A tech columnist has revealed how a grocery store clerk gave him a leer when he refused to tip 30 percent during checkout.
In a recent column, a consumer technology writer for The New York Times Brian X. Chen recalled paying for his items at an iPad register, when the interface gave him options to tip between 10 and 30 percent.
Chen selected ‘no tip’ and said the cashier then ‘gave me a look’, turning into a ‘nasty’. He said he was “baffled” when he was asked for a tip in a grocery store checkout line.
The writer, who is also the author of the book The Tech Fix, also recounted being “pressured” into tipping his motorcycle mechanic at a checkout. Chen said that although he felt the tip was not justified either, he reluctantly paid it because “my safety depended on his services.”
In the column, Chen explored the practice of tipping at tablet registers and suggested that it could soon become part of a Federal Trade Commission investigation into unfair business practices that victimize customers.
Their problems arise as thousands of Americans have complained about the digital tip machines that have sprung up in restaurants across the country.
Tech columnist Brian X. Chen recalled how a grocery store clerk recently gave him a dirty look when he refused to tip 30 percent during checkout.
Despite the long tradition of tipping in the US, the recent rise of service iPads has sparked fury among those who feel the custom has gotten out of hand.
Chen wrote about how payment platforms widely used in stores across the market intentionally manipulate people into tipping.
“Payment technologies allow merchants to display a set of predetermined tip amounts,” he wrote, “for example, buttons for 15%, 20%, and 30%, along with a ‘no tip’ or ‘custom tip’ button. “.
“That setting makes it easier for us to choose a generous tip, rather than a smaller tip or no tip at all.”
Ted Selker, a product designer who has worked for companies including Xerox and IBM, told Chen that the payment app’s designs were highly intentional.
“It’s coercion,” he said.
Chen cited another example that reminded him of a director at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tony Hu.
‘Mister. Hu, from MIT, said he had recently been introduced to tip options of $1, $3 and $5 after a $10 Uber ride,” Chen wrote. “He chose the middle button, $3, before realizing that he would normally tip the driver 20 percent, or $2.”
Hu told Chen, “It’s psychological mind games.”
Some Americans have started to put their foot in the practice.
Although tipping has a long history in the nation, rampant inflation and the expectation of tipping for just pouring a cup of coffee have left people wondering if it’s time for unspoken tip codes to change.
DailyMail.com took to the streets to find out what people really think about the practice, and readers say they’ve had enough, going so far as to completely avoid places that harass their customers for tips.
Readers said that one of the most offensive aspects of modern tipping is the expectation that customers should now pay more ‘no matter what the service’.
One commenter wrote: “Not sure why I’m supposed to tip a bartender who takes a bottle of beer and pops the cap off, 5 seconds involved.”
‘I don’t mind tipping a waiter who serves me for an hour. I mind tipping someone for giving me a drink. Are checkout lines at grocery stores going to start requiring tips now, too?’ questioned another.
And while tipping has long been a custom in the US, the dramatic rise in prices in recent years led one commenter to call the tradition “ridiculous.”
“They are always asking for tips for everything,” he continued.
Many readers agreed that payment apps that ask for tips are inappropriate, with one person noting, “You get to the counter to pay, and the tip button is right there with the staff looking at you.” Strange.’
“I’ve really stopped going to places where they have those hint screens,” said another disgruntled reader.
In 66 countries, the norm is to leave a 10 percent tip, while Americans are expected to routinely tip more than 20 percent.
Debates over tipping etiquette erupted this month after New York magazine The Cut published new ‘guidelines’.
Intended as a new code of honor, the suggestions generated a furor after they recommended people routinely tip 20 percent no matter what to avoid being considered “rude.”
And while one of the proposals was to add an extra 10 percent for even buying your own takeout, readers criticized the absurd new “rule.”
“The magazine article is the biggest culprit here, trying to brainwash young people who read them into paying (even in cash they don’t have) using guilt manipulation and peer pressure,” one said. reader.
‘I tip according to the service.’
Another agreed, adding: “There is no tip on a takeout order, never has been, this is super inappropriate for these establishments to request.”
‘I never tip if I go in and pick up the food. I’m sorry, I’m not sorry.
‘I give a 20% tip to waiters, hairdressers, pizza delivery people. But never for them to pass the food over the counter.
In the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, tips tend to be between five and ten percent, according to maps published by hawaiian islands.com.
But in the opinion of The Cut, those who oppose tips for everyday items are ‘miserable’, while those with disposable income should spend much more than 25 per cent in restaurants and bars.
For coffee shops, coffee carts, cafes and bodegas, customers must tip at least 20 percent due to the “tense atmosphere” and “complicated orders,” the magazine says.
But while he argued that Uber drivers should also get 20 percent, since they earn less in tips than regular taxi drivers, some criticized the costly lawsuits.
Kirsten Fleming agreed with many of our readers, as she wrote in the New York Post: ‘They are totally out of touch with real New Yorkers who are struggling to pay sky-high rents and inflated food bills.
‘The list should have been reduced to a few useful ideas.’