Nate
Tipping culture has become a hot topic on social media in recent years. It seems like literally every place of business now encourages customers to tip.
I have no problem tipping when I go out to eat or leaving some cash for the hotel cleaning staff, but some services that previously didn’t require a tip are now expecting tips. Look, if you feel like tipping, that’s great, but I believe that in many cases nowadays, customers aren’t necessarily being rude for not tipping.
Recently, Sydney Littlefield, a content creator known as @poorandhungry on TikTok, shared a video recounting an uncomfortable experience with a cashier at Ben & Jerry’s.
In the video, Sydney reveals that the cashier made the transaction awkward when she realized Sydney wasn’t planning to leave a tip for a single cone. Sydney’s video sparked a heated conversation about tipping culture on TikTok.
A woman entered Ben & Jerry’s and ordered a single cone without leaving a tip for her $2 order.
So I go to Ben & Jerry’s yesterday and I just wanted a cone, just wanted a nice, fresh, warm cone. So I walk over to the counter and I was like, ‘Hi can I just have a waffle cone?’ and she was like, ‘Yes, sure. Here you go. That’d be $2.’ So I said ‘Okay.’ I go to put my card in. And of course, the tipping screen comes up, and I was like, I didn’t say this out loud, but in my head I was like, I’m not tipping you on a cone.
However, the cashier responded with a considerable amount of sass.
You literally just handed me a cone. And I’m also like, the percentages were insane. I was like, I’m not tipping you $1 on a $2 cone that you just handed me, I’m not. So she hands me my cone, I put my card in, it gives me like how much you want to tip, I hit ‘no tip.’ And the cashier goes:
to my face, to my actual face. Like on no planet, is that ever appropriate, even if I got $100 worth of ice cream and I don’t tip you, you can’t do that to the customer. On top of that, Miss Girl, what were you expecting I tipped you to hand me a cone?
There wasn’t even a service being exchanged. There was an exchange as a transaction. It wasn’t even an act of service.
You Can View Sydney’s TikTok Here:
@poorandhungry Those tip screens are OUT OF CONTROL #tip #tipping #cringe #customerservice
According to data from Toast, a restaurant management software company, approximately 48% of purchases at fast food restaurants and coffee shops in the US included a tip during the last quarter of 2022, which is an 11% increase from pre-Covid levels.
Unlike traditional tip jars that can be easily ignored, digital tip requests create social pressure and are harder to pass up. Now the generosity or lack thereof of customers is more visible, even to the workers themselves.
Many customers think you shouldn’t have to tip more than the usual percentage or even tip at all if you don’t want to. And if a business suggests a tip percentage that makes you feel awkward, you can always enter a custom amount that you find appropriate.
Here’s what Sydney’s viewers are saying about the topic:
