When dining in a restaurant or drinking at a bar, it’s standard protocol to provide a tip to your server when paying your bill. In more recent years, however, tipping has become an option in seemingly unexpected places—including self-service frozen yogurt shops and fast, casual restaurants at which cashiers only ring up your order.
Dallas resident Becca Finke, who doesn’t think tipping should be an option at fast food establishments as it is these days, said the evolution of technology has led to the option for customers to tip via tablets almost anywhere they go.
“Some genius came up with a tablet tipping app that businesses can take advantage of,” she said. “It’s brilliant, but it forces you to tip when you normally wouldn’t.”
Though it might have been a beneficial move for establishments, it often creates an uncomfortable feeling of obligation for many customers. Because of this, Dallas resident Dan Sullivan said he believes there needs to be a “reboot” to the current tipping culture.
“For us empathetic folks, it can make you feel guilty when you press that ‘none’ tip option, especially when the worker is staring right at you while you do it,” he said. “But let’s be honest, we need to draw the line somewhere. I’m all about rewarding good customer service, but can we just pay our employees a bit more rather than asking Joe Customer to tip for that tasty cappuccino?”
Dallas-area resident Bill Stier is less concerned with the option for tipping than he is with the increased amount of tips that are now expected.
“I think tipping should be an option for any food/drink place where there is a level of service—from full service to even simply cleaning up, but the tip should be applied only to those doing the service work,” he said. “I also think it is total [garbage] that I’m starting to see what used to be 15/18/20 percent on these at table checkouts to now as much as 25/30/35 percent. It’s a total scam.”
For Dallas-area resident Rachel Balthrop Mendoza, her previous experience working in the service industry has impacted her viewpoint that tips should not be handed out freely.
“So here’s the thing—I used to be a server at a touristy full-service restaurant where we were paid $2.13 per hour," she said. "So, we were working for our tips because our checks would come back at $0. Every dollar earned was because of the service provided, not because someone flipped the iPad around after taking my neat pour of whiskey or black coffee order. It’s easy to just add it to the technology and hope for the best without attaching an element of service to it. For me, you need to earn a tip. So earn it. My standards for service are high because I know how hard I worked to provide great service. I expect the same standards from others.”
Like many individuals who are familiar with the pressures of tipping in more situations than in the past, Fort Worth-area resident Jacey Rutledge thinks the underlying issue is in the low wages that employees in the service industry receive.
“I wish restaurants would pay appropriate wages to help reduce the ‘tipping culture,’” she said. “However, I definitely will continue to do my part and tip the standard rate. I worked as a server in college and absolutely understand the grind.”
Finke said that she will also continue to tip in every situation that it’s offered, though she would prefer that the reality were different.
“I always tip when given the option, but I don’t usually want to,” she said. “The tablet tipping pressures you to tip regardless of whether you want to or not. Cancel guilt-tip culture!”
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