Despite tipping having a long history in the nation, rampant inflation and the expectation to tip for as little as a cup of coffee being poured, have left people questioning whether it's time for unspoken tipping codes to change.
DailyMail.com took to the streets to find out what people really think about the practice - with one major bugbear being iPads at the checkout prompting them to tip as much as 30% leaving them feeling forced to fork over extra cash.
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About the only places I'll tip is for a sit down meal, if I'm at a bar (which I haven't been to in so many years it ain't funny) or my local donut shop. That's it. Oh, and the guy at the airport that went out of his way to get my elderly mother a wheelchair when she visited 5-6 years ago.
I suppose if I used the services of a cab, bellhop or valet for parking I'd tip them too, but I don't get out much.
I'll tip 20% at a restaurant if the service is satisfactory and a few bucks more if it's really good service, but I've always tipped 15-20% even when 10% was customary. My tip is always left at the table, fuck adding it on to my bill when I pay.
At the donut shop I always put a couple bucks in the tip jar no matter how small my order is, because the Laotian couple that own the place are exceptionally friendly and I like them. We're on a first name basis and we always make small talk - we discuss the weather and local news, they ask how my wife is doing, and if they see that asshole dog Jack in the truck, they'll make sure they give me a small cup of cream or whatever for him. That's worth a couple extra bucks for me.
I love my mother and father-in-law to pieces, but they are notoriously cheap when it comes to tipping to the point that it's almost embarrassing. I became aware of it when my brother-in-law invited us all out to dinner shortly after we moved out here. Tim invited us, so he paid and I offered to leave the tip, but my father-in-law Al insisted that he'd cover it. With everybody that was there, I figured the bill was close to 150 bucks, if not a little more. The service was great, by the way.
As we were getting up to leave, I saw that Al had left a 10 dollar tip. Ten bucks for a $150 meal..... We went out to our vehicles, then I told them I had forgotten my keys and went back inside and slipped the waiter another 25 bucks.
As I was firing up the truck, I looked up and saw through the window Tim's son come out of the bathroom and go back to the table before leaving the restaurant. He came over to us shaking his head and told me, "Bro, I had to go back and kick down another 30 bucks for that poor fucker. He was running his ass off for us." I started laughing and told Levi what I had done, and that we needed to start coordinating that shit.
So yeah, any time we go out to eat as their guest, I always insist on leaving the tip and I wait until everybody else is out the door, using Levi's bathroom ruse as an excuse, then I go back to the table and leave my tip so my mother-in-law won't protest that I'm leaving too much.
