Service charges used to be a matter of choice, but now consumers feel obliged to pay them for even a cup of coffee. How do we navigate this minefield and who is really profiting?
If you’re talking about these stupid screens, as far as I know no one does. But that doesn’t make the screen go away. It costs basically nothing to have that screen pop-up, so it’ll always pop-up.
If you’re talking about it in general, that’s not how you get rid of tipping and just punishes the people who are working for a living.
Going to a business where the worker assumes you will abide by the social contract they need to survive, then using their services and violating the contract after the fact, only hurts the worker, you’re right. It’s a fucked up thing to do and the people who do it are selfish pricks.
Not patronizing the restaurant at all is how to do it. Or as a lesser stand, getting your food to go.
These are a morally sound way to send the message. The workers is still temporarily harmed with less income, but you are the one “putting themselves out” for your protest. You are not forcing the worker, who has the least amount of power in the situation, to endure violence for your benefit. I don’t see people doing that either.
In fact, America has actively moved to doing the opposite, paying extra to another corp (food delivery) for shittier service, shittier food, and still having to either tip or hurt the worker with even less power to change anything.
As with most things, this requires a lot of organization to pull off. Not impossible, of course, but does require a lot of focused will from the general public. I don’t know if we have enough to spare right now, with so many people giving every minute to just barely surviving
On the contrary, not going to a restaurant requires far less energy than going and not tipping.
We don’t need to organize in any way. I’m not suggesting that we don’t go to a specific restaurant or all restaurants on a specific day. That would require organization. As would any form of “go but don’t tip” protest done morally and effectively.
Just don’t go, at your own pace, and anyone anywhere can also not go as they feel they can or want to participate. Let the business owners figure out what they need to do to get people back.
Force the one with the power to figure out and execute a plan.
Yeah, for people who agree with your assessment, are vocal enough with what they’re doing (cause what restaurant is gonna guess that the increased traffic to their takeout is about tipping?), and with a substantial number of them in some focused place, that could absolutely work.
But you’re going to face immense burnout unless people prefer pickup, making this not super likely to ever happen. Especially cause the plan relies heavily on luck.
Or, you get a group of people together, focus efforts on specific restaurants, document what you find and share it with the wider world, and that’d probably do it a whole lot quicker and it’d also be a hell of a lot more likely, too. But hey, you get to decide how you want cut that cake. I’m just a bystander.
Well yeah, a coordinated effort would work way better and way faster.
I was responding to your direct criticism of ‘we’re too overloaded and can’t protest this right now’. I offered a simple protest to fit the bill. If ‘not eating at a restaurant’ is too much work as a protest, I think there is no chance of the population achieving anything anymore.
It really sounds like you don’t want to do anything at all to help fix the situation (except maybe stop tipping?) But hey, you get to decide your cake slice too.
If everyone apparently hates it, why does everyone keep doing it? Just don’t tip.
If you’re talking about these stupid screens, as far as I know no one does. But that doesn’t make the screen go away. It costs basically nothing to have that screen pop-up, so it’ll always pop-up.
If you’re talking about it in general, that’s not how you get rid of tipping and just punishes the people who are working for a living.
Going to a business where the worker assumes you will abide by the social contract they need to survive, then using their services and violating the contract after the fact, only hurts the worker, you’re right. It’s a fucked up thing to do and the people who do it are selfish pricks.
Not patronizing the restaurant at all is how to do it. Or as a lesser stand, getting your food to go.
These are a morally sound way to send the message. The workers is still temporarily harmed with less income, but you are the one “putting themselves out” for your protest. You are not forcing the worker, who has the least amount of power in the situation, to endure violence for your benefit. I don’t see people doing that either.
In fact, America has actively moved to doing the opposite, paying extra to another corp (food delivery) for shittier service, shittier food, and still having to either tip or hurt the worker with even less power to change anything.
As with most things, this requires a lot of organization to pull off. Not impossible, of course, but does require a lot of focused will from the general public. I don’t know if we have enough to spare right now, with so many people giving every minute to just barely surviving
On the contrary, not going to a restaurant requires far less energy than going and not tipping.
We don’t need to organize in any way. I’m not suggesting that we don’t go to a specific restaurant or all restaurants on a specific day. That would require organization. As would any form of “go but don’t tip” protest done morally and effectively.
Just don’t go, at your own pace, and anyone anywhere can also not go as they feel they can or want to participate. Let the business owners figure out what they need to do to get people back.
Force the one with the power to figure out and execute a plan.
Yeah, for people who agree with your assessment, are vocal enough with what they’re doing (cause what restaurant is gonna guess that the increased traffic to their takeout is about tipping?), and with a substantial number of them in some focused place, that could absolutely work.
But you’re going to face immense burnout unless people prefer pickup, making this not super likely to ever happen. Especially cause the plan relies heavily on luck.
Or, you get a group of people together, focus efforts on specific restaurants, document what you find and share it with the wider world, and that’d probably do it a whole lot quicker and it’d also be a hell of a lot more likely, too. But hey, you get to decide how you want cut that cake. I’m just a bystander.
Well yeah, a coordinated effort would work way better and way faster.
I was responding to your direct criticism of ‘we’re too overloaded and can’t protest this right now’. I offered a simple protest to fit the bill. If ‘not eating at a restaurant’ is too much work as a protest, I think there is no chance of the population achieving anything anymore.
It really sounds like you don’t want to do anything at all to help fix the situation (except maybe stop tipping?) But hey, you get to decide your cake slice too.