I saw yet another article yesterday about how “tipping is out of control.” I am not going to link to it because it was stupid; that whole genre of commentary is stupid.
They always start out with an anecdote about how the author was buying something and was presented with a tip screen at the checkout and either felt guilty or didn’t know what to do. Then they usually go on to extrapolate that into commentary about some larger societal trend.
Tipping is stupid. We should be paying people a decent wage for the work they do and not make them dependent upon the random and capricious generosity (or lack thereof) of customers.
The complaints in this type of commentary is also stupid, though. You are not being presented with the tip prompt because of some larger societal shift; you’re seeing it more often now because it is built into Strip and Square point-of-sale software, which more and more small businesses are using.
And I have ZERO time for people complaining about being made to feel guilty over tipping. If you feel like you’re being guilted into adding 10-20% to the cost of your coffee, then perhaps you ought to spend some time thinking about why you feel that way.