Jezebel
I generally love watching Fox News, if only because watching it is not nearly as mindnumbing as subjecting yourself to those "There's the week, there's the weekend, and then there's the day when I would rather listen to Celine Dion in hell than watch this commercial again and that day came a LONG TIME AGO" New York Times ads that lord over CNN, but all day most of its anchors have been on this preposterous rant about Starbucks tipping sparked by a ruling in California court that requires the company to pay $100 million in lost tips to baristas. (Starbucks didn't keep the tips for itself, but it allowed shift supervisors and managers to share them, which violates the law and also prompts the question as to, if the company is so worried about reclaiming its lost culture, why it doesn't pay managers more.) But the issue: not a single person on Fox seems to think tipping at Starbucks is appropriate. In fact, they seemed truly astonished that actually giving such tips was such a widely-shared practice that, even in a guilty liberal state like California, the money in question could ever amount to more than a few thousand bucks. And the astonishing rationale behind this shared opinion: that the coffee costs so damn much already.
There are moments when the true sinister black hole in the place of a heart of the Right reveals itself, and I would think this to be one. You know where they don't tip, Roger Ailes? Fucking FRANCE.
A citizen of this country should not be fucking buying a $4 cup of coffee if he or she can't slip in a dollar - or shit, you know, some larger coins — into the lucite box. The end.
No, not the end. Seriously. I spent many years as a barista, at Starbucks and elsewhere, so I have perhaps a measure more sympathy for their plight than Neil Cavuto, but tipping is the only way I can justify going there. Some days tipping is the only way I know I'm still human. Tipping wherever possible, wherever it is allowed, is your civic fucking duty. Whatever your political stripe, your beef with the way things work in this world— that hard work is insufficiently valued anymore, that market capitalism unfairly rewards elites and hucksters, that the meritocracy is dead or that welfare dissuades anyone from working or that cynicism has permeated our every action these days — tipping is your quickest, easiest, most painless mode of dissent.
Okay, soooo... T.G.I.F.! See you in church!
Comments
Awww, Moe, I's was a barista too. Gimme mah monies! I tip at Peet's cuz I won't set foot in a Starbucks anymore.
Well I know I always leave the change I get back and most of the time a bit more. It all depends on the attitude of the person serving me at Starbucks.
Awwwww sadly the only tips I ever give there is if I pay with cash and have leftover change I don't feel like carrying around. That company has enough of my money - I've been going there almost every day for years.
amen
NOOOOOOOO! IT'S FRIDAY! IT'S TOO LATE IN THE WEEK FOR TIPPING WANK AHHHHHHHHHH
This is the best post all day. I am also an ex-barista (although not at Starbucks), and let me tell you something. Those baristas need tips to survive in that job. Not just to pay the bills, also so that they don't lose their shit on the obnoxious people who regularly come and order double skim-no-caf-latte-with extra foam whilst rudely and loudly yammering on their cell phones.
i tip like a fiend, but it's because i know that service workers make shit, and that if we, the people, don't tip, then they'll have a harder time making ends meet. that being said, i'm not quite sure how that qualifies as dissent. i think that companies need to start paying fairer wages in general.
err I wany monies from Starbucks as I was a Cali barista, not from Moe. Double fuck working on Good Friday afternoon.
I always tip well for Starbucks or anything like it. Having been a food service worker will do that to you. I wonder if the non-tippers have ever worked for minimum or sub-minimum wage?
But tipping is a HORRIBLE means of dissent for those things -- it is basically agreeing that companies can skip away from the responsibility to pay their employees fairly and leave the whole thing up to you instead, not only passing payroll costs off to the whim of the consumer, but making some portion of pay dependent upon how well the business brings in paying customers!
I mean, I tip people well, but I'm never gonna fool myself that that's some kind of blow in favor of egalitarianism.
Um, don't hate me for this. I've only been to Starbucks a handful of times because I'm not a coffee drinker, and I've never ordered anything complicated... maybe a hot chocolate with a cookie. I have cocktailed and waitressed before, and I always tip at least 20% in restaurants and bars. I tip the pizza delivery guy, too. But to me, expecting people to tip at Starbucks is the equivalent of expecting them to tip at Subway or Burger King. Since when do we tip at essentially fast food places? Are we supposed to tip at Dunkin Donuts, too? I just don't get it.
@bernadette500: Yeah, former waitress here. I over-tip. Regularly.
Everybody's just trying to make a living. You GOTTA tip. Perhaps it's partly because I too once was a coffee shop girl, and it turned out our manager was stealing from our tip jar.
@esmemurphy: make it DRY.
i tip them like bartenders. i mean, i also give money to homelessmen who have clearly already been given enough money to buy their drink for the evening and the Mike Gravel campaign, so it's not saying much, but I do.
@briardahl: My sis worked for Starbucks for a few years, and as I recall they actually paid much better than other coffee shops plus offered health insurance. The independent one I worked for payed less than minimum wage, which they got away with because of tips. Total bullshit. But yeah, working in food service = sucky pay. Those waitrons in the high-end restaurants are fucking professionals and in a class by themselves, so I don't mean them, obviously. Although I am sure they are paid shit for a base wage, too.
I've never been to Starbucks, but I tip the shit out of bartenders and wait staff. If you go to the same places often, how else are you supposed to get preferential treatment other than tipping and being a pleasant human?
@jessicarabbit:
I'm with you. I tip well at restaurants, bars and for delivery, but not so much at Starbucks for just that reason. It's a counter. I don't tip at McDonalds and they're doing basically the same thing. I hope that coffee shops don't turn into another place where employers can pay less than minimum wage because people are "expected" to get more than minimum wage in tips. That would suck for their employees.
@jessicarabbit: I have to say, this is how I've always thought of it too, and haven't tipped at cofffee houses at all, even though I lavishly tip cab drivers, bartenders, and waitstaff.
But, a barista is very much like a bartender, right? They both make you a drink to your specifications. So I totally understand the post and the accompanying comments, and now I'll be sure to tip.
@J.D.Regent: My sis used to give decaf to people who were especially obnoxious and pissed her off. Especially the people she called the "AA nazis" who like to buy one coffee (no tip, of course) and camp out at starbucks, act entitled, and talk to their sobriety sponsors reeealllly loud on their cells while shooting dirty looks at others.
Obviously none of the anchors at Fox have ever stooped so low as to actually work in food service.
Wait a minute-- if an establishment allows tipping it's legal for them to pay workers LESS than the minimum wage?!!! If that's true, then there's a serious flaw in Moe's logic here (as well as a serious problem with the law).
I don't tip much for takeout food. I tip the crap out of waitstaff, like they were cows or something, you know?
Coffee shops are harder, cause leaving the change seems tacky (Tipping a quarter? Please...), and whole dollars is too much for a regular cup of joe. I like going places where the cost of the beverage ends in <$.50, so change is ok, OR, going into the usual place and putting a 5 in every so often.
@PhillyLass: I don't know about the law. I last worked in a coffee shop in Minnesota more than 10 years ago, and that was definitely the case there at that point-- we were considered "food service" and therefore we could be (and were) paid less than the normal minimum wage with the understanding that we'd get tips.
@PhillyLass: See: Applebee's. I made $2.14 an hour, plus tips. I worked there less than a month, thankfully, but yes, many jobs in the service industry pay less than min. wage. Fuckers.
Another former waitress/bartender. Still, I generally don't tip for just a straight cup of coffee, but if there's any kind of foam or syrup or that other annoyingingly delicious stuff, I'll tip.
That's why when I'm feeling fancy I generally head to 7-11: make it yourself with all of the fixings (mini marshmallows!) for a buck fifty.
@esmemurphy: Oh, is that the distinction? It's okay in restaurants and not in coffee places? That makes sense.
And what's wrong with France? It as socially required to tip but it's not as though tipping doesn't happen. Plus with the percentage of tax on everything, there are plenty of instances when this 15-19.5% tax is put back into the waiters' pockets.
As a former waitress at a Vietnamese restaurant who had equally split tips, I am all for tipping. I tip well regardless of service but I do tip better if the waitress is excellent. I don't drink/buy coffee so Starbucks is foreign territory to me and tipping is news but what sort of wages do they make? Is it waiter wages or just minimum wage?
*it's not as
@jenndavo: It is the distinction because you have your tips to supplement your income and therefore don't need a higher hourly wage to "survive."
Yeah, add one to the not-a-fast-food-tipper column. I might if I have great service or a small amount of change I don't want to mess with, but generally no, though I never go to Starbucks, either. Don't fast-food restaurants still have to adhere to standard minimum wage, rather than the lower-than-minimum wage usually paid to bartenders and waitresses (who I tip ridiculous amounts)? I know they do in my state, anyway...not that minimum wage is remotely sufficient, but I digress.
You know, I've never worked at a starbucks, but I feel like I've seen people who could be shift supers working alongside everybody else. Why aren't they allowed a share? Maybe they were actually supers, and I'm confused?
when I worked at the Sbux, I started out as a barista and was promoted to shift supervisor. I got a modest raise, but technically my living wage was still under the poverty line. The only reason I was able to afford both rent AND food was the TIPS. I was fortunate because my store made good tips; our customers were awesome, and they were not rich by any means. They were regular working-class people with whom many of us had great relationships based on mutual respect. A lot of them had been in our place at one time, and they understood how hard we worked, and we made a point to treat all our customers well. These people appreciated us, and we always thanked them. Our managers did not get a cut of the tips because uhh they are salaried, and usually they don't deal with the public as much. To deny the shift supervisors their tips is really fucking stupid and selfish. The shifts do EVERYTHING that baristas do, and MORE. The main difference is that the shift supervisor has to deal with shit like if someone has a complaint, if the toilet breaks, if someone dumps coffee grounds in the sink, if the oven catches on fire, if the alarm goes off in the morning, if the safe is short, etc. But first and foremost, a good shift supervisor is the best barista on the floor and is responsible for keeping everyone, the customers and the baristas, happy. And lest this sound like I drank the Kool-Aid, believe me, I'm not specifically loyal to the Sbux; I loved my coworkers and the company does treat its employees well, but I was never the scary one who knows everything about all the machines and coffees and who goes to conventions and shit. I don't even drink coffee. My whole point is, shift supervisors deserve tips if they are doing a job that involves customer service and if they are not in salaried management positions. Otherwise, no one will want to be a shift, and the whole company will be fucked.
And, for the record, I did work at a store in a very wealthy suburb. I worked there for two days, broke down crying within the first 2 hrs, and handed in my key at the tend of the second day. The customers treated us like total shit, like we were The Help, like we were just nameless, faceless robots who serve them coffee because it's our purpose in life. Like we were Untouchables. I felt like I had to ask them, "Room for cream? Anything else with that? Would you like me to wipe your ass too?" And those rich bastards, who would double-park their Mercedes and Lexuses and Beamers and Lincolns and Hummers, would almost never leave any tips. These people came waltzing in, wearing fucking designer clothes with Botoxed faces, ordering $5 drinks, and would leave like 35 cents in the jar, if that. Sigh. I know there are plenty of rich people who are totally not like that, and I'm sure that many are really great people, but those elusive awesome rich people were not the ones who came to that store. So anyway. If anybody here is rich or will be, please be one of the good ones. Give the wealthy a good name to make up for the horrible karma that's festering in this particular suburb.
Whoa sorry that was long. The moral of the story is: I stick to a grande Green Ginger tea, and I tip when I can. Because it's good karma.
You don't tip in France because it is included in your restaurant check.
I work at Starbucks and Im a Shift Supervisor. I make 1 dollar more an hour that regular Baristas and am in charge if managers are not there. They don't give tips to managers ever because they are salary. That lady in California is ridiculous for suing, it doesn't make any sense and there already appealing it. Also McDonalds and Starbucks are not the same thing, at least not in Nevada. I have never heard anyone at McDonalds asked me how my day was. Also when was the last time the person at McDonalds knew what your drink is, your kids names, the schools you go to, ect. I definitely think you get better service at Starbucks sometimes than a restaurants and at bars. So why wouldn't you tip? Im not just saying that cause I work there either. I don't get mad if you don't tip, but if your ordering 15 drinks at 8:30 in the morning in the drive through... really you should tip.
i've only gone a couple of times to the starbucks in my state, and the baristas consistently act like bitches so i'd never dream of tipping them. to me a tip is just that~~ extra for service beyond just taking an order and handing you the goods.
the only fast-food place i sometimes tip is dunkin donuts if they remember to put napkins in my order, and if they ask if i want a tray if they give me more than one coffee. if they don't, no tip.
I hate hate that if I just hand over my card at Starbucks they won't give me the little slip so I can add a tip. Cause I want to tip! I actually try not to go to Starbucks if I don't have cash because I feel like such an ass not tipping.
I've done every kind of tip-related job short of being a bell-hop, but I still sorta hate tipping: It's like crap companies like Starbucks get to push the burden of making sure their workers don't starve on the consumer. Also, when I go to mom-and-pop places, I generally don't tip, except dumping my leftover change. Tip sharing at some restaurants maIt's so nice living in places without tipping, but at the same time I have to say that service in those places (China, I'm talking to you) generally sucks and sometimes it would be nice to be able to express my dissatisfaction in such a literal way as giving a shitty tip. So here we are, stuck. I think the schmancy restaurants are on to something: mandatory 18% service charge added to every bill and then if you really want to express your approval or grandiosity, you can give extra on top of that.
Agreed! When I worked as a barista, I often thought "If everyone who ordered a cup of coffee put just a quarter in my tip jar..." A quarter is nothing to one person but if you serve 200 people, that's like $50 more a day which makes all the difference in the world when you're being paid $4.25/hour.
@jessicarabbit: This is my thinking as well. I do however tip at local coffee shops.
When I go to McDonalds I'm not surprised if my order is messed up and I don't get pissed. If I wanted good food done right then I would eat at a restaurant. I feel the same way about Starbucks. Half the time my hot chocolate tastes like shit but whatever I'm lazy and it's close.
I do tip bartenders, sit down food places, the pizza guy, my tattoo person, my hair person and I tip well.
Roger Ailees=Mr. Pink. Explains so much!
This is my deal. When I was working as a waitress, I was making like $2 and change as base pay. No health insurance or any other benefits. If you're working at Starbucks, aren't you making a much higher base pay, of more like $7-9/hr? Yeah, it's not much, but it's significantly above minimum wage, and it's more than 3x what regular waitstaff are making. So, why are people obligated to tip you again? If I'm wrong, and Starbucks staff are making below minimum wage, then by all means, I would tip. But that's not the case, as I understand it. I can understand tipping occasionally for exceptional service, but I don't understand how you can say it's expected to tip regularly for people who are making well above minimum wage, unlike waitresses.
@nowimpissed: i'm sorry, no. no, no, no. i worked at peet's for 6 years, and tips are absolutely necessary. yes, waitstaff at sit-down restaurants spend more face-time with you, hence you tip them more. this does not mean that you should tip customer service people who spend less time with you NOTHING. if you can throw down an extra $5 for the person who brings you your dinner, you can put $.50 in the jar at the coffee shop. imho, the reason that we tip (and should tip!) food service people is that they make ridiculously little money for working in a pretty crappy job. a tip is NOT a "reward" for a "job well done" (though being extra generous to the person who remembered all 5 of your drink modifications is appreciated). it is a small gesture toward socialism and evening things out just a little bit.
/rant
@andromache: word
I think France has it right, just pay the waiters/baristas what they deserve for busting ass from the get-go. Sadly, I don't think it will be like that in the good old US of A anytime soon, so I think its important to tip when there's an obvious wage disparity- whether you're a restaurant, bar, or coffee junky.
Everyone should have to work in the service industry at some point. Especially before you have to do the labor intensive work of being a FOX news anchor... and your soul dies from never having learned how to be humble.
I hate Fox News. They're worthless Republican mouthpieces. But I actually agree with them on this.
I tip well in restaurants - I still tip more than the standard here in the UK. But counter service is counter service. --Burger King, KFC, or Starbucks, it's fast food, and if I don't tip at Burger King, why should I tip at Starbucks? And remember, even at places like Burger King, you can customize your order, so that excuse doesn't fly at Starbucks.
They don't tip in France because it's already included in the bill. Which is actually pretty damn smart and a concept I wish they would adopt in the states. It's really a win-win... the server gets their tip, and the patron doesn't have to worry about whether they should tip or not. And if a tourist comes who's not savvy on the tipping scene and tips anyway, well then that's just a bonus.
ok so as a current starbucks barista, i can tell you that we do get paid well above minimum wage. I work in the SF Bay Area and I get $9.90 an hour (starting pay is $9 with a 10% raise after 6 months) plus, at the minimum, $1.10 per hour for tips, which roughly equates to $11 per hour. Shift supervisors, who usually do work on the floor and who have to other things like counting the safe and depositing the money etc... start at $11 an hour... Most of them will be making your drink/taking your order so I personally don't see WHY they aren't getting tips... but if starbucks does want to give me extra money for the past 9 months i've been working i'm sure as hell not going to complain.
Tipping is always nice, but its not like I necessarily notice who tips and who doesn't tip. If you're completely rude to me and order a soy 76 degrees latte and then complain when i charge you the correct price and if i end up making your drink, i might "accidentally" make it decaf.. but thats only if you're a total bitch to me. On the other hand, if you're nice and i'm tired of punching on the screen i might 'forget' to charge for that extra shot or the pastry you ordered. Also, don't fucking talk on your cell phone. No one cares about your personal life kthxbai
I have worked as a barista and as a waitress, so I tend to tip more than the average person anyhow. If you suck, you're getting 15%. Tipping at coffee shops and other places where you order at the counter can be tough - you often forget to tip or, if you use your credit card, there is no option for leaving a tip at all. That is the trouble I have. I rarely carry cash.