Do you think that tipping your local barista is appropriate after paying $7.00 for a latte and a muffin? I mean after all, they are crafting a signature drink just for you. They actually have the power to make it taste great or serve you a bitter drink. Noteably, their decision depends on if they catch you adding a little something to the tip jar.
Unlike servers at restaurants, whom do NOT make the food, but simply serve it.
If you’re already paying $5-$7 for a drink, what is really another dollar to simply say, “Thanks!”
I generally resent the “tip jar” which is popping up with increasing frequency at service counters, however I will drop in the coins I receive as change from my order. If I’ve paid with exact change, there will be nothing to drop in the tip jar.
I should add that I am very much in favor of the tipping system for table service; almost always tipping 20% for average service and often much more for exemplary service.
But that tip jar just gets on my tits for some reason.
How much you pay should have no influence on how much you tip, because the part-timer making your drink isn’t making much more than $8 a hour and definitely doesn’t decide the prices.
I tip at coffee houses because I’ve seen the kind of knowledge it takes to make a good barista. There is a LOT that goes into making a good coffee drink.
I used to work in a bookstore and while we didn’t have a cafe, several of my coworkers had come from stores that did. They said the baristas made more than they did, and they got tips. While food service is slightly worse than retail, knowing that I don’t feel much need to tip. Also, at the cafes I’ve been to (all in bookstores) the service has been horrible and most of the time my order has been at least slightly, if not completely wrong.
Stop leaning on the counter.
I usually tip at coffee places, but I don’t go to fancy places with “baristas”. I know the people working at Tim Hortons aren’t making a ton of money, and so I usually leave them my change when I get a coffee.
Well, pay depends on where you work. Right now, I’m making a truly whopping $5.25 an hour. So I appreciate each little bit that goes into the tip jar. And I know that a lot of baristas in the area make around $7 an hour, which isn’t riches either.
On the other hand, in reference to the OP, I try to make each drink a good one, whether you tip or not. Etiquette-wise, it’s not on the same footing as tipping waitresses is, so I let it go and try to make people as happy as I can.
One last thing: If you do tip, remember that the price of the drink doesn’t reflect the work involved in the drink. A double mocha costs more than a double half-caf skinny latte with a half shot of cinnamon, a half shot of hazelnut, and precisely two centimeters of foam served at 183.6 degrees Fahrenheit, but the mocha is a hell of a lot easier to make.
I used to be a coffee-slinger for a couple of years in college. No, it was not required to tip, and I didn’t expect to be tipped by most people. On average, we could expect about $2/hr in tips in addition to our approx $6/hr wage. But we did have a tip jar, and I certainly would take extra care of customers who tipped well. It’s appreciated but, no, it’s not required.
I would lie, however, if I said I didn’t get a little annoyed by the after-dinner crowd that would show up five minutes before close, order half a dozen cakes and espresso drinks, and not at least leave a buck or two for the effort.
I tip for coffee that I plan to drink on the premises, anywhere between $.50 and $1.00 depending on the change I get, or more if I think I will have more coffee later. I would tip more if I ordered complicated things like lattes and frappucini, but I never do.
I don’t tip when buying a bag of whole bean coffee to go.
To me, it depends on the coffee house.
I go to the one in town, which I don’t particularly enjoy, but I play shows down there because of it’s acoustic-friendly atmosphere. I tip on nights I’m playing, because they usually throw in 2 or 3 cups for free. They also hire me back, and I’m not sure the two are related, but they could be.
In Athens, near my hometown, I visit a coffee shop called The Donkey. I have loved The Donkey since I first went there at 15. I play there a few times every year and stop by for shows about once every couple months. It’s a nice, relaxed place. I tip generously there, because even though I’m not around often, they remember my usual drink. They also are pretty good about promotion, and I know how they are with their “friends” so I don’t piss them off (at least not on purpose) and they treat me pretty good…
But at non-descript coffee houses, they might get the pennies and dimes, but not much else…I guess I just am a little cheap about it, especially when I have drank the coffee before and it wasn’t the greatest.
I’m a barista. I have never intentionally given anyone a bad drink, and if I’m making the drinks (instead of manning the register) I don’t notice who tips or how much–I’m too busy reading receipts to figure out what to make next.
Whether I eat more than a cookie and a bowl of ramen on a given day usually depends directly on how much I’ve made in tips. (Most of the time I pay for the cookie with my tips; usually it’s barely enough with my employee discount.)
At my work, the tips are kept in the jar until someone comes on or off the clock, at which time someone pulls the money out of it and divides it by however many people worked the preceding shift. If we didn’t have a jar, we would be constantly shifting our attention away from the drinks and towards the pile of cash–making sure we didn’t accidentally drop it, flavor it, steam it, clean it, etc. And without the last-minute visual reminder of seeing the tip jar, most people would probably forget to tip. (Most people forget to tip anyway.)
I don’t know about the average, but I’ve made CA minimum wage in a similar job, and right now I’m less than a dollar over minimum wage.
I must disagree. Generally, the more expensive the drink, the more involved the process of making it–unless you have a really particular order like the one look!ninjas described. That said, making those drinks is kind of fun, in a masochistic way.
I work at a bookstore cafe. We (the cafe) scored a perfect 100% on a mystery shop a couple of weeks ago. The cafe folk make less than the lowliest birthday-card peons on the book floor.
My opinion on tipping at a coffeehouse is you shouldn’t feel obligated to do it if you’re struggling to pay your bills, but you should keep in mind that most of us are having a pretty rough time in the material world. If you order four mochas with different flavors, garnishes and milk options, two slices of pie and five different cookies, I really hope you leave a tip. But I won’t notice if you don’t, because I’ll be pretty busy.
It’s been my experience thus far that the more complicated the order, the less likely people are to tip. It’s irritating, sure, but I find that the people who give you a dollar for pouring them a small coffee make up for it. Even if it doesn’t do a whole lot financially, it erases the bad feelings and crankiness to get a good tip or deal with someone who’s friendly.
I don’t feel a sense of “obligation” to tip that exists at a resturant. However, if I see a tip jar and the barista was friendly or seems to be having a rough day, I’ll put in what I can. I figure life’s been good to me and I ought to pass on a kindness whenever I get the chance.
I give big tips around the holidays. It tickles me to think of someone being delighted at finding a twenty in their tip jar.
I worked as a barista for the past year, and I’m pretty ambivalent on individual tipping, but I surely appreciated the extra $2-$3 an hour that it resulted in (on top of measly minimum wage). In other words, we always ended up with an extra $2 to $3 an hour in tip money regardless, so I didn’t really get upset at single customers or individuals who didn’t tip. I did notice the irony of our regular tippers being the ones who ordered simple drinks, and the usual lack of tipping on the part of people who were particularly picky or demanding.
That said, tipping will get you better service; if I saw a customer hit the tip jar, I’d be more likely to steam them a fresh pitcher of milk instead of grabbing the one that’s been sitting there cooling off for 5-10 minutes, and I’d pay more attention to making sure their foamed milk was creamy instead of sudsy, their whipped cream topping artful and dainty and garnished with nutmeg or cinnamon instead of just sprayed on firehose-style. It’s just a return of appreciation for the extra tip.
There are million ways a barista can and will get revenge on a customer who misbehaves, but that’s another thread (and one I got a month’s suspension for about a year ago). :dubious: Just as serial tippers get extra little perks, a serial non-tipper with an irritating or complicated regular order will find themselves getting the old milk, getting randomly “decaffed,” and so on.
My problem is, I will tip and am glad to tip, but do think the tip jar is kind of presumptuous. Someone should come up with a solution that allows people to tip without using the dreaded tip jar.
Perhaps because such little “extra perks” can be grounds for firing, at the very least, or even in some cases, perhaps arrest? (Giving someone with severe allergies milk, or what have you?)
Thing is, I would never serve a substandard product, whether the person be a good tipper or not. If the milk isn’t steaming up properly and working up the proper stiffness of foam, I’ll start with a new batch of milk. If the espresso doesn’t have any crema, well, we’re redoing the espresso. I would never dream of serving an espresso without crema to anyone. Never ever.
Instead, I may offer good tippers free refills on coffee and that sort of stuff (which we were allowed to do within reason).
Taking “revenge” on a customer is juvenille behavior.