They have been informed!
Some local coffee shops are eliminating gratuities, removing tip jars and — more importantly — prompting for automatic gratuities on the iPad payment portal. Most customers are thrilled.
“I don't have to decide how much to tip, I don't have to do the math,” enthuses Anu Mohan, 34, who works at a cancer hospital in technology development and has a three-legged cat, a leafy cat. A café opened over the summer in East Williamsburg that had a line at the bottom of the menu declaring that tax and tip were included and that the café was “proud” to provide employees with a livable wage.
This move comes at a time when many Imagine having lost your gratuity amountwith new yorkers feeling pressured to tip Not only in restaurants and hotels but also hardware stores, dry cleaners, and even exterminators.
Anu and his wife, Cassandra Mohan, 37, who works in public health, sometimes disagree on tipping.
“As a couple we have arguments. For example, should you tip on baked goods? I think [just] Tip on the coffee because that's what they make, and Anu tips as a percentage of the total [of the whole bill] No problem,” Cassandra said.
The lack of gratuity at some coffee shops may save customers trouble (or a fight with a significant other), but it's not saving money.
A drip coffee at Three Legged Cat costs $4.50, which is about a dollar more than similar shops in the area, although some neighboring places, such as Say Coffee, also discourage tipping.
Katie Bishop, owner of Principles GI Coffee Shop in Gowanus, said many customers find the lack of tip screens “refreshing,” but her prices have come down a bit — $4 for a drip coffee and $7 for a cappucino.
,[Customers] I feel entitled to have a drink at half price,'' she said. “I asked 'Would you like to know why my prices are that high?' Have learned to respond along the lines of.
This usually calms them down.
“If not, they're not my target customers anyway,” she said.
When Taylor Siok opened Passionfruit in Bed Stuy last March, she wanted to forgo tipping in order to provide employees with more stability.
“My wife and I have been working in the hospitality industry since we were 19, and when it came time to open our own project we wanted to be more forward-thinking,” Siok said.
He pays employees “in the mid-20s per hour,” which includes tasks like baking and closing, which are not customer-facing. He also offers PTO, a rarity in the hospitality industry.
(In New York City, the minimum wage for food service workers is $16.00 an hour. Employers can meet that standard by combining the $10.65 cash wage with a $5.35 tip allowance.)
Emily Williams, owner and founder of Till Death in Bushwick, created the no-tip rule so she wouldn't have to deal nicely with disrespectful customers.
“We'll have rude people, people on the phone, people expecting us to be extremely flexible and comply with whatever they're asking,” Williams said. “We have to be nice to them and perform this just to get a tip… I want to make coffee for you and not [be] expect[ed] Chatting about your vacation or whatever you want to talk about.
Williams and her business partner run the shop on their own with no employees, and she says she survives without tips.
Full service restaurants in NYC have experimented with “no tipping” over the past decade with limited success.
In 2015, Danny Meyer announced that his Union Square Hospitality Group would gradually eliminate tipping, but, in 2020, he brought back additional gratuities as workers struggled during the pandemic.
“We don't know how often people will eat out, we don't know how much they will be willing to pay. [But] We know guests want to tip generously right now,” he explained at the time.
Restaurateur Andrew Tarlow stopped accepting tips at his Brooklyn hotspot in 2015 and walked back the policy in 2018.
But, coffee shop owners say no-tipping suits them better.
“The model is working, and we encourage other businesses to try it,” Siok said.
Michael Bewley, 50, who owns a coffee machine company and lives next door to the Three Legged Cat, said he hopes bars will start using no-tipping going forward.
“I have other things to worry about than sitting down with my partner or a friend and discussing whether we should do 18% or 15%,” he said. “I can't remember the last time my tip was based on service. Its Be based on what you should tipWhat other people in your party want, etc. “I don't need stress, I just want my coffee.”
