The recent threads about tipping got me thinking about tipping where it doesn’t seem appropriate. The instances I can remember are at coffee shops, either in a mall or at a highway rest stop. Usually there is a tip jar there at the cash register and I find myself compelled to toss a dollar or the loose change in. It seems strange that they would ask for a tip when they are only making a cup of coffee for me and then charging me $3.50-$4 for it. They are basically doing the same thing as a McDonald’s or White Castle employee yet those places aren’t asking for tips.
Is the pay at these coffee shops low like in the resturant business or do they just ask for the tip because they feel people will pay it?
I ran into this today. Most of the non-chain coffee shops I patronize are mom & pop places, with mom or pop at the register. Any profits are already going into pocket of the same person who is going to empty the tip jar. It’s not bad enough that I’m paying $3.75 for a latte, mom & pop are asking if perhaps I wouldn’t like to pay a little bit more.
If the people slaving behind the counter are minimum wage pawns, I’ll toss my change into the tip jar. If the people behind the counter are the shop owners, I think not.
Fortunately, lieu I earned plenty of tips working at a coffee shop called Holsteins!
I worked at two local, mom-and-pop type espresso shops. The tips are nice, and keep a lot of us in food and gas money. At the one shop, we’d just empty the tip jar and split what was there at the end of each shift. Very nice to have that money to hold us over until payday. At the other place, there were more than two people working at a time, so the owner would save up the tips over the month, and split them according to how many hours we worked, and also give the baker a cut.
Myself, I never expected large tips from anyone. If your drink is $2.75, it’s a nice gesture to throw the quarter in the tip jar. Tipping a buck on a single drink seemed overly generous to me (not that I’d argue about it). Another thing to consider is that making a specialty espresso drink isn’t just like pouring a cup of coffee, or pushing the button on the espresso machine at McDonald’s. Tipping is a nice courtesy for your barista, especially if they’re giving you service with a smile when you order that skinny, double, half-caff, extra-dry cappacino with half a pack of sugar and just a dash of sugar-free vanilla syrup. If you’re just ordering house coffee, I don’t think a tip is really in order.
I definitely draw a distinction between pouring a cup of coffee, or handing over a bottle of juice, and making an espresso drink. I will always tip for this. It takes skill to do it right, and tipping even a merely competent espresso maker is analagous to tipping a bartender, a wholly accepted custom.
Other over-the-counter food/drink servers can shake their “karma jars” ( :rolleyes: ) all they want, I only tip for espresso drinks, bar drinks, and table service.
If I’m just buying coffee at a coffee stand/shop, I won’t tip. If I’m ordering an expresso drink, I may consider tipping, depending on what method of payment I’m using.
These tip jars annoy me to no end. I see them next to registers at vendors in the food court in the malls. Christ almighty! I’ve got to tip because you spooned my food onto a plate, now?
I got tipped $5 on the first espresso I ever made! Positive reinforcement I guess, and I’ve never received a tip that high again.
Anyhow, we baristas generally are a minimum or just-slightly-over minimum wage earning lot. We appreciate the tips, but we don’t generally expect it. If I’m handling a large order of six espresso drinks, cakes, croissant sandwiches and the such five minutes before closing time, then I certainly would certainly appreciate a dollar tip or two and, yes, I would think it a little rude not to leave a little extra in this case. You don’t have to tip us the same way you tip bartenders, but any loose change is appreciated. In the cafe I worked at, each employee averaged $2/hr on normal days to $3/hr on busy days for tips. I think Masonite’s tipping strategy is about right. A well-prepared espresso drink can be difficult to find these days,
Also, if you tip me regularly, then I’ll remember you and give you freebies in the future to keep your business coming.
The only time I tip at a coffee stand is when I am vacationing at an area where the wages are quite a bit lower than my home–and the provided service was satisfactory. I’m not gonna feel that extra few bucks over a week.
I hardly ever tip at coffee shops. But I earned that right, dammit!
I worked for a little over a year at a schmancy coffeeshop/bakery. 160 hours a month. My average tips from the tip jar there? A little less than $30 a month.
Every now and then I’ll put my change in there, but only if I’m having a really, really good day.
I only tip if my order was something complex that they managed to successfully fill, and/or if the service was above average. (As in, they attempted to fill my order, didn’t do it right, and were good about re-making the order correctly. Or, as in one case, they got the order wrong the first time, realized it, then attmpted to make another one… then realized they were out of that flavor of suryp! Since I’m not that picky, they gave me the ‘wrong’ drink and a free brownie for the ‘inconvience’.)
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Positive reinforcement I guess, and I’ve never received a tip that high again.