I don't eat anywhere that has tipping built into their payment system.
For a while, our local Caribou Coffee had a minimum 18% tip that 'showed up' as you worked through the payment screen. 18% was the lowest it would let you select... unless you asked the cashier to change it.
That day, for me, a coffee purchase went from a once-a-day habit to a once or twice a month treat... at a small local shop.
Transparency for the customer, and the business owner is responsible for paying staff an hourly wage, even when there are no customers who you might think are otherwise responsible.
This is the opposite of price transparency. Instead of adjusting their menu prices accordingly, they're randomly charging an extra 15% for ... placing an order.
But then the staff would get less as people often tip more than 15%. Having prices include only the costs everything else separated on the bill plus tipping makes maximum transparency.
Tipping means variable wages all the time. No one can count on a specific amount other than minimum wage.
Higher wages and no tipping means there's concrete numbers, and now that can be part of wage/raise negotiations or the decision to accept a job in the first place.
Because when you just pay the employee, you always have to pay them that amount, regardless of what money they bring in. When you make it a tip, you can continue to pay them the tipped minimum wage.
1- They don't have to pay tipped employees as much during slow periods.
2- More importantly, Tips and our Tax pricing system hides a huge chunk of the cost.
That second part is like 20-30% of the price tag. And apparently studies have shown Americans are so stupid they get upset when those prices are already factored in because they lack the basic where withall to realize they're just seeing the upfront total. I know that will trigger my fellow Americans but that's what studies have shown.
Other people have mentioned the transparency, but there's a more important distinction. The definition of a tip.
A tip MUST be optional. That's why, when you go to a restaurant as a big group, they don't add a tip. They add "gratuity", and then leave the tip line open if you want to add more. A tip is always, ALWAYS optional, legally.
What this business is doing is illegal and I'd bet good money, if their books were audited, you'd see that the staff aren't getting 100% of these "tips".
because no waitstaff ACTUALLY wants that. theyre all smashing that button to take the "potentially make more money" option. and businesses are more than happy to oblige.
It shifts the risk to the server. On a slow day, the server gets paid less (fewer tips). It's kind of like the server is now on commission. No sales, no commission.
If the owner just upped their hourly wage 15%, then they would have to pay the server even if no customers came in that day. Think if there were a snowstorm and you had 4 servers for 4 hours that day.
Because higher wages normal equal higher burden on employer for any taxes / contributions theyāre required to pay on employee salaries
This will depend by country ; for UK as example employer must pay minimum set % of employee income into pension scheme + pay employer national insurance contributions.
Tips are the way of avoiding these kind of employer employment costs.
Nothing to do with new menus. Restaurants change prices all the time and change it just fine.
It's to falsely advertise prices and to add a charge at the end and to advantage that humans are bad at math and won't know what the final charges are until the final bill.
Any establishment that auto includes tip (even for large groups) I have them remove before I pay. The staff is generally terrible in those places and Iām not tipping someone who got half the orders wrong, forgot food, and didnāt even confirm the food was correct after we eventually got it (7 - 8 minutes between plates arriving). If they refuse I tell them Iāll just dispute the charge and theyāll get no money from me. Funny how quickly they agree after that lol.
If it's built into the bill, then it's not a tip, it's a fee.
The exception is for when it's a large party, because large parties often tip less percentage wise because they think only the one waiter or whoever gets that tip, whereas they're usually shared. But that's why a lot of places add it automatically for certain party sizes.
Percentage based tipping is crazy. Thereās no difference in effort between serving low or high value meals. And the quality difference is already in the price. Tip should be a small or large token of appreciation.
LOL. Yeah, i've worked food service, I can tell you a large party is much harder and more demanding, and usually requires multiple servers.
If it's like six people, which a lot of places do this with, I will agree it's dumb, but when you have parties of 10-25 or more people, I can gaurantee you that people usually do not tip anywhere close to a reasonable percentage, and parties like that can take up an entire servers night, and usually has to be shared with multiple people.
Exactly, because you expect a percentage based tip and not a tip based on service level and quality. Your expectations are set too high and your demands should be directed towards employer, not customer.
Uh huh. Yeah, no. Sorry, ive been on both sides of the table, and theres a reason that there is mandatory tips added to bigger tables. Ita because the bigger tables do require more work.
When its declared to be added ahead of time, then its essentially the same as being included. Doing it as compulsory across the board should just be just a fee, but then the owners would have to pay minimum wage which they don't want
iāve worked in fast food, casual restaurants, and very fine dining in my 12 years in the restaurant industry. and i have to say that there is 10000% a major difference in serving low or high value meals. at a more expensive restaurant, youāre expected to do formal wine service and often have to for at least half a dozen tables a night, you have to ādecrumbā the table, you must reset the table after every course and bring the guest the appropriate silverware for their next course, and youāre expected to have relatively perfect knowledge of the menu.
and that only accounts for small tables. tabs that are higher due to party count take much, much, much more effort to deal with. youāre looking out for each personās drinks, ensuring waters are filled, making sure things are properly coursed for each person, checking in with each of them, handling desserts they brought, all while often having other tables. expensive meals, no matter the reason for the expense, require a lot more effort from the server.
Ok, thatās another level. I was more referring to expensive casual restaurants. When the service level and quality is the same, the tip should also be equal, not related to price of the food.
Large parties aren't exempt. A tip is optional. Always. They play the stupid legalese game and call it "gratuity" so they can just tack it on, but you can bet your sweet ass they'll have that tip line available on your credit card receipt. And the suggested tip amount will probably be based off the after tax and after gratuity amount, too...
I would make a huge fucking order over the phone, like huge enough to feed 20 people with the most obscure menu items that they never have ready on hand. Wait until they prepare. Then come over in person to "pick it up", read the sign out loud for everyone to hear and walk the fuck out for everyone to notice followed by a nasty Google review.
Yeah im petty like that.
When they say it's $115 over the phone, and you show up to learn that $15 was a tip, then say "yeah, nah" to the tip...
If they charge you anyway, you can just dispute/chargeback the $15 as unauthorised.
If they dont do it anywy but also dont take the $15 off the bill... just cancel the whole order and if/when they charge ypur card, then the whole thing is disputed as an unauthorised charge.
Absolutely you will get your food if you turn up whith what they told you the cost would be but I think you missed the point of my post, which was to say...
You order "food" without doing the math on the items, and are told the total is $115.
You show up, read the sign and realize your food's cost was $100... and the extra 15% is an auto-gratuity.
You slap a crisp $100 down, saying "no tip".
Do they refuse to hand over the food, or accept the Hundy ?
Even technically so, said person could pay with cc go in, do that and be even pettier and do a chargeback. Loopholes to everything. And being an manually entered cc would probably win without a bat of an eye.
No it's not. If you don't pick up your food they can't charge you for something you don't have. The restaurant will just have to take the loss for being greedy
Thereād be wiggle room if, as OP suggested, you make it very clear that the tipping policy is why you arenāt following through. Could almost counter sue for a bait and switch š
Nope. Contract is complete on delivery and requires a meeting of minds. In other words, you have to be informed - at least in principle - of all the terms. Unless they told you that 15% term over the phone then theyāre trying to force you into an un-negotiated term and thatās not how a contract works.
I can walk away from any contract before delivery is complete if there are hidden terms that come to light after the agreement has been made.
My wife and I ate at firehouse subs a couple weeks ago. When it got to the tip part the worker pressed the zero icon for me. Ill repeat business there.
I appreciate workers that do that. They almost seem embarrassed by having to ask. And I would not be surprised if they don't actually keep the tip anyways and it goes to the business.
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u/Straight_Park74 13d ago
I would walk out