Spent an afternoon at a busy coffee shop downtown Nashville and noticed something about tipping culture

I sat at the counter for about 45 minutes watching people come and go. Every single person tipped on their credit card slip, even for just a black drip coffee. The barista was fast and polite, sure, but she wasn't doing anything above the basics. I tipped 15% on my latte because that's normal for me, but I saw a guy leave $3 on a $4.50 order. It got me thinking about how tipping has turned into this automatic expectation instead of a reward for going the extra mile. Am I the only one who thinks we've taken it too far for simple counter service jobs where the price is already set?

3 comments

3 Comments

janarivera16h ago

Did you hear about my friend Susan who went to a coffee shop in Portland? She bought a $6 latte and the iPad screen flipped around asking for a tip starting at 20 percent, and she felt so awkward she hit 25 percent just to not look cheap in front of the barista. She told me she wished they'd just raise the price and drop the tip suggestion altogether.

taylorellis15h ago

@janarivera I totally get the awkwardness with those screens. Honestly what worked for me was just hitting "no tip" every time at a coffee shop for like a week straight and realizing literally nothing bad happened. The barista never even looked at me differently. Now I just tap "custom" and put in $1 if the service was good or skip it completely. The anxiety goes away after you do it a couple times.

the_miles16h ago

Respectfully disagree. Your friend Susan put that pressure on herself. The barista doesn't care what tip she picks, they just want to ring up the order and move on. If she hit 25 percent because she felt awkward, that's on her for not hitting "no tip" or the custom option. Plenty of people just tap the screen and move on. Raising the price by 25 percent and hiding it in the latte cost wouldn't be more honest either, it's just a different way to pay more. The whole point of tipping is that it's optional, not something you get guilted into by a screen.