Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for May 22, 2023

You should tip with cash.

If you tip more than 10 percent, you fall over. That is, if you keep your feet together.

I will, and have, looked counter service people in the eye as I choose “no tip” or type $1 (if it’s a mom and pop place) on those screens. No, fetching me a pre-made sandwich and a bottle of soda does not get you a tip.

how about at the grocery store when they add a button to give to charity…lotsa peer pressure there too…

And then there are “service charges.”

If you tip on the ticket, they don’t bother to acknowledge it anyways

If they don’t serve you at the table and bring the coffee to your table: no tip.

In Korea, no tipping. Service is outstanding. Even the department stores have attendants throughout the store to help you.

Myself, I always try to pay with Federal Reserve Notes. I’m often told that they won’t accept them, even though I have ID. That typically leads to some droll and amusing back and forth, occasionally involving the manager, until I finally show them a Federal Reserve Note. Most of the time, they’ll decide that they’ll accept them. If they don’t, I won’t do business there again. Oh, and if they survive all that with their humor intact, they’ve earned some gratuity.

I pay cash. (I wonder if it makes me look poor?)

Given those options, I would choose “Give nothing” every time. Tips are usually 10%-15%. Requiring more than that is just plain greedy.

As a customer, is it time to ask for a discount?

I usually hit none and give them a cash tip!

I’m wondering why Rat hasn’t suggested BitCoin.

“In God We Trust " … All others pay cash ;-)

Always tip with cash.

Here’s a tip: Give nothing (on screen) in response (as feedback) to the idiot who decided to give you that last choice. [You can still leave a cash tip.]

I refuse to engage with shops that do this. For a short period shops tried charity shaming and I asked them if we were stuck in a South Park episode https://youtu.be/3KT9IUd_Cnc The shops stop this nonsense.

I only tip when I sit down and eat at the restaraunt.

Ban tipping, require resto owners to pay an actual wage, and yes raise prices to legit amount.

I make my own coffee for pennies!

I’d be paying cash for a small purchase like this anyway. Of course, they probably notice if I don’t put anything in the tip jar.

Everyone’s heard the expression “guilt trip.” This is a guilt tip.

No, I am not tipping you for doing the job you are already being paid at least minimum wage to do. Handing me a product and ringing it up does not merit a tip.

Minimum wage in Florida will be $12/hour effective September 30. $12/hour to pour a cup of coffee and ring it up. No, you don’t get a tip on top of that. And you morons at 7/11 or Circle K who have tip jars out, I have two words for you, and the second one is you. I’ll leave it to your imagination as to what the first might be.

Put that option on the screen in real life and I guarantee you tips will fall off by 90%.

A casual eatery we eat at after a long day has the electronic tip options beginning with 18%. You wait in line to order and fetch your own drinks. Staff brings your food and busts your table. We pay with the card, tip with cash, and it’s never 18%, or even 10%. At least we don’t have to clear our plates. I guess that’s worth a buck.

I experience the same thing when I use DoorDash. My mom keeps guilt tripping me into tipping people.

I use InstaCart. It’s common for a grocery order to come close to $300 these days, which can actually fill 3 bags because of rising food prices. The “suggested tip” is 20 or 25 percent or in the vicinity of $50 or $60 for a shopper who’s already being paid to do the job. Crazy.

i think i’ll save $4000 on the trip and tip my servers instead

In Illinois (and I believe most other states) employers are allowed to pay tipped employees sub-minimum wages, which usually don’t amount to much. With tips, it’s almost a reasonable living if the location and traffic are good, but the people who bring my food and drinks are not making decent money if I don’t tip. Personally, I would prefer they were happy to see me.

I notice on those machines the tip level starts at 18%. I usually choose custom and leave 15%. I only go above for outstanding service. If I don’t feel a tip is warranted I have no issue looking “cheap”. Remember to only tip on the pretax amount. This tipping thing has really gotten out of control.

If I get good efficient service, I tip generously…but there’s always a snippy sloppy one and they get my 2¢! …LITERALLY !

Curse businesses that have added that to the recently introduced Touch Pads just because they could. Great way to pass paying employees onto the customer.

Hey hey hey, tips are important. I think everyone would agree, except for Karens, maybe.

Love how bars leave tip jars on the counter with “seed money” inside, like its magically going to attract drunk patrons to leave tips

A friend of mine generously picked up the tab for our dinner at a restaurant recently. He crossed out the suggested tip lines and wrote under them, “Buy Low. Sell High.” (He also left two twenty-dollar bills on the table.) No comment was made, but I did catch the grin and a wink from our server as we left.

This is like the “Garfield and Friends” episode where Jon decided to start paying with cash instead of credit cards, but everyone at the mall was so used to using credit cards that they literally never saw paper money before.

I need to pay in cash too, when I can. What I hate, after ordering my food and adding a top for the driver, I’m still expected to tip said driver before I can get my food.

A little over a year ago I took my favorite nephew to a cafe that served some sort of trendy new drink that the kids all wanted to try. He asked the woman at the counter all kinds of questions about it and she explained everything to him very patiently. So I knew I’d have to tip her even though I usually don’t at places where you both place and pick up your order at the counter.

I ran my card into one of those iPads and got a screen like Pig’s seeing here. There were four preset “suggested” tipping amounts: 20%, 25%, 30%, and 50%. I’m not one of those who complained when the norms went from 12% to 15% to 18%, but isn’t that a bit much?

Reminds me of the onscreen tipping options for my hairdresser. Hairdressers depend on tips to make it, so I’m happy to oblige with 20-30%.

I will not tip in a place that I have to just give the order to the cashier, pick it up myself, throw out my garbage and get my own refills!!!

When I was a waiter, I once served a table full of bartenders. They left me a 300% tip.

It costs no more to pour a house wine than an expensive brand so why tip based on a percent. Leave a couple of bucks.. if.. you thought the service was better than average. Average.. is what keeps the waiter employed and doesn’t deserve “extra”.

The tip choices are always much too high. A counter service place shouldn’t be expecting any tip. or maybe 5% if there’s some hand-made processing going on. A serve yourself buffet doesn’t deserve any but a small tipo might be reasonable if they bring beverages to the table. And what happened to the 10%-15% for full sit-down wait service? It’s now 20%, 25%, even 30%???

Tipping is just a hidden charge and should be outlawed.

I seem to remember reading something a long time ago (I’m 80) that said TIP was and acronym for To Insure Promptness and was given before the meal not after

I used a gift certificate at an upscale restaurant. The balance that would be left was more than a generous tip. I asked the server for the difference in cash or gift certificate. She said she assumed the balance was her tip! I got the change.

In a country based on greed with only one principle- maximize income- tipping will be used and inevitably abused.

My tip is, Lady you would look great with all your long hair over your right breast.

I try to tip with cash. I have been told by wait staff that the restaurant takes a portion of the tip and divides the rest among the whole staff. To me that defeats the purpose of the tip. Nor do I think it right to bully patrons into paying more than the posted price.

I have waited tables myself. At the time the average tip was 10%. I did quite well and while I tried my best, I was not that good of a waitress.

I have always tipped more than the prescribed rate but this constant pressure to tip more is causing me to think about not tipping at all.

In my opinion, tipping is lowkey stupid

Most of the time when you add the tip when purchasing, before the service, I get lousy service.

We have that screen, I tell people to “feel free to hit Skip, I won’t be offended!”

There’s often “other,” where I put in what I really want as a tip. Of course, that tip is less because of their coercive technology, which starts at 18% or 20% and goes up from there. If there is no “other” or if I’m at a takeout counter: zip nada and absolutely no guilt about it.

If it’s a takeout counter and they have a tip jar, I’ll put in a buck usually.

Actually, tipping should be made illegal. Prices would go up but employers would be held accountable for providing an honest wage and the IRS would be removed from an aspect of daily life of our beleaguered service workers.

Whats the difference between a canoe and a Canadian?

One tips …

Or be the chintzy person who only leaves 15%

Save the Cash Economy, Pig! Perhaps ironically, it’s much more secure than any online financial transaction….

Just hate this tipping before receiving service. Sure would be nice if these restuaruants, cafes, etc. paid a living wage and tipping could be eliminated.

What? Do they have talking registers where you live?

In Washington DC the big thing is restaurants adding 10-30% ‘facility charges’ to every tab in addition to tipping. In effect you are also tipping the restaurant itself. If you visit the Washington DC sub-Reddit you can follow the discussions.