This is probably going to end up a total slam on Starbucks, but so be it.
What is the deal with tip jars? I’m all game for tipping people who have put time and effort into serving me personally in something that takes a period of time. Example: sitting down for a 45 minute meal and this person being my wait person the whole time…seeing to my needs. Or a cabby who has done his best to get me to the airport on time because I apparently have difficulty getting anywhere timely.
But why is it “Ok” and fully acceptable to have tip jars at Starbucks and not, say McDonald’s or Burger King. I do get the Starbucks coffee “Have It Your Way” style, yet no expected tipping at BK. Is this because Starbucks is a supposed specialty item? Or is it because it can be an addiction and they have us by the nads? Starbucks is not all that great. They’re pretty good and they’re pretty consistent, but its a point of sale purchase. I’m not expected to tip at other places where I get food items “at the register”.
But to be honest, if you’re going to jack me $3.75 for a hot cocoa with a shot of caffeine in it, and then you’re looking for a tip…my tip is lower your prices. And for pete’s sake, don’t then try to charge me $1.50 for a graham cracker you dipped in some chocolate and wrapped in cellophane.
And yes, I still tip them. But only after the first sip. If you make my addiction errr coffee like crap, I walk or ask for it made again. You make me one of those HI AND GOOD MORNING cups…yeah…you’ll get a tip I’m sucker enough for that. (and no, I don’t ask for a triple latte double vente half shot something or another types of drinks, I’m a simple Tall Mocha if I do Starbucks…with whip cream of course)
Just wondering is the discrepancy between where its ok and not ok because we view Starbucks as “special” or rather…that they do?? Dunkin Donuts has also started using Tip Jars right at the register. Haven’t seen a bakery do it yet, or a Boston Market or a BK or McD’s.
I like tip jars. I just use them as an opportunity to round my purchase up to the nearest dollar, thus preventing me from ending up with that gigantic jar of loose change that I am far, far too lazy to ever bother rolling and taking to the bank.
The McDonalds near my house has a jar for donations to the Ronald’s House thing for sick kids, and the Safeway has a jar for Easter Seals, which I use for the same purpose.
I don’t know about Starbucks in particular, but most small cafes and coffee shops have them because a lot of people don’t like getting change back. Tip jars in these places are mostly just a place for people to stick the change that they don’t want.
I work at a Cafe right next to a competitor of Starbucks. People can leave their tips on the credit card reciept, on the table or in the tip jar. Most of the people who order expresso drinks like to drop their change (ranging from 0.04 to 0.50 cents) in the tip jar. We don’t expect people to do it, but we are always thankful when they do. I estimate that we make at least 5 or 6 dollars per day from these ‘don’t want change’ people. I imagine that a starbucks makes a whole lot more.
Also, sometimes we make special orders for people. Decaf, extra-dry cappuccino with a shot of hazelnut and no cinamon on top. If a person has an overly complicated drink and we make it perfect for them they’ll usually want tip extra. I don’t know how complicated it is to make drinks at a place devoted to just coffee, but at my work, a complicated drink takes a special sort of skill. I’ve been told I am really good at making drinks, better than some professional places, but I’ve been making drinks by hand for over a year.
McDonald’s doesn’t need a tip jar because they donate the change to various charities. Dividing up tips is also a huge hassle and when the total is less than 10 dollars per day, there’s no point in bothering.
Hmmm. I’ve never really thought about it, but I’ll take a shot.
It’s a bit more complex to make a coffee drink than a hamburger.
At McD’s, all folks have to do at the counter is push buttons and put your food on a tray. Folks in the back have pre-formed patties, and it’s all pretty hard to screw up.
At a SB, they get milk, chocolate, syrup, and espresso. There’s a bit more skill and training involved in making drinks than hamburgers (I got 2 weeks of 4-hour day training at B&N cafe, and I worked at a Starbuck’s for 2 months without getting the Barista title).
Also, I don’t know what it’s like in other food-prep areas, but we’d have 2 people doing a bunch of work. Making drinks, running register, mopping floor, making coffee, doing dishes, stocking shelves, stocking fridge, making whipped cream, dusting, wiping down tables, mixing chocolate, baking cookies, etc. When I worked at Krispy Kreme, we never had fewer than 10 people on the floor, each doing something specific (customer service, making donuts, or doing dishes). SB was hard work.
Or maybe it’s just an excuse for companies to pay less - “You’ll make it up in tips.”
I think places like Starbucks and small cafés have tip jars because they can.
Tips are for workers or establishments that have given you greater accomodations. In a sit-down restaurant I’m inclined to tip, because I was seated relatively formally and I’m served in a more tangible sense. I get to sit down and have things brought to me. The pace is leisurely. I don’t get that from a fast food place. At McD’s I have to stand in line and the customer-establishment interaction is over quickly. I have to clean up after myself and get some things (napkins, straws) myself. If I tipped, I’d have to tip myself.
But Starbuckses don’t serve you the same way a sit-down restaurant does. It might take more training to make a caramel Frappucino, but you’re not led to your own table and you have to throw away your own cup. There’s nothing about the service that makes tipping appropriate and justifies the tip jars’ presence.
I think the tipping jars persist (and horrors, spread) because enough people feel the reflex to tip. They reason that they got food, just like in a restaurant, and because they tip in a restaurant and the café has a tip jar, they tip. Or they persist and spread because enough people don’t like carrying extra loose change. It costs the business nothing to put a jar out and label it ‘tips’, but in a months’ time it could add up to an extra $20. Just enough to buy the employees a pizza and beer.
Except a charities collection jar doesn’t benefit the employees like a tip jar would. To a customer, there’s little difference between the two, as it amounts to giving the corporation your money, but to employees there is definitely a difference.
Tips also wouldn’t be a huge hassle. Quite the contrary. If we got even a 10% tip, it’d add up to worthwhile sum. Say I handle 15 orders an hour (I often did more). If the average order was $6, by the end of the day I’d get $9 an hour and end the day with an extra $50-60. Of course my hourly wage would be lower if we took tips, but the amount I’d get from tips would be considerable. Dividing the tips wouldn’t be a problem, since the registers already track how much cash came in during that shift. All you’d have to do is program the employees’ name to appear on the print-out.
I should point out, though, that a tipping system wouldn’t be fair in a fast-food place, because not every employee deals face-to-face with customers or handles cash. It wouldn’t be fair if only cashiers got tips, especially when often the only thing keeping some from being cashiers is their poor English.
A respectably busy fast food place won’t have time or use for workers who only push buttons and slap the same burger together all day long. I know it’s only fast food, but there are greater expectations than that.
Fast food employees serve more than just sandwiches, and Starbucks employees aren’t the only ones who handle custom orders. I know there’s skill involved in making drinks, but there is equal skill in putting a Big Mac or Whopper together.
I’m not saying the job requires the dexterity, intelligence, and trained eye of a surgeon, but it’s not fair to oversimplify the work. Each job has things that make it unique, considerations the other never has to deal with.
Starbucks-specific tasks aside, this sounds just like the day-to-day stuff I did at McDs. And indeed, it was hard work.
I work in the cafe in Borders, I got maybe two hours-training(I was covering for someone wo calle dout that day and we were desperate), and for the most part that seems to have been enough training for what we do. We don’t have a tip jar, and company policy forbids tipping. For one thing we get paid a decent hourly wage, and don’t need tips to make up for it. There are also too many people who might come up to the cafe to help out and only see one customer, so dividing up tips is a huge pain.
And nearly 1/3 of the drinks we make are ‘specialty,’ I actually like doing them, they make my hour or so in the cafe interesting.
I used to work at a Dairy Queen where we had a tip jar, and let me tell you – at that point in my life, my tips often determined whether there would be groceries that week.
A few responses:
I’d like to support what’s been said about the complexity of coffee assemblage. (Some of the desserts we put together were pretty damn complex too; the same goes for the people who dragged their entire pee-wee soccer team in there. One guy who did that stuffed an entire fiver into the tip jar, which was a thrill.)
It’s true – you’re not given the same level of service as in a sit-down restaurant; but then again, the tips are correspondingly less. Most people give the spare change from their bill, if any. The guy who gave the $5, it was on a $50-plus charge and we were slobberingly grateful although that’s less than 10%. Honestly, baristi are not going to be paying a great deal of attention, especially if the joint is hopping, unless (or even if) you’ve got them running around for ten minutes.
Last week, I went to Starbucks. To be more specific, I went through the drive-through. And at the window, on the ledge, was a tip jar.
That seems like a bit much to me. I mean, in this situation, not only am I not being “waited on” in the sense of being served at a sit-down restaurant, but I’m not even entering the business! There’s an assumption, as far as I’m concerned, that when you go through a drive-through, you’re sacrificing personal attention for your own convenience. And I’m still expected to tip in that situation?
When I actully had money to spend on books and stuff, I would go to Borders, then have coffee and maybe a pastry at the cafe. There was a tip jar. I happily put money in it. I have a feeling they hid this jar when the Guys from Regional came around.
I occasionally have lunch at a Borders cafe near school- great source of a tasty, and extremely cheap, meal. I noticed there was not only no tip jar, but a sign prominently placed telling me tipping was not allowed. I looked at the guy who was toasting my bagel and said, “Don’t your employers love you?”
I really have no problem with tip jars, especially at a place like Subway, where my veggie sub is being made to order to my personal specifications.
Let me begin by saying that no one is ever obligated to tip me. Ever. Unlike the sit-down servers and bartenders who get less than minimum wage if you don’t count their tips, I get minimum no matter what.
Now: When you come to Subway, we make your sandwich the way you want it. If you want your bacon extra-crispy or just warmed-up, a good “Sandwich Artist” will do that for you. Want only 3 tomatoes instead of the 5 or 6 we’re supposed to give you? No problem! Want your mustard on the side? We have little plastic cups for that purpose. If you buy a twelve-inch combo and you end up being short, we’ll wink and say; “Ok well you’re a student, right?” and give you the Student Discount, so that you only pay for a six inch and a drink. We’re accomodating like that. If our oven is on and you want us to toast your bread, we’ll do that for you, too.
If you leave your detritus-littered tray in the dining room, we’ll clean it up. We sweep the floor you’re standing on. We make sure the restrooms are well-stocked and tidy. We stuff the chip rack, stock the drink fridge, clean the equipment and bake the bread. We chop the veggies you’re eating. We portion out the teriyaki and steak into those cute little cardboard trays.
If we go above and beyond the call when we make you your sandwich, and you want to show your appreciation, that will get you an extra smile from us (on top of the one we gave you when we handed you your Sub Club stamps, of course).
I don’t think I was clear enough in my post, but I agree with this. If tipping fast food servers bothers you, it’s not wrong or rude not to (as it is in the case of a waiter/waitress in a sit-down restaurant). It’s just nice of you to do so, is all, especially when the order is larger or more complex.
I generally tip only if I’m served while sitting down. If I have to order and receive food/drink at a counter, no tip. Tipping is for table service.
Exception: I will tip generously for espresso drinks. I think it’s analogous to tipping a bartender, which is a long-standing tradition.
Exception to the exception: No tip, ever, if the tip jar is labeled “Karma Jar.” Karmic retribution is being implied for non-tipping, and threats – even subtle or cute ones – don’t work well on me.
Ex- Starbucks-barista here, basically seconding what others have said.
The tip jar at a Starbucks is mainly a place for people to put their change if they don’t want it. (That’s probably why the tip jar was at the drive-thru window, though I agree it’s a bit much.) Some people throw in more; we appreciate it, but by no means do we expect it. We don’t keep track of who tips and who doesn’t, and we don’t spit in your drink if you don’t tip. And as someone else pointed out, we don’t get anywhere near as much in tips as people in sit-down restaurants do (which is as it should be).
If you don’t think you should tip people at a place like Starbucks, don’t. We’re cool with that. We fully understand that it’s basically a fast-food coffee shop (and that the prices are on the high side, which alas we can’t do anything about). And we get at least minimum wage whether we’re tipped or not.
Heh. Notice how I say ‘we’ even though I haven’t worked there for almost a year.
Whenever I see a jar that says “Tip Jar,” I make like I’m going to knock it over. “It says to tip jar,” I tell the alarmed barista. Ha ha ha. Get it? I kill me. I also tell bank clerks, when they ask me “how I want that” when I get fifty dollars, that I want 25 2’s. Bank clerks and coffee baristas don’t think I’m funny.
I’ll occasionally leave a tip in the tip jar of a Star Bucks if the person made me smile or I felt deserved it. I have never had a problem with them since they were never tried to make me feel obligated for tipping.
Now the rant part of this. I’m at the Endemion parade Saturday before last down here in New Orleans(Mardi Gras time just passed) and feeling kinda hungry. Just then, a guy from Domino’s comes down the street pushing a cart full of personal sized pizza’s. Domino’s was making great sales off people along the parade route. As I am buying my pizza, the guy selling them(Domino’s employee in uniform) is giving everyone grief about how he needs tips. When he got to me, I simply told him I wasn’t giving him a tip for handing me a $7 pizza. Why in the fuck do you deserve a tip for moving a pizza 3 feet from the hot box to my hands? We started to argue until my wife grabbed me and told me to forget it. While she certainly is the level-headed one, I was seriously pissed. All I wanted was a pizza damn you!! Damn you mister pizza man!!! I’ll go drink some more coffee now.
Tips if they do your meal according to the tips you give them in how you want it made…
Always tip if they tip your funny bone
So let’s hijack this thread to something else…
What about automatic tips for parties larger than 6 on a bill when the service (what little there was of it) sucked some major poopage?
Anyone ever refuse to pay it?
I had a group of 6 people once, we go to a restaurant, they charged an automatic 15% tip. It took them 30 minutes to get us our drink, and we didn’t see a refill till our lips were cracking. We didn’t get soup/salad till 50 minutes after sitting down…when they brought the soup/salad we told them to go get the meal right away, bring boxes and the check with it because we were late now. I finally went into the back kitchen and got someone else to box it for us. Went to the front check out (it was a diner) and told them to go hunt our check down as we think our waitress had died or something. THEY couldn’t find her for 15 minutes. They still wanted to charge the gratuity and the full meal.
Two words: UH UH
Two more words: Comped Meal
As a server in a restaurant that allows 15% automatically for parties larger than 8 (we call it grat), I almost never grat my big tables. My exception - teenagers. They usually don’t know any better than to tip or not, and I usually work way to hard waiting on them to recieve $2 on a $70 tab.
But adults? Never. Gratting a table means I’m only going to get 15 percent. And, I have heard adults say before that they would tip more, but not if gratted.
But to reply to your post specifically, I have never heard of it being really enforced. If you get crap service, don’t pay it. You did the right thing by raising a stink. Bad servers cost the good servers money, and I wish everyone would openly complain about bad service, as opposed to leaving.
I tip at coffeehouses because of what matt_mcl said. My best friend worked as a barista all through college and the buck I threw in the jar whenever I was there made a difference in his life.
He spent a lot of time figuring out drinks for me (I don’t drink coffee, so it’s usually skim milk over ice with hazelnut syrup or hot chocolate with whipped cream and blackberry syrup, depending on the season).
hijack/
Despite my belief that lousy servers shouldn’t be tipped at all, I have a problem tipping less than 10% because I believe the server will just think I’m an asshole, rather than getting the picture that they suck. How does one know that they have sucked? Should I leave a note? I would never do anything that involved actual confrontation, unfortunately.
I’m sucker enough for that. (and no, I don’t ask for a triple latte double vente half shot something or another types of drinks, I’m a simple Tall Mocha if I do Starbucks…with whip cream of course)