‘Guilt tipping’: is there any escape from the gratuitous rise in gratuities?
I‘m writing this column from Las Vegas where I’m attending a conference. This morning, I went to a coffee shop in the hotel. The cost of my small coffee was $6.49 and no, I am not kidding. Welcome to Vegas.
To add insult to injury, the cashier who served me the coffee — which took her about five seconds — spun the point-of-sale device around and stared me in the eye as I looked down at that screen that is all-familiar to most of us: the request for a tip. The minimum tip displayed was 20%. Or I could choose “no tip.” What do I do? C’mon, what do you think I did? I walked away sipping my $7.79 small coffee.
Yeah, you’ve been here too. Thanks to all these new point-of-sale devices that every small business seems to be buying nowadays you’re getting asked to tip for things you’ve never tipped for before. I’m now tipping when I pick up a takeout order. I’m tipping when someone scoops out an ice-cream cone. I’m tipping when I buy a muffin at my local bakery. I’m even tipping when I pick up my dry cleaning. Sure, I have a choice. But what am I, a jerk? Wait … don’t answer that.
It’s called “guilt tipping”. It’s been going on for a while. It escalated during the pandemic when we wanted to congratulate ourselves for supporting those service workers for doing their jobs in such terrible times while we watched Netflix. But the practice is now permanently in place and growing in use. And with inflation picking up those added pennies are starting to draw more attention.
(Read the full column in?The Guardian)