You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquette of iPad Tipping

Re:You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquet... by tptacek on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @04:13PM (#18243296)

I guess I see the point. But why not just tip? The coffee shop tip is like, a buck. The regulars at the coffee shop were already tipping, like, a buck every time they got coffee.

The countervailing force the iPad is addressing is the fact that customers aren't carrying cash anymore. Without the prompt, counter workers aren't going to get tipped at all.

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Re:You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquet... by SilasX on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @04:40PM (#18243583)

>I guess I see the point. But why not just tip? The coffee shop tip is like, a buck.

For the reason I already gave: you can't seriously expect everyone to accede to every demand for paying 20% more. That's not an actual, practical decision theory.

"I can afford 80 cents" isn't responsive.

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Re:You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquet... by tptacek on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @05:42PM (#18244085)

First they came for the 20% at Per Se, and I did not speak out, for I wasn't the person paying the tab.

Then they came for the 20% at Ruth's Chris, and I did not speak out, for I had gotten tipsy on cabernet.

Then they came for the 20% at Olive Garden, and I did not speak out, for I thought the server was attractive.

Then they came for the 20% at Intelligentsia, and I did not speak out, for the creeping norm of paying 20% had been established.

They they came for 20% of my internal organs --- and there was nobody left to speak for me.

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Re:You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquet... by SilasX on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @06:05PM (#18244262)

If this is trying to be clever, it could use some work, and if there's a substantive point, I'm not seeing it.

The point is that your purported, self-glorifying norm asks one to pay the default PoS tip of everyone who demands or might demand it in the future, to say "yes" to all of them. Counter purchases, grocery stores, fast food, whatever.

Could you maybe consider that there might be better and more practical heuristics?

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Re:You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquet... by tptacek on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @06:21PM (#18244349)

Ok, but I draw the line at movie ticket box office purchases. That far, and no further.

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Re:You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquet... by SilasX on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @07:27PM (#18244708)

So, no substantive contributions to make?

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