Since when has ordering food become so out of control?

Before COVID-19, tipping was a luxury afforded to waiters in order to supplement their wages. I never had to worry about staring a cashier dead in the eyes as I selected “no tip” and feeling bad afterwards for not giving 20% more to the price I was already being gouged. Yet it seems that in the aftermath of COVID, having a tablet flipped around is the norm for every financial encounter.

Tipping in the United States originated shortly after the Civil War when wealthy Americans wanted to imitate European culture. Initially used as an excuse to pay workers below minimum wage (primarily for newly emancipated slaves), it later developed during prohibition as a bribe for hotel staff members, and then finally as a legal means to make money under the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

This history is where tipping became the main source of income for restaurant staff, delivery drivers, hotel staff, and more. Tips were intended to be a means to make workers money, and also as a way for their employer to pay them less—and generally, the tips were given to these workers for their outstanding service.

Which is why it is preposterous for places like Crazy For Yogurt to ask for a tip to the cashier when the frozen yogurt is self-served. What exactly did the cashier do to deserve a tip? Weigh the frozen yogurt and charge me for it?

The culture of tipping has made it so that considering the prospect of not tipping when prompted is absurd. The culture of tipping the pizza man at the door for making the drive, or tipping the waiter at a fancy restaurant after a nice meal forces the idea of leaving no tip on the spin-around iPad that much more difficult since it is so engraved in our culture.

So, I say do away with the prompted tip. If I want to leave a tip, I’ll do so in a tip jar. Allowing this predatory system to exist takes away the meaning of gratitude in tipping, turning a gesture of appreciation into an empty obligation, watering down the service that people are paid to give.