Picture this: You have just done a wonderful thing and donated blood to the Red Cross. Lightheaded but fulfilled, you are handed a cup of juice. As you go to take a sip, you are stopped as an iPad is pushed in front of your face, displaying a question we have all seen before. 10%? 15%? 20% or custom? That's right dearly beloved readers, today we will be attacking the problem of tip culture in 2024, and why its tyrannical reign of terror needs to stop.
Chipotle, Starbucks, Bagel Street, various pizza places and even your local church all have something in common: the incessant tip prompt that shows up after you pay for your meal or service. Nobody knows when it all started — just that one day we started giving extra money for services or basic things we did not know we had to tip for.
As an American man living in his twisted twenties, I am horrified by the tip prompt that appears after a basic purchase of goods or services. Why should I have to pay you for something that you already get paid minimum wage for? I simply do not care enough to tip you and I will stare into the eyes of the employee as I press no tip.
And do not even get me started on the guilt trip occurring at the counter either. Will people realize that I did not tip? Did I tip too much or too little for something I did not even know needed extra money? Does the employee taking my order now hate me because I declined to tip?
All jokes aside, many fast food and coffee shops, franchised or not, are turning more towards prompting customers to tip and it is something many of my friends, family and just people I interact with daily have brought up at a point in time.
In my perfect little opinion, you should only have to tip when one does a particularly difficult or admirable job for you. Say, for example, a nice haircut that took a lot of concentration and time or perhaps a speedy job done by the good men installing your carpet. It does not, however, take a lot of effort to pour a small black cup of coffee in about 3 seconds.
My solution? The world needs to stand up to this corrupt system of tipping; we are broke college kids, for mercy's sake! So, take it upon yourself to educate others, and create circles of friends and like-minded people who collectively boycott tipping for stupid stuff. Band together and start a revolt against the tipping culture that is blatantly scamming us to our faces.
If not, tip culture will only continue, and more and more companies and businesses will adopt the tip prompt as it helps their employees slightly and adds to the minimum wage they already make.
Soon enough, the little scenario I cooked up at the beginning of this column will be a sad reality in the future.
Drew Haughn is a freshman studying communications at Ohio University. Please note that the opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of The Post. Want to talk to Drew about his article? Email him at dh061222@ohio.edu.
