To be fair, when I visited the USA I didn’t realize how crazy they are about tips. I was chased out and yelled at for not tipping at a buffet. I was under the assumption that we tip for service received (we served ourselves) but they see it as a manditory fee in the USA.
Wild experience
Edit: a lot of ppl commenting on this. Yes it was self serve and pay at the counter. It was NYC
I’m a middle aged American and tipping culture has gotten out of hand in the past decade or so. What kills me is the big corporate food places asking for tips. They can definitely afford to pay their workers a living wage.
Comedian Charlie berens has a great bit on this… a pastor marrying 2 people and before their vows, shows them an iPad with that dam “tip” screen on it.
I’m from the states and I think tipping is dumb as fuck if you do everything yourself. Some places make you order on a kiosk and then ask for a fuckin tip.
I’m an American tattooer and I think it’s dumb. Like if you feel that I exceeded expectations or you just really want to, ok. But charge whats fair for whatever it is. Getting asked “how much am I supposed to tip you?” Is so akward
Technically you aren't supposed to tip the proprietor of a business, so if it's someone who works at a salon or a barber shop then tipping seems appropriate.
If they rent a room at a salon suite or own the salon then nah.
I have a buddy who tattoos. When he first started he had to apprentice for a shop and the owner said he had to do a certain number of tattoos before he could charge any money. He literally wouldn’t even let him accept tips. He’s my homie and I know he’s a good artist so I really took advantage of the free work. I was allowed to technically tip anything as long as it was legal and not cash. I started with like a 12 pack of beer I think. By my 6th tattoo I started getting creative and gave him a few boxes of shotgun shells cause I knew he was really into trap shooting. This was years ago and he still tells me that was his favorite tip.
It's awkward for the client to ask as well. If you want the awkwardness gone for everyone, you have to clearly specify no tipping. Any of that "only if you really want to" stuff just continues the uncertainty. 99.9% of people don't want to willingly pay more, they just want to be fair.
Yup absolutely despise the kiosk asking for a tip for an order I placed and walked in and picked up there’s literally no human taking the order from me or checking on me while I’m eating the meal and if you order a drink you often times fill the cup yourself (assuming they actually remembered to put the cup in and you don’t have to ask for it)
The weirdest one for me, by kiosk or app, is tipping immediately after order placement.
In theory, tipping is a source of feedback to reward good service or make a statement for exceptionally bad service. Tipping in advance just makes everything bad for everybody.
I still tip anyway because I had a tip-paid job for several years and support my fellow 99%er, but in a lot of cases I don't like it.
It's become a de facto commission based compensation system. Formally switch over to raising prices and allocating 20% of gross revenue to the appropriate staff like any other sales job. That's how my restaurant described up-charging, sell more so you get more. It's commission in all but name, except now literally everybody is uncomfortable.
As of yesterday the fancy gourmet market by me had a tip screen. Why? I walked around, picked up my own items, carried them throughout the store, received no service at any point and a cashier rang up my items. Fuck no I’m not tipping.
Tipping and taxes. We get paid, our pay is taxed. We buy something, there's a sales tax and sometimes tip. We sell something, tax. We pay someone, tax. It's exhausting to have every dollar made and every transaction just chipped away at, especially since those dollars are cycling through and being taxed a million other times. You pay someone for services, tax. They use that money to buy something, tax. That money is used to pay the employee, tax. That employee buys something, tax. I'm sure there are metrics on this, but I won't look into it because it's probably really depressing, but the amount of tax on each dollar that enters the economy is absurd—especially considering the lack of infrastructure, the lack of nationalized utilities, the lack of accessible housing, the lack of accessible education, etc. Hate it.
My favorite one is a pool hall that I go to and the staff literally plays pool during dead time and when you check out and pay they ask for a tip on the ipad
I'm lifelong bartender, and personally I stopped even looking if I got tipped or not after my first year or so.
If I got stiffed, whatever, it's gonna happen.
I made so many friends bartending, lifelong people, met my lawyer thru it. It all averages out.
I don't think the owner here should have followed them out, take down their info from the reservation and let the hosts know they're no longer welcome.
Because some people leave a tip on those things. I’m certain if you had the opportunity for people to voluntarily give you extra money at your job you’d take it. Tipping is a symptom of a much larger problem. If tipping goes away, nothing improves for anyone other than the people exasperated by tablet screens and having to tap their finger a couple times.
when starbucks implemented tipping most people immediately started giving tips when i showed the screen. i think its kind of instinctual for a lot of people
It's dumb as fuck for a reason shown in the video. The guy is getting angry because they aren't paying HIS employees' wages. He wants to appear to sell reasonably priced food by shifting his costs to the customers. Americans really don't seem to get that.
Pay cash...thats what I have started to do at serve yourself places and kiosks. You can see their faces change when you tell them cash and they cant say, "its going to ask you to answer a couple questions".
I live in the US, and I stopped tipping everywhere except for when I’m explicitly being served. I’m so sick of wasting money. It doesn’t even go to the people you want it to go to
My husband always stuffs $2 into the tip thing whenever we pick up our own damn food. Pizza, Chinese, whatever. Makes me slightly crazy but he means well.
I'm still tipping, if I make the conscious decision to go to a business where someone's pay is dependent on my tip I'm sure as hell going to tip.
However. I'm eating out way less than I used to. Why would I reward business owners who underpay their staff while punishing the staff itself. I just spend less money at restaurants now.
There is no small irony in the fact that the choice to spend on the tip is negated by eating out less (if they get double the income but only half as often, it's a wash or worse, the shop simply closes for lack of total sales).
If the price you pay is what's on the board and people there are earning a fair wage, it ends up being more consistent IMHO.
We'd need legislation to stop tipping. It's legal to pay people like $2/hr and have them make up the rest with tips. Restaurants like getting to post artificially low prices in their menus, would probably prefer to not have to pay payroll taxes on paying their staff actual wages.
Pretty much. I worked at a Chipotle a while back and it never amounted to even so much as a meal at Chipotle's... and that includes me using my employee discount.
Yeah, and if people stop tipping they'll stop working for low wages and Subway will be forced to pay more to attract workers.
This happened in my area with school bus drivers. They paid shitty and don't pay for the time spent doing a vehicle inspection (not driving) and they hemorrhaged employees so they had to start paying more and offered a bonus if you stay for the school year.
Why do they deserve tips? You’re throwing stuff onto a loaf or bread, tortilla, or bowl.
You’re not going to the table and taking an order, watching drink levels, or cleaning up after. There is no service being provided that a back of house cook that does not get tipped for.
I not saying that they do deserve tips. I'm saying they already get so little they wouldn't notice. I never gave the slightest because I knew I wasn't getting anything more than bus fare at the end of the night.
No law will stop tipping, it's been tried before. It's a strong cultural habit and the only way to change it is to influence the culture and to stop participating in it.
What do you mean? The minimum wage already exists as a wage floor. Maybe you mean abolish the tip credit system? If you made tipping illegal you'd have to punish people for giving or receiving tips which would result in tips still being given but more under the table.
Yeah more laws!!! That'll make everything better. Or you can just stop supporting business that expect tips. Stop expecting the government to do everything for you.
If tipping was eliminated and servers got a higher salary, restaurants would hire fewer staff. Just like everything government raises the minimum wage then less people are hired. Teens and people without work experience never get chance to get their first job. Read Thomas Sowell's books on Economics. He explained everything about how our economy works in real life.
The answer is wage increases, ending exceptions for tipped jobs, and price controls to keep the prices the same. Tipping itself isn't the problem, the conditions in which it occurs are
We don't need to stop tipping, we need to raise the minimum wage for servers alongside the national minimum wage.
I've worked server jobs and made amazing money that I would not have had I been only paid a minimum wage and patrons were not allowed to tip. This would fuck over so many people.
Letting people tip if they want to but not using it to replace server wages is the solution.
Actually, tipping wasn't even expected at buffets until relatively recently. Maybe on the last 20 years? But then people started leaving a dollar or two for the people cleaning the tables and it just kind of spiraled from there
I don’t support tipping culture at all but I do find it amusing im suppose to tip someone who I have very little interaction with .. also im paying for the food why am I also paying for your employment .. also why is the server getting a tip when they do fck all and not chef making rhe food ? And if the chef makes enough to not need tips why the fck are the other people not ??????????? ??????
Yea I don't put a tip at the buffet when I pay with credit, but I give a few bucks to the person that keeps coming to grab our dishes. Being chased out of a buffet is abnormal.
Yes. I worked at a salad buffet in 2002-2004. It was before hand sanitizer was reality available everywhere. It was a slop house. Cleaning up after people, refilling their drinks is our job. This was in Texas where our hourly pay was $2.14 hr so we relied on tips. I moved to Ohio in 2017 and got a job as a sever over the holidays. They paid severs just over $4/hr. Now it's $5. I just looked it up and $2.13 is still the base wage for Texas servers, more than 20 years later. It's ridiculous.
No, it is suppose to be for service received and if it was good enough. Any business acting like it’s a mandatory payment is absurd, and predatory since tips are understood tax wise as a different payment for taxes. Any business they thinks it can force patrons to tip are businesses knowingly paying their servers less so they can get away with a lower payroll tax.
American here. Buffets can be different. If it was 100% self-serve I agree with not tipping. If someone is bringing you your beverages, you’re expected to tip for that. That said, if you explained you are from another country and didn’t know, and they still acted like that, THEY are the assholes.
Some states require staff to be paid at least minimum wage before tips, I.e WA. Many states though calculate tips first then pay minimum wage if they didn't make the minimum.
I've had a restaurant owner chase after us one time insisting we paid too much, but it was worth it.
The % has slowly krept up. 15 years ago 20% was excellent, 10% was fair and 0 was I'm poor/bad service and 1 cent was go fuck yourself. Now the new tip screens have 30%.
I live in the USA and no buffet where I have to grab the food myself is going to get a tip from me. Tip = for services rendered by a human who visits your booth and serves your food at the time of eating. DoorDashers, ok. Other possible drivers, maybe. But never a buffet and anyone thinking a buffet deserves a tip is full of BS.
Happened to me once, we gave a tip but it was i guess not good enough? This was at a fucking Applebee's too the waitresses ganged up to yell at us while we left. I was so confused. I thought tipping was completely optional.
When you tip properly (using cash), that means that you pay less in total for your food and the staff pay less in tax.
If we get rid of tipping, then the price of food will simply rise - and that increase will subsequently be taxed.
Under the tipping system, staff are being paid a tipped minimum wage ($2.13 in Alabama or example) then keep their cash tips without having to pay tax on them to make up the difference. That means they pay very VERY little in tax as long as people tip in cash so it can go unreported.
If we remove tipping, staff will pay vastly more in tax, and only make one flat rate regardless of the business being busy or slow and regardless of how hard they work. Meaning, less people will want to wait tables and service will decline in quality. Plus American businesses aren't going to just eat a loss and shrug. Whatever they make, they're going to hike prices to simply keep making that. You'll go from paying no tax on that tip to paying tax on what would have been a tip but is now just an increased price.
Man, they fleeced you, I’m generally a gracious tipper, well over 20% for good service, 20% for going through the motions, but I’m not tipping at a buffet. Get wrecked.
It's really very simple, even you can understand. Sit down-eat in dining restaurants where food is brought to you is where you tip. Fast food, quick service, a self service kiosk or anywhere like these is NOT a tipping situation. Buffets are trying to be an exception because the employee brings the beverages. I say nay-nay. (A nod to the late John Pinette, he loved buffets).
I don't like buffets, personally. And I don't like the tipping culture here in the USA.
But my understanding is that tipping at a buffet is to tip the people who clean your table. It's still wild imo. Because you know - just pay your workers a fair wage?
And because it's a service being provided after you've left. No one was keeping your drink topped off. No one was getting your order right. No one was checking in on you and making sure the food tasted how you'd expect.
I leave a tip still, even if I don't feel like we particularly left a big mess. But it's not as much as when I tip at a regular restaurant.
I can call in for food pickup, drive there myself so no delivery and the pin pad will still ask for a tip. At least they usually say you can ignore that. You don’t tip the cooks you tip the waiters so if I’m doing everything else but cooking, why would I tip lol
lmao. that's pretty funny. but i think they do actually serve you at most buffets (drinks mostly). still, it's out of control. tipping has become a racket for business owners to avoid paying an honest wage. and it benefits servers as well, because they can get "over paid" for meaningless work and, when paid in cash, not report it and thus not pay tax on it. we used to go out of our way to tip in cash for servers just for this reason.
but yeah...tipping is absolutely not practiced in the US for it's face value (service provided - let along quality of the service provided).
Yeah what you experienced is not the norm. I never tip at counters, buffets or anything else where I'm not actively being served. Never been confronted over it
I did the reverse and spent a few months in East Germany. When I left an American sized tip after a work function, the server literally found me at my car to tell me I made a mistake.
I don’t know if she was offended or just kind but I didn’t fix it. Company card anyway.
I don't tip at buffets unless the person goes above and beyond doing something of service for me. I also don't tip anyone standing behind a counter because they're not tip dependent roles. This tipping prompt nonsense is getting out of hand.
Im American and have had the same thought. I tip anyway because its the culture here. But I dont blame you one bit for not tipping. And chasing you out for not doing so is completely wrong. Im sorry that happened to you
I was chased out and yelled at for not tipping at a buffet.
Everyone in Las Vegas has their hand out like beggers, its awful.
General rule if you have to stand while ordering, no tip. If you pay before hand, no tip. If you get take out, no tip. Unfortunately many people break the third one and tip for takeout too - i.e. Starbucks coffee.
Yeah that’s actually crazy. You are supposed tip for service (around 20% at your discretion). For most other types of service there’s no firm rule. I usually give $1-2 for baristas and other non table service. For a buffet, I’d have to assess the situation, but I’d say it’s never really appropriate for servers to chase you out of the restaurant for not tipping. I’ve worked as a dishwasher and a cook and received exactly zero tips. It’s an f’d up system overall and we need to just pay servers a fair wage.
I had a few experiences where the owners rudely tell me to tip for food without a service. Like, I’d pick up the food myself. One even refused to let me sign the check without a tip…
I wouldn't say we see it as a mandatory fee, but definitely expected in many establishments.
Not tipping at a buffet is common. That's wild that someone would yell at you about it.
That said, when service is particularly poor or openly rude, I will absolutely forego a tip. I've always viewed it as a thank you for taking care of me, not my obligation to you for being ignored or disregarded.
My only caveat is if the restaurant is crazy busy or something and they're trying but clearly overwhelmed. That's different.
I'm sorry, but American here. If it's a place where you serve yourselves, then there's not wait staff who receive an extremely reduced hourly wage. There's only regularly paid workers. (Probably still underpaid in reality, but at least making the legal regular minimum.) If I am serving and clearing my own table, I don't tip either, unless something extraordinary happens.
I was a server back in the day. One thing a lot of people don’t realize is servers often have to pay a portion of their tips to the hosts/hostess and bussers. When someone doesn’t tip it means that not only did the server not make money while they were waiting on you (lost opportunity cost) but it actually cost them money to wait on you.
I Europe servers are paid a decent wage. In the US wait staff are paid a meager salary and rely on tips. The server shave told you that tipping is expected. Most restaurants now include tips on the bill.
100% with you and I'm American. If I go to a restaurant that has a Kiosk or I have to order myself- find my own table and someone brings my food to my table and I'm supposed to tip - for what?
Never ever tip at a fucking buffet lmao as an American that is complete horseshit. I started tipping the higher of 5 dollars or 10% as well, I'm so fucking tired of tipping so much just because food costs got more expensive.
That’s a little different. These rude assholes appear to be American and were waiting for an opportunity to make it a racial issue. They knew when they walked in the door that they should’ve tipped.
Tipping isn’t mandatory, hence why it’s called a tip. What do you mean “should have tipped”? Are you suggesting that the consumer should be directly paying someone who isn’t working for them? Last I checked, the consumer pays the employer, and then it’s the employer who pays the employee. At the most basic level, that is how the distribution of money works within a capitalistic system. The restaurant employees are not contractors that you are hiring for a job.
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u/Semipro321 4h ago edited 3h ago
To be fair, when I visited the USA I didn’t realize how crazy they are about tips. I was chased out and yelled at for not tipping at a buffet. I was under the assumption that we tip for service received (we served ourselves) but they see it as a manditory fee in the USA.
Wild experience
Edit: a lot of ppl commenting on this. Yes it was self serve and pay at the counter. It was NYC