this is peripheral to the article and not new ground, but i just plain don’t trust POS tipping. if i am getting takeout from wherever… i walk up, order my stuff to the person, and it asks for a tip. i wait around and then they call my number at the window, i get my slop and walk away. those systems. first off, why does every transaction come with a tip question? waitstaff are paid sub minimum wage, which is criminal, but i understand the expectation of tips there. or like when somebody is carrying my shit, cutting my hair, or doing a bunch of heavy lifting, like furniture movers. but now it seems every interaction is suggesting a 10-20% tip out. buy a bottle of whatever from the self-serve fridge that i picked out and carried up to the cashier… 15% tip? if that’s reasonable on top of the sticker price of everything having gone up 30%, i guess i’m not buying shit anymore. and maybe that’s the message here: i can’t afford any of it anymore. there is a takeout place that is very reasonable and no bs and they have disabled the tip request on their little POS. it’s just two people in a tiny room with a slit in the front door who do everything, open lunch only, and crank out the best food in town. it’s my favorite place. they have a little cup for cash tips, but it’s clearly bonus and not some kind of responsibility shift onto the customers for a poor business model.
but more to the point, how in the living fuck do i even know that the tipping system for most places is going to the workers? there is precisely one place in my town that is worker owned, so yeah. i can tip confidently at the POS there. otherwise, it’s all invisible. i have no clue what cut is going to the processor, the owner, the person who actually made the thing vs the person who tapped the buttons, etc etc. i’m just supposed to believe it all goes to the person i expect it should. i hate it.
i can tell you in a lot of smaller situations, the tip pool gets stolen.
in the last job i had, the servers kept cash tips (no solidarity, not exactly criminal but fuck you buddy they’re not coming here to see your smile also) but the owners kept all the pos card tips for themselves.
I made a complaint last time this happened (and some health code stuff too) but it doesn’t matter, nothing ever happens.
If I’m suspicious, I ask the cashier if workers actually get the digital tips before tipping.
When I worked in McDonald’s (UK) we weren’t allowed to accept tips — they had to be donated to the Ronald McDonald’s Children’s Charity so they could be used as a tax write off.
Can they legally take that as a write off? It’s a donation from the person to the charity, McDonald’s is just holding it.
They obviously still get the PR and free advertising from it, but I I seriously doubt they get a tax write off from it
I think there’s a popular misconception that companies can use these types of POS donations as their own write-off in an above-board manner.
Of course, it would not at all be surprising if companies had tried or succeeded at doing it, but I have not seen any hard evidence that it happens.
Ah ok. I guess they just hated us then lol
Ah, BrewDog! Why does it not surprise that one of their former managers made an app for giving alms?
appification and its consequences
Death to America
Imagine the sort of vulture that decides, “you know what gratuities need? me to middle-man the transaction and steal some of it!” and then people actually went “OMG YAS BESTIE, YASSS” and opted in to it.
Ridiculous. Here’s a tip: steal everything that isn’t nailed down. If it looks like they’re catching on, set the building on fire and get away with it. That way, everyone’s a winner.
