Frozen yogurt, aka froyo, can get expensive. The cups are sometimes big making you lose sight of how much yogurt you’re actually putting. Then there are the toppings, and of course, then it’s priced by weight. Tipping can make it even more expensive. However, considering that froyo is often self-serve, should tipping even be a thing?
After getting their froyo cup ready at a self-serve shop, Leilani (@leilanii_02) tries to check out but runs into an issue.
Issue with paying
“I take out my wallet, pull out my card and I’m tapping it and it’s not working,” the
TikToker explains. “The worker comes up to me and he’s like, ‘It’s not going through because it’s asking you to tip.’”
Leilani says she was taken aback by what he said. She says the worker then had to tell her how to bypass the tipping screen by tapping “the bottom right corner.”
“He goes, ‘Yeah, we don’t get those tips anyway. The owner keeps them,’” Leilani recalls the worker telling her. Leilani expresses disbelief that “self-service” places are asking to tip and is even more shocked that owners allegedly keep them.
The video has over 848,000 views and more than 600 comments as of Saturday.
@leilanii_02 who am i tipping again ??! 👀😭 #fy #tipping #selfserve ♬ original sound – Leilani
Is tipping at self-serve a thing?
Leilani isn’t alone in her confusion—other news outlets like CBS have covered on this peculiarity of tipping at self-checkouts. This confusion and frustration is due to alleged “tipping fatigue,” which the Daily Dot has covered. Additionally, similar to what the worker told Leilani, CBS’ coverage mentions that tipping at self-checkout screens gets tricky because there is no way to prove if the money actually goes to the workers.
“Machines don’t have the same protections as tipping human employees, so while the law requires that something called a ‘tip’ has to go to employees, when you’re tipping a machine, you can’t be quite so sure,” says a Wall Street Journal reporter in the CBS article.
What are viewers saying?
Food industry workers agree they often never got the money and others agree that at tipping self-check out kiosks is egregious.
“Supposedly I had made 1k in tips when I worked at a fro yo place,” a user wrote. “I NEVA saw any of that money.”
“It’s true many business do that. It’s why so many employees don’t care if you tip or not on the screens,” another wrote.
“I bought a cheese tray at Starbucks. No coffee nothing. And the cashier looked at me weird for not tipping,” yet another shared. “I literally picked it up myself and took to register.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Leilani for comment via email and TikTok message.
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