Starbucks says that 1-in-10 customers now uses the company’s mobile payment app when buying their lattes and whatnot at the coffee colossus, but these customers must currently dig into their pockets if they want to show their appreciation with a tip for the barista. But starting next week, iPhone users will have the option of leaving digital tops at the ‘bucks. [More]
tipping
Pastor’s Website Lets Waiters Vent About Skimpy Tips On After-Church Meals
By 3.11.14
Following last year’s firing of an Applebee’s waitress who dared to post a receipt from a cheapskate customer claiming to be a pastor who gives “10% to God” and thus shouldn’t be required to pay the 18% tip mandated for large parties, a real pastor at a church in Tennessee decided to create a website to remind churchgoers that they shouldn’t stiff their restaurant servers. [More]
How Technology & The Power Of Suggestion Are Getting People To Leave Higher Tips
By 2.28.14
Most American restaurant-goers are used to writing a tip on the receipt after they enjoy a sit-down meal, but with a growing number of eateries — like food trucks and pop-up restaurants — that straddle the line between traditional dining and fast food, it’s unclear whether customers are expected to leave a tip or just be on their merry way. That’s why some new payment systems include an extra step to put the idea of tipping in the consumer’s mind. [More]
Domino’s Hires Back 25 Workers Fired During Wage Dispute
By 12.12.13
Last week, a Domino’s Pizza franchisee in New York City terminated the employment of 25 workers who had filed complaints about being underpaid. That’s kind of against the law in New York, and so after receiving a little talking-to from the state Attorney General, the franchisee has agreed to re-hire the previously dismissed employees. [More]
Family Claims They’re Fine With Server’s “Lifestyle,” Left $18 Tip
By 11.26.13
A few weeks ago, a New Jersey waitress set the Internets on fire with by posting a receipt, allegedly from her job, with a hateful message instead of a tip. “Sorry I cannot tip because I do not agree with your lifestyle & the way you live your life,” read the message on the receipt. The customer has now come forward to say that they left a 20% tip and would say no such thing. [More]
What Kind Of Jerk Refuses To Tip A Waiter Because He’s Gay?
By 10.25.13
While endless debates about the practice of tipping food-service employees rage all over the Internet, most people agree on one thing: if you’re happy with the service you received, you should leave some kind of tip. Some diners at a Kansas Carrabba’s restaurant allegedly made their own exception to that: “unless you disapprove of the server’s personal life.” [More]
Here’s What Servers Look Like When You Tip Them $200
By 9.16.13
Do you know what would be really nice? If this duo of merry pranksters handing out $200 tips to servers and recording their reactions would swing by St. Louis and visit the waitress who was duped into thinking she’d gotten a $200,000 gratuity. [More]
People Have Been Ranting About Tipping In The NY Times Since 1899
By 9.9.13
While NY Times restaurant critic Pete Wells made headlines last week with his scathing takedown of restaurant tipping, he’s hardly the first person to speak negatively about tipping in the pages of the Gray Lady. In fact, the Times has been down on tips since at least the late 19th Century. [More]
Are These The Final Days Of Automatic 18% Tips At Restaurants?
By 9.5.13
Many restaurants have a policy of automatically adding a 15-20% tip for large groups of diners, but that practice may be going the way of the dinosaur as a new revision to IRS income tax rules will make such auto-gratuities less attractive to servers and management. [More]
NY Times Restaurant Critic Rips Tipping A New One
By 9.4.13
New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells usually saves his vitriol for eateries that don’t meet his standards, like his infamous 2012 review of Guy Fieri’s American Kitchen and Bar. But Wells’ latest target is the even more controversial institution of tipping restaurant servers. [More]
Big Spender Hands Out $7,000 In Tips In Utah Bars
By 8.22.13
Who is the mystery Big Spender who left a grand total of $7,000 in tips to three servers at Utah bars? No one is saying. He left enormous tips on relatively small tabs. This caused problems: point-of-sale systems aren’t set up to allow 1000% tips as a fraud prevention measure, and because 1000% tips are so rare that they get national news coverage. [More]
Papa John’s CEO Apologizes For Driver’s Impromptu Racist Opera Singing
By 5.28.13
Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter has had to step up and publicly apologize after a delivery driver in Florida was caught dropping the N-word numerous times on a customer’s voicemail, even going so far as to work the slur into some opera singing. [More]
Steak ‘n Shake Waitress Scores $446 Tip On $6 Check
By 5.16.13
It’s nice to ride toward the end of the week with a happy tipping-related story for a change. A waitress at a Steak ‘n Shake eatery in Indianapolis got the biggest bonus of her life when a diner left a 7,433% tip. [More]
Amy’s Baking Company To Re-Open May 21, Hires Damage-Control Publicist
By 5.16.13 — Updated: 5.17.13
The saga of previously anonymous Amy’s Baking Company of Scottsdale, AZ, continues, with the eatery — which came out of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares looking like a heretofore undocumented circle of Hell — scheduling a “Grand Re-Opening” next Tuesday night and hiring a publicist known more for damage control than for shilling restaurants. [More]
Restaurant Learns Instagram Isn’t Intended For Hurling Racial Slurs At Bad Tippers
By 4.25.13
Someone at a restaurant in Delaware missed the class where they explain that the usual place to vent racially biased frustration at a customer is on the receipt, as the eatery is now having to do a lot of apologizing for things that showed up on its Instagram page. [More]
Waiters Sue Employer For Taking Wages To Cover Walk-Outs
By 4.5.13
Earlier this week, we wrote about the legality (or lack thereof) of employers docking tipped workers’ wages to cover walk-outs and bad orders. Little did we know that the same day, dozens of current and former servers at a Milwaukee restaurant were filing a class-action suit, alleging these sorts of violations. [More]
Is This 25% Tip A Come-On Or Just A Generous Bit Of Rounding Up?
By 2.26.13
Despite the fact that we are adults and quite mature and even wear real pants when we work from home (sometimes), that doesn’t mean we don’t chuckle at suggestive things. Like, well, the total on this waiter’s receipt [cue giggle]. [More]
‘Bitter Barista’ Blogger Fired; No Longer A Barista
By 2.13.13
When you run a blog that anonymously posts poison-pen critiques of the customers who come into your store, you know you’re running the risk of losing that job should your employer find out. [More]
