Posted on 12/06/2022 5:38:37 AM PST by EBH
Tipping at restaurants and coffee shops can be tricky business. Technically, it isn’t mandatory, but it’s increasingly looked down upon if you skip it altogether. That’s exactly the pickle customers are finding themselves in with the new tipping system at Starbucks.
The world-famous coffee chain announced the initiative in May as a way for customers to “recognize their favorite baristas.” They began rolling it out in some stores in September, where customers paying with debit or credit cards can give the barista a $1, $2 or custom tip—prompting some strong feelings in the process.
A Reddit thread about the tipping system has racked up more than 100 comments.
“It works so well for in-store purchases but yeah having it in drive thru is so awkward I never know what to say,” one user wrote
One Twitter user wrote: “I went through the Starbucks Drive through and got one drink and they now start asking if you want to tip as soon as you pull your card out to pay while looking at you It’s so awkward…… just pay these people a better wage.”
Starting August 1, Starbucks increased the average pay for employees to nearly $17/hour in the U.S. Those hired before May 2 would receive either a 3% wage increase or $15/hour, whichever is higher, a spokesperson at Starbucks said.
Another Twitter user wrote: “I’m really not trying to be rude bc I know customer service jobs are hard work but now they want tips at the drive-thru at my Starbucks when you pay with a card… you’re literally just handing it to me.”
One Facebook user wrote: “People WILL call me cheap, but I rarely tip on to-go orders or grabbing a coffee…I do tip very well when I go to dinner, or use various services.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
I don’t tip a barista. I expect them to earn well enough and there is little they can do beyond what is expected from the job
You provide a needed service. I wish you had all the dogs in our neighborhood. We live in the woods, and the closest dog is an 1/8 mile away. But about any given time you can hear a dog barking.
We haven’t had a dog since about a year before I quit farming in IL, in 01. Those dogs were a farm asset and stayed out of the house. Same with the cats. We love the freedom. We have a watchdog we don’t have to care for: if a car pulls in our drive, the dog uphill from us starts barking.
Here’s my rule for tipping...
if I’m going to sit somewhere and eat/drink, and some one else will be expected to clean up after, i tip.
But even if I sit and eat and then bus my own table, no tip.
We have a Rover lady we love. She always takes our animal...even on short notice, she does the extras (photos, long walks, lot’sa outdoor time in her fenced backyard, etc). She stays booked so solid, she doesn’t use the online Rover calendar anymore. It just shows completely booked. We have to text her thru her Rover number (she could, but doesn’t cut Rover out). We ALWAYS tip her well.
I’m glad to see there’s another trustworthy pet service out there (you)! We love our little buds and appreciate them being taken care of.
I do not tip for to go or counter service.
If I made a big order like forty sandwiches for a special lunch I might tip
That’s it.
I tip for waiter service and I tip for delivery. I tip cab drivers. Skycaps. Valet and bellhops. That’s all.
You’ve got a good head for business. Thanks for sharing.
There are luxuries, hobbies, and frivilous habits that die hard. A farmer I drive truck for seasonally has 3 dump semis hauling the special red dirt for baseball and softball diamonds. They sometimes haul it 400 miles one way, just so some high school or college can have the same dirt as the pros. Absurd, but there are spoiled coaches, parents, kids, and fans that will raise the money one way or another.
I’ve spelled one of his drivers before, and hauled the dirt over 200 miles: to small public schools that could use that money elsewhere. The economy will have to collapse before these sports addicts will give up their special dirt.
They use dark roasted coffee, which I hate. I avoid Starsucks.
I really don’t understand their success, but I have to admire their biz plan.
Selling a commodity product at several times competitors prices and making huge profits.
Wish I’d had that idea.
Lol! Two weeks ago I yanked the airmatic suspension from my son’s 2015 ‘Mercyless’ GL450 suv, and installed a Strutmasters coil conversion kit. No more issues in that regard. The job didn’t pay at all, let alone any high fives. :(
He and his wife did thank me.
honey? is that you? I never knew you liked FR!
I remember the hydraulic strut suspension setup in the old Citroens. Our neighbor back when I was a kid had two of them. You could change a tire without a jack. Of course it was broken most of the time.
So freaking annoying!
Some jobs are structured so that part of the employee’s compensation is tips. Waters and waitresses are paid 1/2 minimum wage because they get tips. They also split their tips with busboys and bartenders.
People who deliver pizza get minimum wage except when on delivery (both ways)—then they too get 1/2 because they get tips. They drive their own cars with a small per-mile add-on.
So those people I tip,and I tip them well.
The guy who delivers groceries in a comapny-owned vehicle with company-provided gasoline while making $12/hour (when I last checked 3 years ago) the entire time? No. What am I tipping him for? He is already being paid by his company.
Baristas who are paid $17/hour?!?!?! Well, I don’t go to SB, but if I did, why would I tip?
This tipping thing is getting out of hand, I tell you.
That is a great story. It may be that people benefit from an occasional kick in the pants which points out to them that they are ordering special dirt, too.
Starbucks prospered in an era where America was largely selling out its own future to China. The only benefit that I can see in depression is that it offers the opportunity for recovery.
Walmart does this for home delivery from store (for the increasing amount of items that are not available for shipping), placing a default tip amount on the order ($7 last time) which you must edit to change it, even though you are paying extra for home delivery, whereas there is free shipping for orders over $35 - if the item is available.
I am happy to say I have never been to Starbucks.
I tried to buy one once, and asked for a medium coffee with cream and sugar.
The pansy working behind the counter ask if I wanted a “mocha-lotto-grande with camelito-poofter-sauce” or some such nonsense, and I said “Yeah, if that means medium coffee with cream and sugar...
He rolled his eyes at me AS IF I was the the moron in this conversation, so I said “nevermind...” and walked out.
Never been back.
Quite right re the locals .. well done :-)
My wife usually makes her own cup before leaving home to go anywhere. If I’m along (non-coffee drinker), I enjoy teasing her about how her cup is empty within 5 minutes of hitting the road. I say: “see, you could have drank that at home, and not had to use a spill proof cup, or watch for bumps in the road”.
One time, just a mile from home, she had just put it down in the holder when she hit a deer, or she would have had hot coffee all over her, and the dash.
I was at Discount Tire yesterday, had a nail in a tire. They were busy, but fixed it in about 30 minutes, no charge. I asked the young man who worked on it if they had a tip jar. He said yes, and I gave him a $20. It was well worth it to me.
You mean Charbucks?
My wife bought a bag of their coffee to try. I said no more.
Stupid is as stupid does.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.