The ire towards tipping in the US has stirred up for so long that there’s even a dedicated Reddit sub called r/EndTipping that hosts content distinctly geared towards gratuity slander. In a recent post that went viral on the platform, u/inthesludge shared a picture of one of these tablets that didn’t contain percentage-based tipping options, but rather $1, $2, and $5 choices.
Their gripe centered around the fact that the $5 option was the default choice on the tablet, even for a $4.90 croissant. “The default tip for a croissant purchased over the counter was 102%,” they wrote in the title of the post.
U/inthesludge added in the comments section that the employee who watched them hit the “no tip” button didn’t appear to hold any grudges about it. “I didn’t tip and the girl fully understood, she seemed apologetic even that it was the default,” they wrote.
Unsurprisingly, there were plenty of commenters who shared their own tipping philosophies, like this one Reddit user who said that there’s only one class of employee they give gratuities to: “I don’t tip anyone. ANYONE. Except restaurant servers. Even at a lot of places that sell alcohol (other than bars) where they get a living wage, I question the need to tip.”
Another person highlighted a scenario in which a business expects customers who serve themselves and process their own transactions to fork over extra money. “Yea our local craft beer store recently swtiched to an electronic POS with the spin around ipad. This is the kind of place where you go to the fridge, take your beers, then go to the counter to check out. No draft/table service,” they explained. “Can’t hit that no tip button hard enough. Great store otherwise but the options are 25, 30, and 35%. Absolutely not.”
This above-referenced self-service setup seems akin to another diatribe against tipping culture that was shared by one TikToker who expressed how shocked they were that a self-serve kiosk at Shake Shack prompted a tip option after she completed the transaction herself.
There’s no shortage of people hopping on social media to blast tipping culture and how they believe it has been blown out of control. The debates that center around gratuities even have sub-genres and niches that cover various verticals of the industry. Many folks are quick to either judge or defend workers who complain about non-tipping customers.
Posts from the endtipping
community on Reddit
One of the more recent targets is the oft-maligned iPad-style POS systems.
Some consumers have also posted rants about how they feel pressured to tip for items they previously wouldn’t have given a gratuity for when a worker flips the tablet around. The Daily Dot also previously reported on a fast-food worker who said that she was embarrassed by the iPad tipping system implemented at the location where she was employed.
One Redditor who replied to u/inthesludge’s picture of the 102% croissant tip speculated that the default $5 tip setting was intentionally set by the business as a means of relying on customer “auto-pilot” sensibilities.
The Daily Dot has reached out to u/inthesludge via Reddit comment for further information.
