[jrockway]

I'm pretty sure that people tip at, say, coffee shops because they don't want to put the change back into their pocket. When people buy coffee with credit cards, they don't tip. When they buy with cash, they tip with whatever coins are left over.

(I was told once that this was rude, so I just stopped tipping for coffee all together. If I'm going to be rude, I might as well keep the money for myself.)

[MartinCron]

I think the notion is that the tip should more closely parallel good service, so if you get just $.08 back and drop that into the tip jar, what is the message being sent, that you just don't like carrying coins around?

After getting to know some people in coffee shops and how they do rely on tips, I've started tipping around $1 per drink unless something's really wrong with the place. I do that regardless of paying cash or credit.

[jrockway]

These coffee shops should just charge a dollar more. I do not shop around for the best price on coffee. I want good coffee.

The time I was yelled at, btw, was for giving 3 quarters as a tip for a $3 cup of coffee. "It would have been more polite" to give a whole dollar, and not as change, but as a dollar bill, I was informed (by some other customer). OK, but I don't have another dollar bill, and I really don't care to carry around those three quarters...

I did try for a few days to have an extra dollar and tip with that (carefully saving up the change for use in wishing wells)... but nobody said thank you or anything, so I gave up. If I have to go to a lot of effort to give someone money and they don't care, eventually I am going to get tired of doing it. And I did. (Did one person ruin it for everyone? Yup.)

[lsc]

now, I don't work retail myself, so I don't know for sure, but I imagine that it's pretty easy to turn the change into bills if that is what they want; I mean, they need the change anyhow, right? I mean, turning one denomination of currency into another is a large part of the job. and the register is right there, right? and .75 seems like a reasonably nice tip on a $3 item, especially if they aren't taking it to your table or what have you.

so, I guess, what credentials does that other customer have? E.G. why are you taking their seemingly unusual tipping advice seriously?

I mean, personally, I almost always dump the change in the tip jar, but if I like the place and the change seems like a small tip I drop in another buck. I guess I'm cheap 'cause I don't usually tip more than that at 'to go' type places.

[jrockway]

what credentials does that other customer have? E.G. why are you taking their seemingly unusual tipping advice seriously?

Good question. I am pretty good at ignoring people online, but not so good at it in real life.

[lsc]

eh, I think people tip at min. wage places for two reasons:

1. to look generous/wealthy in front of peers (and to feel generous/wealthy)

2. in the hope that staff will be more friendly/helpful/ won't spit in your coffee.

I think you could apply 1 on line by letting people give you a name to credit publicly for the donation. (let people give you a name; some people don't want to see their real names online)

Applying 2 generally means implementing logins and some sort of 'freemium' model.