Tips and Tipping Culture
In America tips are expected, but what am I tipping for? Better service is the reflex answer. I just came back from some time in Lisbon, Portugal. In the coffee shops there, a tip isn’t expected. The service isn’t worse, in fact it is demonstrably better. When you order a coffee and something to eat you aren’t presented with a prompt asking for 20% of the total. You take a seat and then they bring it to you. When you are finished you leave things on the table and they bus it.
The difference was so stark I’ve curtailed my tipping in coffee shops. I just round up to the nearest dollar like I used to do when paying cash a long time ago.
Tip culture has gotten extreme. Just raise your prices 20% and be done with it. There is almost no relationship between tipping and service quality.