Went to Jersey Mikes (sub chain like Subway) and on the credit card reader they asked if I wanted to tip. Made me laugh.
I was wondering why people tip at places like Starbucks and other fast food places? Seems really strange to me. I think Starbucks pays pretty well for that type of place.
I can see tipping a food delivery guy but I guess that’s just tradition.
I think many people tip because they feel guilty not tipping. They see a tip jar and they feel obligated.
Guess I’m cold - I just ignore it.
I see the jar and think it’s silly. But I guess it does make some people tip.
Never seen a jar at fast food place , at least for the chains like McD, BK, etc. Might have seen it at local places.
Seems like coffee places always have a jar but I guess starbucks started it.
If people want to tip they can tip. This recently happened in my area so be cautious of where the money actually goes.
It’s ALL just tradition, and I honestly don’t know when I’m supposed to tip and when I’m not. Even Miss Manners and the like are no help at all. One year I read the advice not to tip your resident manager more than $25 at Christmas. In ten years as a resident manager, I once got $5 from one person. If people tipped like Miss Manners thinks they should, I should have received $20,000 over that same period.
I don’t want be seen as that asshole who doesn’t tip. Better to be the rube who gives away money when he doesn’t need to. But either way I feel kind of stupid and sort of resent the whole system.
I never heard of tipping a hotel maid until about 10 years ago. But maybe I missed that somehow. Don’t travel a lot.
I used to travel a lot and never tipped hotel maids. I still don’t.
Companies don’t give an expense line for tipping at hotels, so I think hotel maids receiving tips is a lot less common than miss manners would cause people to believe.
When I visit family in California, I go to a local coffee shop in a strip mall across the street from a Starbucks, because I prefer their coffee. They come out to my car to take my order, and deliver my coffee to me in my car. I think that kind of service deserves a tip, so I do.
I’ve heard of tipping for take out food which is also dumb.
Take out should be cheaper since you don’t take up space in the place.
Usually you just tip servers that typically make less than minimum wage, where their income comes mostly from such tips because that’s what they work for and the owner makes money from producing the meals/beverages, otherwise the cost of such would just rise up higher if they had to pay their servers more money and do away with tips…tipping is just compensating from one to another…like Obamacare. Of course anyone can put out a tip jar but when you see a place like McDonald’s asking for tips then you know it’s gone too far.
Places like Panera, Peet’s or Starbucks that have a tip jar get the coin change if I’m paying cash. If not, no tip. Actually, I don’t think my Panera has a real tip jar. It looks like a tip jar, but it goes to the local food bank.
My kid works for Starbucks. He works hard and puts up with a fair amount of shit from customers from all walks of life. They get no vacation time - you put in for time off and it’s not paid. Their health coverage is not affordable. When a Starbucks employee is sick, he has to call around for someone to take his shift. There is no sick leave at all. The shift supervisors make slightly above minimum wage. The tips get split between them and it is given out in cash every two weeks. The more hours they’ve worked, the bigger their cut. My boy brings home an average of about $120 extra per month.
Why tip someone for making you a decent cup of coffee and heating up your pre-made food? IMO, if you can afford to go there, then why not help supplement the barely living wage of those who work there. I don’t get coffee out very often, but when I do, I tip. Whether it’s at the store where he works or somewhere else.
When you buy something from amazon, do you tip them too? Because those workers work in pretty shitty conditions as well.
Every job is like how you describe Starbucks, though. They’re not particularly bad to work for or anything. When I worked at the movie theater (not concessions) and the retail store, we had to deal with the same stuff except there was no health insurance available to buy.
Why does turning around and pouring a coffee deserve tips and sweeping a movie theater or stocking shelves doesn’t?
Of course not, but we are talking about the service food service industry here, not every/any type of low paying job. Nobody is obligated to tip, and I don’t have an issue with people who don’t tip. It is what** I **choose to do. 20 years ago I worked in various restaurants as a waitress, and I was a bartender in New Orleans (not an easy job) for a year. I depended on tips to pay my bills. I get why someone wouldn’t want to tip for a cup of coffee - just stating the reasons why I do it. Period.
By the way - my kid likes his job. He has been doing this for almost one year while he’s deciding what to do/study. I’ve asked him how many people tip on average, and how they (the employees) feel about it. He said that for the most part they do not expect it, but it’s nice when people do. For them it is just a nice bonus to be able to have some extra cash every month.
Oops, typo on the double “service.” sorry.
Anyone making the standard wage, not the “waitress wage,” wouldn’t have thought to ask for tips, until about 10 years ago and now it seems to be expected.
I, like plenty of other people, did my time in fast food. I never got tips and would never have thought about it.
I got chewed out by stupid customers, I wore an ugly polyester uniform and hat that all smelled like old grease, put up with corrective action when my drawer was off by 5 cents, and cleaned the fryer more times than I could count.
Of course I had to find people to cover my shifts, and didn’t get sick time. No vacation or insurance either. We called that a part time job and it was a fact of high school and college life.
I still believe that except for waiting tables, a part time job is just that and there are certain things one has to put up with. The lucky ones work at the movies, and the rest fry chips at taco bell at 5 am on Sunday.
… That said, if my coffee order is extra complicated, I need a special favor or they go out of their way, I’ll probably tip. I also tip for take out food.
sort of related , yesterday I was getting gas. A guy asked me for money , said he was out of gas.
Guess he hoped I did not notice his car was a $80k SUV
I do get what you are saying. I actually had this conversation with my son just recently. He moved out two months ago and I was helping him put together a budget.
The way he explained it to me was like this – Most of us don’t expect people to tip. We are not a restaurant serving full meals. We don’t blink an eye when customers don’t, and we give the same level of service to everyone. But that envelope twice per month with some cash is… just like a bit of “gravy.” And it helps, that’s all.
There was a thread on another board posted by someone who worked at a food stand at a large music festival. (Neither the festival nor the food vendor were non-profit, they both were in it for big money.) Apparently the on-site workers are “volunteers.” The kids are excited to work for free because they get in to the festival grounds free. They have to work 10 hours, but they don’t have to pay the couple hundred bucks for admission.
The vendor put out tip jars. The kids understood that they would work a 6 hour shift and get to keep the tips. The vendor made them work 10 hours and the company kept the tips.
Apparently, the kids like it this way. A person who suggested that they file a complaint with the state labor commission got voted down into oblivion. It was an opportunity to get into the festival for free after all.