6 Comments

I would leave this column a tip. Definitely.

Expand full comment

I 100% agree it's out of line! Ordered at a kiosk vs an employee even taking my order and the tip question came up. And then there is the ask to 'round up for XYZ charity' - same awkwardness. Hubby and I are budget hawks, factoring in tax, tip, and the cost of the food, we mostly eat at home, although we did go out to mom and pop places more during covid and did tip generously (except the kiosks) as a thank you to those folks for showing up vs sitting at home collecting bonus unemployment.

Expand full comment

I agree, it is getting absurd. Just yesterday, I was asked to tip the Chipotle workers for making a burrito bowl. As you said, I felt obligated.

In my town, I feel like there may already be fatigue. I say this based on my husband and I Doordashing and in the last few months, there has been a huge increase of orders coming through without a tip.

This is the type of purchase that you should tip for. We have to drive to the store, wait for your food to be made, and drive it to you. Things don't always go smoothly (eg. People not responding when we are at their house, the store taking an absurdly long time, etc) so more of our time (which is our money) wasted. We pay for gas (which is obviously very high priced right now), maintenance on our car while we put 100 mi. on it every single day, etc. Doordash in our area, most of the time, pays 2.50 an order. That is definitely not going to cut it when we have to drive 5-10 mi just to get to the store and your house. Then we drive back. Yes, we choose to do this, but we aren't a charity. We won't take orders that have no tip (you can tell by the offer when we accept or decline).

So, it is annoying when we are doing a tip driven (no pun intended) job and getting no tips for doing you a service while places that are not tip driven are asking for tips. A job they're already paid for.

Expand full comment

Well done, Erika. Yes, it's ridiculous to give 20% for a coffee server at a counter as well as a person who waited on my family for several minutes or an hour at a nice restaurant. At counters, generally, I hit "nothing" and put cash in the jar, and tell the kid that's my tip. I can do math in my head, and generally, my tip is pretty close to what is considered customary. But I resent the "suggestion."

Expand full comment

I always tip 20% for legit service : housekeeping, servers, delivery but ordering and picking up at a counter? Absolutely not unless it’s tip jar. 15 or more percent on my CC? For what? I think not. Reeks of entitlement and passing the cost of employment onto the consumer .

Expand full comment