You knew it had to happen eventually. You’re at the airport and you’re feeling a little peckish, so you stop at the closest CIBO Express. You grab a sandwich and a drink from the cooler, walk up to the cash register and see they’ve made a change in the system. Instead of giving your credit card to one of the 2 or 3 people behind the register, they have just one person do accept payments manually, and the rest of the checkout is self serve. It’s not a big deal; they’ve been doing that at the supermarket for years now. But then you get to a prompt they never have at the Walmart Supercenter – an option for a tip. Specifically a 15%, 18% or 20% tip, or an option for “No Tip.”
That’s exactly what happened to a Reddit user named _Seaweed_ in early July:
_Seaweed_ posted the above photo in Reddit’s /mildyinfurating area. They got close to 5,000 comments about it and, as you can imagine, most of them were indeed mildly infuriated. Here are some of the best comments (comments are unedited, save for adult language and brevity):
- Tip who, exactly? — Head_Investment-8462
- “Would you like to directly increase our profits?” This is especially annoying given how overpriced everything is at the airport. Then they have the nerve to ask for a tip — balderdash9
- Does that mean that you get cash back? — aDirtyMartini
- “Let’s see if guilt tripping works on you” — Pam-pa-ram
- I was insulted Panda Express wanted a tip for shoveling food into a container for us. I’d rather they raise the f**king price and not ask for a tip but guess what? The price is the same in Europe and no tipping, so we are the problem 🙄 — Pleasant_Fortune5123
- More than mildly for the level of infuriation — Fast_Fee517
- Portland airport doesn’t allow airport food/drink to be sold at a higher price than its “street price” in the city. One of the many reasons it’s consistently rated one of the best airports in the US. Good food too. — franklsp
- Enter in a negative value — Individual_Hearing_3
- Employers love the tip culture because it means they can pay them less or as little as legal. — Hungry-for-Apples789
- Are you tipping Skynet? — BaclashGaming
- Wonder what sucker actually tips at a self service kiosk. — Fluid-Wrongdoer6120
That being said, there were a few people (albeit not many at all) who looked at it from another side:
- I’m going to be honest, I have to fight really hard sometimes to talk myself out of my deep seated guilt over not tipping, even though intellectually I know tipping at a convenience store set up or fast food is absurd. It just really hurts to hit that zero. We’ve been socially programmed well. — LazarusCheez
- As a restaurant manager that works closely with POS stations, it’s probably an all or nothing amongst all the terminals staffed or not. With that said, the restaurant I run is a food hall with cashiers – we could turn this option on. But we don’t. Some people wish we did because they think our cashiers are exceptional (which they are). But we pay them appropriately and do not expect guests to subsidize us. — Lissftw
- I hated having to decline tips when I worked in retail. A lot of well meaning customers would offer when we helped them load their car. Especially the elderly. It felt so bad to be put in the situation where you have to weigh the risk of losing your job over more potential income. The store I worked for paid slightly above minimum wage (and patted themselves on the back for it), which was still well below a living wage for the area. I could have really used that money, so it just pissed me off at my employers every time. — Amelaclya1
- This is actually less annoying than when its a human cashier because there is absolutely zero guilt or awkwardness about pressing no – even highly empathetic and socially awkward people can smash that NO button without a care in the world. — 5tyhmik
Tipping has admittedly become a bone of contention in the U.S. There are some people who think tipping should be completely (or almost completely) abandoned. Others think there’s a place for tipping, but only for THESE people and not necessarily for THOSE people (fill in the blank for who “THESE” and “THOSE” are. Servers, hotel housekeeping, massage therapists, hair stylists, delivery drivers, babysitters, ride shares, you name it). Even amongst food service employees, there can be inconsistencies between similar-but-not-exactly-the-same professions. So servers should be tipped but the people who made your sandwich at Jersey Mike’s shouldn’t (or should; it’s up to you).
So, of course, I’m saying this with my own opinions of who I think should or shouldn’t be tipped. But c’mon…if I’m doing all the work – picking up the $14.99 chicken Caesar wrap and $6.39 coconut water from CIBO Express, and paying for it without the assistance of anybody – why on earth should I tip someone else? If nothing else, CIBO Express should be tipping ME (read: lower those crazy prices) for not having to pay someone to check me out.
What do you think?
Feature Photo: EggfooVA / Reddit
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