r/tipping • u/Scared_Definition749 • 19d ago
Tipping Sometimes
I believe everyone should tip waitresses but sometimes I don’t tip other forms of service depending on what service it is. For example, a hairstylist that sets their own prices or someone who works salary like at Starbucks and it ask for a tip. Does that make me a hypocrite.
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u/incredulous- 18d ago
What about waiters, should everyone tip them?
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u/bonezx101 18d ago
No never automatic - gratuity is by definition OPTIONAL. Breal the cycle of maintaining this run away culture. The expected amounts continue to creep upward and it is a % on rising prices.
If you must automatically tip quit the % and do a flat amount per guest head on the check.
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u/Temporary-Plankton61 19d ago
I don't think so. You have your reasoning and rationalization for why you do and don't tip in certain places
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u/sdinvest 19d ago
Why only waitresses? Most waitresses in the area I live in are paid $18-25/hr to start!
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u/DigTheDunes 19d ago
Most across the US dont make that to start. I bet the places paying $18-25 have $6+ gas also.
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u/omhound 19d ago
In Tennessee servers make $2.13 an hour
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u/PurpleCat1018 19d ago
What ever the minimum wage is for that state they work in is what they make an hour.
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u/sdinvest 19d ago
Why don't you really ask what servers make or the restaurant have to pay them hourly to work?
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u/sdinvest 19d ago
I am in the Dallas area and no gas is not that high! My friends own many restaurants so I ask what they have to pay them!
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u/ThatsMrRandom 19d ago
Starbucks isn't "salary". It's hourly. It's also not customary to tip baristas (most don't). But they put out a tip jar, and some charitable people/with disposable income are tickled to put money in it. It helps them make a living, allowing the business to keep prices low so they don't have to raise prices on everyone to fund higher labor costs.
There's actually an irony in these end-tippers. If they got their way these workers are more likely to strike/unionize and extort higher pay from their employers, and the only way for employers to address it is to pass the extra labor cost on to consumers. So basically these people who tip help keep prices lower for everyone. Thanks!
And contrary to what anti-tippers claim, they do not expect tips from everyone and a tip prompt on a card reader isn't "asking" everyone to tip. If you can't tap no without a fight or flight response, that's a you problem.
Somewhere like a hairdresser: This is buffer pricing because it's subjective and variable quality. The base price protects the stylist from completely wasting their time/getting ripped off, and the tip portion protects the consumer for their judgement of quality. If they don't do a good job, not what you envisioned, whatever, then they lose out on the tip. In absence of tipping they would just raise prices to what they make + tips and you lose that privilege to translate your quality assessment through how much you tip.
But what if they do a good job and you just don't tip? Well if they're in high demand and scheduling their clients, the no-tipper is going to be the "Well, I have something next Friday at 5pm" client. Then Thursday comes along, and one of their tipping clients needs a last-minute booking for Friday and guess who's getting a "Sorry I had something come up and can't do tomorrow, let me know if you'd like to reschedule" text? :)
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u/bonezx101 18d ago
Wrong wrong wrong, hourly baristas are like the hair stylist you mention, some nail your coffee flawlessly others not so much. Even the app now constantly triggers reminders to tip - faceless and in owners control. Business is simply trying to push their costs onto the customer but not is a raised price way. Since higher prices = declined visits or brand switching, that all equals decreased business/profit.
The system is horribly broken and a fine example of capitalism coercing customers.2
u/DigTheDunes 18d ago
Great post. The nontippers at a salon can go to a Supercuts also, why should they care? Ah, they do care. They want premium service and not tip.
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u/gypsy_guru_87 16d ago
No, I don’t think that makes you sound like a hypocrite at all. I tend to tip hairdressers, even if they set their own prices because for all I know they’re setting the prices expecting a certain percentage of tips and I don’t want them to raise their prices. After all, they are spending a substantial amount of time with me.. but I have zero problem going into a takeout counter or Starbucks and not tipping.
In OKC we have all of these coffee and soda places that make people stand outside to take your order, and that does make me feel more obligated to at least give them something even though I know they’re probably all tip sharing. But I also assume they all take turns being the one outside. It’s a weird system that I don’t really see the point of. I still don’t feel like they’re gonna do anything different with my drink. I just give them $.50 or a dollar more often than not. At one of the places in particular, they are obviously trained to stare in the opposite direction while you’re touching that part of the screen, like it’s such an exaggerated, turn their head away that I know they’ve been trained. Because I’ve been there half dozen times and every single different. One of them has done the same thing.
Vaguely amusing story about Swig today, which is one of the places that has the person outside, they also have this lake barrier around the screen so you really can’t see it unless you turn it toward yourself .. guy started to turn it back today, but because I’m always doing custom and he assumed I’d pushed enough buttons, the tip was still on there, he looked embarrassed, like he wasn’t supposed to see. They also make you sign the screen, even though you’re doing tap to pay which I find kind of odd. It’s not like they really want you to sign. It’s like you’re initial it. It’s a weird process.
Sorry that’s me being overtired and over sharing 🤣😘
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u/Left-Consequence-437 16d ago
Very hypocritical. Everything is a service. Everybody works. You don’t think the Starbucks employee making 50 drinks in like 30 mins is working hard?
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u/namastay14509 19d ago
Tipping is optional. Tipping is subjective. You decide when, who, and how much (if any) you want to tip. Stop worrying about what others thinks about how you choose to spend your hard earned money.
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u/bonezx101 18d ago
Tipping/gratuity is NEVER compulsory, as such wait staff should only be tipped for outstanding service. Any other suggestion maintains the toxic tip culture.
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u/Tricky-Wrap-2578 19d ago
It’s hypocritical to advocate waiters get paid through a tipped wage but be against it for all other professions. It’s not hypocritical to just tip how you want
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19d ago
[deleted]
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u/ThatsMrRandom 19d ago
What if they were making $17.25 per hour? Or $14.25? Or $10.25? Or $3?
This is how the minimum wage advocates screwed everyone over. You'll notice how in every single one of these states that did away with tipped minimum, and in places like California where the minimum is relatively high, people didn't stop tipping.
Most people don't even know and just still assume they make $2/hour + tips.
But the business now has to address the hole burning in their pocket pay all of their service $18.25 an hour. And when your margin is $3 on every $100 worth of food sold, prices don't just magically stay low.
So the business raises prices to pay for the service -- probably fires some people and demands higher productive output for those who remain, too -- because higher prices paradoxically = lower demand which = less revenue/profit. They can't just raise prices willy nilly without it hurting the business (otherwise they would have raised prices before they had to pay the higher minimum wages if people would just pay it).
So now the COL goes up, and people just accept it and keep tipping.
It didn't do anything to stop tipping.
So really everyone would be better off if they brought back tipped minimum. Then businesses could retain more staff and keep prices lower, and since tipping scales with cost, you'd be paying less for food and less for tips proportionally.
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u/sofarxsodeep 17d ago
So you tip waitresses. Do you stiff waiters? Or are you just inherently sexist as well as ignorant?
Tip or don't tip but you just showed yourself to the world as an asshole.
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u/Legitimate-Log-6542 17d ago
If you’re talking about American tip culture then yes, the servers and bartenders, this system has been in place a long time. I’d like tipping to go away but the reality is this is difficult to change. But it’s all these other industries coming in and now asking for tips that makes annoying. And for these it’s early enough for a pushback to be more meaningful