A Blog About Bad Tipping
30th April 2011
Freeberg, as usual, says all that needs to be said.
I tend to agonize much more about take-out. I drive over, she swipes my card, out comes a paper tape for me to sign and it’s got “gratuity” on it — I’m not even looking at my food yet and here I am filling the damn thing out. What’s the food gonna be like? Are they going to bollux it up? Lose track of the order and make me wait an extra twenty minutes? If I don’t know any of this, then why am I tipping?
If a ‘gratuity’ is a necessary part of the price, then why is it not included in the price? Forced ‘gratuities’ are like taxes – they distort the market for a product and make it more difficult for consumers to make informed choices.
If I choose not to pay over and above the formal price of a meal, I don’t see how the ‘waitperson’ has a beef with me, as oppose to his or her employer, who is deliberately paying them a sub-market wage on the expectation that the customer will make up the difference.
I suppose this is just another instance of the ‘entitlement’ mentality that is dragging down our culture. Ah’m agin’ it.