Would You Tip?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Here’s another question about tipping. I tip waitstaff and hairdressers. Once in a while I’ll leave something in a tip jar that’s on a counter at a place where I order and pickup at the counter.

I have been taking my three dogs to a doggie daycare/boarding kennel for close to three years. Each dog goes once a week - Tues is Huckleberry’s day, Wed is Rigatoni’s and Thurs is Zebadiah’s. I bring them so they get socialization. All three LOVE going. When I started bringing my dogs, the daycare had just opened about 6 months before. It’s owned by a young husband and wife who live on site. Their business grew like gangbusters. It started out as something the wife could do while staying home with kids and at this point the husband has quit his regular job and they’ve hired 5 people. They’ve recently added on to the original building. Everyone involved is wonderful. I enjoy chatting with the wife quite often. I give the owners a Christmas gift every year and also give the rest of the staff a gift. This week a sign appeared on their counter:

Tips Appreciated
But Not Necessary

I really don’t feel the need to tip, but I also feel guilty not tipping because I’ve come to know everyone.

Would you?

2

Nope, you tip once a year which is more than required. Maybe if they did something special for your dog at one of their stays it may be worthy of a tip.

3

Something nice for xmas is what I do in situations like this.

4

Thanks! I feel better now.

5

Just a thought-
Maybe the tips are for the staff, trying to boost their lowly pay. Not everyone will still be there at Christmas for the bonus?
Maybe skip or tone down the Christmas gifts and give the gift of appreciation year round?

6

Do they offer other services like grooming or baths? I tip when I get my dogs nails clipped because she can be a bit of a squirmy wormy sometimes. So maybe the tip jar is more for services. When I board her I do not tip, but it’s also not a regular thing.

7

They don’t offer that service themselves. They have a woman that rents a small spot from them that does grooming. I had her groom one of the dogs and tipped her.

8

I’d feel bad not giving a Christmas gift. And it’s not like my Christmas gifts are $$$$$. They are a token of my appreciation. At a certain point, it would be too expensive for me to bring the dogs. I would have to cut down on how often they went.

9

If all tips actually go to the staff, it would make sense for the owners to put that information on the tip jar. I would say, in the situation as described, if any part of the tips go to the business owners, I would not tip.

10

Agree. The owners should adjust their prices if they need tips in order to generate a sufficient return on the capital they have invested in the business.

11

I wouldn’t think the owners would be in on the tips. And there’s not a jar, just the sign so apparently you would pay the tip when you pay for the service. I always pay with cash, but I’m guessing the card processor has a spot where you can add a tip.

12

I’ve had two experiences in the last month along these lines.

A pick-your-own blueberry farm has a tin labeled “Donations” which when I asked the teenager at the weigh station if she got the contents of the tin or the owner, she just looked at the adult standing 15 feet away and shrugged. This is NOT a nonprofit, it’s a commercial enterprise.

An ice cream shop had a tin on the counter labeled “College Fund”. After the blueberry farm incident I was a bit suspicious about this as well. I asked if the contents of the tin would be divided up only among the counter staff and the kids said they couldn’t answer that question. An adult came out to say that everyone is paid at least minimum wage.

Maybe I’m just too cynical, but I’m wondering if not calling it a tip jar lets the owners pocket what most customers assume are tips going to the customer facing staff.

More reasons to hate the tip culture.

13

In my case, knowing the owners somewhat, I don’t think they’d take any tips for themselves. But who knows?

I’ve decided I am not going to tip.

14

Meaning, no the tips are going to the owners of the stand to offset the costs of paying everyone minimum wage.

15

At the instruction of my dogs I leave a tip for the groomer. Whether or not the groomer is an owner of the business is irrelevant to my best friends.

16

This is what I do when my dog is at daycare. I tip when she is bathed or has her nails clipped; also, any time she stays overnight. But for regular daycare, no. Unless they do something extra for me, like the days she didn’t eat her breakfast, and I ask them to give her food that I bring at lunch time. There’s normally a $2 lunch charge, but she doesn’t like their food. They’re supposed to charge me anyway, but they don’t.

We have been going there a long time. My girl has a ton of energy, and still goes there at age 7 & 1/2. She by far the oldest dog there. There is one 5-yr-old, but everyone else is about 3 or under.

They also were incredibly wonderful once: I had happened to have dropped her off for daycare before going to an urgent care clinic, as my doctor had suggested, because he didn’t have any openings, but he though my symptoms merited it. My husband was out of town with my son (who was only about 13 at the time anyway).

Long & short, I ended up in the hospital with emergency surgery, and was there almost a week. I called them as soon as it looked like I would be admitted, and asked them to keep her overnight. They were fine with it. The next day I called and said I’d probably be there at least 4 more days and maybe more. They were fine with keeping her.

When I picked her up, they had given her a bath, and didn’t charge me for it.

So yeah, that time, I asked how tips were divvyed out, and they said at the end of each day they divided them among all the people who worked that day.

I tipped $40, and asked if they could make sure it got divided among everyone who’d worked while she was there. They said “Of course.”

I also sent 2 dozen chocolate chip cookies the next day.

I don’t do anything special at the holidays, but anytime they do any little thing, they always get tipped.

17

I’ve done the same thing. If they go over and above the normal daycare routine, I will tip. They don’t take daycare dogs from Fri-Sun because they have a lot of dogs that are boarding over the weekends. One Friday, I was taking the grandkids on a road trip and we were going to be gone all day. My husband had to work. There was no way I was going to leave all three dogs for that long. I asked the husband if they would have any room for the three amigos and explained the situation. He said sure…without consulting his wife. She was fine with it, but I don’t think she was thrilled. I’m guessing she didn’t want it to become a regular thing. I had to promise I would be back by a certain time (at the time they didn’t have other staff to help out). I was back as scheduled and included a tip with my fee.

18

I tip more than I used to, which was always very generous.

But realizing the hell needed workers went though with COVID, and I actually got a huge break by being able to work from home because of it, well… pay it forward.