Being hit up for tips in all directions
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
233.1902
Summary
Tipping has been a part of North American culture for generations. And now and then we hear of some movement or another calling for an end to the practice. But it never really went anywhere. Something has changed in the last few years though. Tipping has expanded into non-traditional industries, and the amounts being asked are growing. And consumers are starting to feel picked clean. And they're right. I mean, prices for everything are rising, and we can t afford to top up every purchase price for a product with a 15% to 25% tip.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
And tipping's been a part of North American culture for generations.
00:00:03.580
And now and then we hear of some movement or another calling for an end to the practice.
00:00:10.460
Something's changed in the last few years, though.
00:00:12.340
I mean, tipping has expanded into non-traditional industries, and the amounts being asked are growing.
00:00:16.920
And consumers, they're starting to feel picked clean, and they're right.
00:00:19.880
I mean, prices for everything are rising, and we can't afford to top up every purchase price for a product with a 15% to 25% tip.
00:00:26.580
It's one thing to leave a tip for a server after spending an hour or two at a restaurant.
00:00:29.700
Quite another to expect a tip for a retail purchase.
00:00:33.400
Now I'm going to offer a recent and somewhat embarrassing personal example.
00:00:36.740
This last week, I went to a specialty bakery in Calgary to buy some keto diet items.
00:00:42.120
I won't bother saying which bakery. There's a few of them around there.
00:00:45.140
This bakery, though, had signs plastered on their outside door and all over their walls bragging of how they're a living wage employer.
00:00:52.000
Again, whatever. I shrugged and entered. I mean, it's their business. What they want to pay their employees is up to them.
00:00:56.080
I quickly, of course, got to see what comes with the living wage.
00:00:59.700
When I picked up a loaf of bread and took it to the counter and was charged an eye-popping $16.
00:01:05.120
Now, I knew keto was going to be expensive, but holy crap.
00:01:08.240
I guess it's because they're paying every retail clerk $20 an hour or $22 or whatever they're determining a living wage is these days.
00:01:14.360
Either way, I gulped but decided to purchase the bread and get the hell out of there anyways.
00:01:18.580
That's the first embarrassment. I should have just stopped my purchase when I saw the price.
00:01:22.520
When I was handed the payment pad, though, then the all-too-common prompts for tips were on the screen, with the lowest of them being 15%.
00:01:30.160
I mean, what the hell did the bored kid sitting behind the counter do to earn a tip?
00:01:34.500
I thought, I'll show him. I chose the manual option and only left a $1 tip.
00:01:44.640
I felt almost shamed into leaving at least a little something.
00:01:47.540
And it's a ridiculous notion, and I should know better.
00:01:52.040
Now, businesses that didn't traditionally command tips in the past have been using the option of those payment pads to try and supplement their staff wages with it.
00:01:59.560
It helps them reduce a little of the sticker shock, I guess, with customers as the inflation forces them to raise prices too.
00:02:06.680
And those payment machines make it easy to slip the tips in as an option without actually asking for them.
00:02:11.380
I even heard somebody being prompted for a tip for an item they ordered online.
00:02:15.480
I mean, you're just talking to a computer service at that point.
00:02:19.180
Tipping needs to be reined in, but I don't want to see it eliminated, as some people have called for.
00:02:23.460
It's just crept into the wrong businesses, and consumers need to stop indulging them.
00:02:30.220
In some service-based industries, though, tipping should remain.
00:02:33.560
I mean, I look at tipping as something that should be considered if the person has had extended direct experience with the service provider.
00:02:42.040
Like in a restaurant with a bar server or a bartender who communicates, converses, and serves a table for periods that could last hours.
00:02:48.860
Or a bartender who listens to a person laying out the challenges of their lives and lends a sympathetic ear.
00:02:54.720
But you know, an industry secret, the bartender usually doesn't really care.
00:02:58.000
And the stripper doesn't really have a crush on you.
00:03:00.540
But all the same, throw your tips out there, guys.
00:03:03.780
They're doing something above and beyond just serving you a drink or offering a lap dance or whatever else.
00:03:08.880
A tour guy, you know, spends an afternoon showing sights and narrating behind him.
00:03:11.940
A cab driver, conversation online, you know, on a ride, lends tips for local attractions.
00:03:18.660
A tip is for interaction, and only when the interaction goes above and beyond the basic service.
00:03:27.620
You can directly influence the compensation of the person who is offering the service
00:03:31.700
and incentivizes the worker to do as good a job as possible.
00:03:35.400
When I owned a pub, it was easy to see which servers and bartenders gave the best services.
00:03:39.380
Some consistently brought in as much as 20% to 30% more in tips than other workers.
00:03:47.700
Harder than one would think with some servers, though, especially as an owner, you find out.
00:03:51.740
But it gave me, as an owner, a visible measure of who gave the customers the best service.
00:03:55.860
And I, of course, worked harder to make sure those servers got as many prime shifts as possible.
00:04:00.140
The customers won, the ambitious servers won, and I, as an owner, won.
00:04:04.260
How many restaurants, they've tried to go with tip-free models, and it always fails.
00:04:07.960
Earl's in Calgary tried it a few years ago, and it only lasted a few months.
00:04:11.480
I mean, while they paid a much bigger hourly rate to the servers to compensate for the lack of tips,
00:04:16.480
the ambitious servers said to hell with this, and they quit and went to restaurants where they could earn tips.
00:04:20.080
They wanted to get the better, work harder, and make the money.
00:04:23.760
The servers who remained, of course, were those who preferred to just sit about and take an hourly wage.
00:04:28.580
So, service levels went down while the prices shot up.
00:04:31.500
The restaurant had to return to the old way and fast because the consumers, of course, fled.
00:04:35.620
People like to point out tipping isn't the standard in some other countries, and that's true.
00:04:39.700
But in my travel experience, I found that the service drops as well.
00:04:42.240
So, and I was in Australia a while back, for example, and unless you're in a formal and expensive restaurant,
00:04:47.480
well, you have to go to a window, order, and pay, and then get a little number, and then you sit at their table.
00:04:52.040
Then they call your number, and you go and get your food.
00:04:53.980
Meanwhile, you go to another lineup, and you go, and you pay, and you get your drink.
00:04:56.640
And if you drink multiple drinks, you've got to go multiple times, and the prices are high.
00:05:05.420
If I can do nothing but self-service, I might as well just get takeout and go home.
00:05:08.020
The only way to change the trend in tipping for consumers, though, is you've got to put your feet in your wallets down on the issue.
00:05:14.660
Refuse to tip for retail services and only tip in the traditional industries.
00:05:17.780
We can't get the government in on banning tipping, and it's well out of their role anyway.
00:05:20.480
Who are they to tell me who I can give my own money to?
00:05:23.060
We have let the practice of tipping spread too far, but it's up to us to bring it back where it belongs.
00:05:27.960
And I'm going to check myself before habitually tipping from here on in.
00:05:31.940
And yes, I sure as hell won't be spending $16 on a loaf of sourdough bread as well.
00:05:35.760
So last week was a good learning week for me, guys.
00:05:37.640
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00:05:44.440
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00:05:52.100
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00:05:57.420
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00:06:00.200
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