3 ms·

Some companies are trying no tipping: they put the expected tip on the base item and explicitly say “we don’t accept tips”. AFAIK it’s not going well for them,

Some companies are trying no tipping: they put the expected tip on the base item and explicitly say “we don’t accept tips”. AFAIK it’s not going well for them, partly because the “expected tip” tends to be 20%, but also because consumers just see the higher price and subconsciously it’s worse than lower price + tip. Remember, these are the consumers who allegedly tanked the “1/3 lb burger” because they perceived 1/3 < 1/4.

marssaxman 3y ago
I can tell you that I absolutely do remember which of the restaurants I visit have no-tipping/tipping-included policies, because it leaves me with a feeling of relief. I feel some extra loyalty to those businesses.
OkayPhysicist 3y ago
They also struggle to hire. A no-tip restaurant pretty much necessarily ends up paying their employees worse than they would get otherwise, because tipping is effectively a means of price discrimination: People willing to pay more pay more and people willing to pay less still pay something, just less. Price discrimination captures a portion of the surplus value that is left on the table when a price is set lower than some fraction of the market is willing to pay, and in the case of tipping that substantial surplus value goes directly into the employees pockets.
jerf 3y ago
They're just too far ahead of the game. Hatred for tips is growing but not past the, err, tipping point yet. Or non-tipping point, if you prefer. But my main point is, nothing is going to stop the tipping train until it rams into a wall. With "sometimes I get some tip money, especially when I use dark patterns" on one side of the ledger, the increasing annoyance people have with tipping is just going to be ignored and therefore grow until it boils over. We're not there yet. But barring some sort of legislative intervention, we are going to get there. There's no stopper between here and there anymore. Don't know when, but I can't imagine it'll be 10 years or anything.

marssaxman 3y ago

I can tell you that I absolutely do remember which of the restaurants I visit have no-tipping/tipping-included policies, because it leaves me with a feeling of relief. I feel some extra loyalty to those businesses.

OkayPhysicist 3y ago

They also struggle to hire. A no-tip restaurant pretty much necessarily ends up paying their employees worse than they would get otherwise, because tipping is effectively a means of price discrimination: People willing to pay more pay more and people willing to pay less still pay something, just less. Price discrimination captures a portion of the surplus value that is left on the table when a price is set lower than some fraction of the market is willing to pay, and in the case of tipping that substantial surplus value goes directly into the employees pockets.

jerf 3y ago

They're just too far ahead of the game. Hatred for tips is growing but not past the, err, tipping point yet. Or non-tipping point, if you prefer. But my main point is, nothing is going to stop the tipping train until it rams into a wall. With "sometimes I get some tip money, especially when I use dark patterns" on one side of the ledger, the increasing annoyance people have with tipping is just going to be ignored and therefore grow until it boils over. We're not there yet. But barring some sort of legislative intervention, we are going to get there. There's no stopper between here and there anymore. Don't know when, but I can't imagine it'll be 10 years or anything.