I was asked to tip 25% for a cup of coffee.
I’ve written about tipping before, and some of y’all told me I was being cheap. Fine. But hear me out on this one.
Last week I stopped by a coffee shop near the house.
I ordered a black coffee. That’s it. No foam, no syrup, no drawing of a leaf on top. Pour it in the cup and hand it to me.
The young man punched it in and turned the screen around.
The First Option Was 25%
Twenty-five percent.
Not 15. Not 18. The screen opened at 25% like that was the normal, reasonable place to start.
I just stood there looking at it.
Here’s how I’ve always understood tipping. Twenty percent is the standard for good service. And you get that tip AFTER you’ve done something.
You refilled my water. You remembered my order. You put up with my wife sending the steak back twice.
Now I’m being asked for 25% before anybody’s done anything. For a coffee. For getting the order right.
Getting the order right is the job. That’s not service. That’s the bare minimum.
I asked the young man, “Who decided 25% was where this thing starts?”
He shrugged and said, “I don’t know, sir. It just does that.”
So nobody knows. The machine just decided. And now we’re all standing in line feeling guilty in front of strangers because a screen told us to.
And it’s not just coffee shops. A while back I was at one of those self-checkout places. I scanned my own stuff. I bagged my own stuff. Then the screen asked me for a tip.
For who? The screen?
That’s how out of hand this has gotten. We’re tipping machines now.
I told my wife about the coffee shop when I got home. She said, “Did you tip him?”
I said, “Hell no. He poured a coffee.”
She said, “Did you tip me for listening to this story?”
Where does it end? Are you tipping at these places, or are you hitting “No” like me?
Enjoy your Sunday!
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