good barista sooner than I’d tip a bartender.