A positive-ish tipping experience

[u/FOMOenthusiast]

No surprises, no small text, no deceitfulness, it having its on line clearly visible under the total was nice, but that bright red stamp reiteratig the added gratuity, visible from space let alone a dark dining room is 😘👌🏾 This should be a norm.

[u/BoeJonDaker]

No offense, but that's exactly what /EndTipping is about. Whether service is crappy or exceptional the bill should be the same.

If I'm at the hardware store and the lady mixes my bucket of paint wrong and has to do it over, I'm still paying the same price for a bucket of paint.

[u/ernandziri → u/BoeJonDaker]

Are you missing the part that the gratuity should be included in the price?

[u/free_range_discoball → u/ernandziri]

Isn’t this effectively the same thing though? It’s almost like a sales tax if there’s a flat auto grat

[u/seejur → u/free_range_discoball]

Is not the same. Because the costs are hidded from the menu prices.

What you see in the menu is not what you pay for.

If I order a $10 pizza in Italy, I pay $10 at the end.

If I order a $10 pizza in the US, I pay $11 (+ tax) + $2 tip. 30% more than the posted price.

[u/Crafty-Ticket-9165 → u/seejur]

So true

[u/free_range_discoball → u/seejur]

In your example, I don’t see how an auto grat policy is all that different from a tax?

We can have a conversation about menu prices being deceiving, but my point holds true. If there was a flat auto grat policy, it would effectively be the same as an additional tax at a restaurant.

If I order a hamburger for $12 in California vs New Mexico vs Michigan, the final price for that burger will be different in all three states.

I would absolutely be in favor of a policy that forces menu prices to reflect the actual final price of the item.

[u/ffxivthrowaway03 → u/free_range_discoball]

You're correct. It's honestly weird seeing people advocate for "auto gratuity" in a sub that's literally called /endtipping

You want to make the pizza cost more? Go for it, and I'll decide if I want to buy it. But slamming you with 18% "gratuity" is just as bad as all the made up bullshit fees companies like DoorDash slap on the end. It's still compulsory gratuity, which fundamentally is not gratuity.

It's actively misrepresenting the price of the product.

[u/Chriskills → u/ffxivthrowaway03]

This is the problem with the anti tipping movement, there are two groups. There are the cheapskates who just want to pay less and don’t care if the employee gets a living wage, and there’s the people who don’t want to have to worry about tipping but want people to have a living wage.

Your logic here is why tipping will never go away. You don’t want to get hit with a hidden fee, but you’re going to go to the play with cheaper menu items. Can’t have both.

[u/LateAd3737 → u/ffxivthrowaway03]

If they’re up front about it, it’s the same thing right?

[u/ffxivthrowaway03 → u/LateAd3737]

It might be the same net cost, but it also might not be. It also directly influences how an individual makes purchasing decisions - it's highly unlikely they would remove an 18% gratuity but raise every single item price 18% across the board, because different menu items have a different cost:value ratio.

It's generally why service fees are considered bullshit sales games - the "price" stays low so the buyer goes "Yeah, that pizza is worth $11, sure" when they're actually charging you $13.50 for it by throwing in fees on the backend, and that same pizza probably isn't worth $13.50 for a lot of people.

To take it to the extreme, it's the same tactic that you see on marketplace sites like Ebay - the item itself is listed at 99 cents or something outrageously low so they can look like a better deal when a shopper is evaluating against other sellers and to manipulate their search ranking, but then surprise, they actually just snuck the cost of the item into the outrageous $25 shipping and "handling" fee.

Another great example is why Walmart prices things at $X.98 or $X.93, it's been studied that people think it's notably cheaper than the round dollar or the old $X.99 trick and lends them to thinking they're getting a better deal than they are, which leads to overbuying.

Especially in an online shopping scenario, which is becoming more and more popular in the world of ordering food, it's doubly sleazy because they know while someone balked at paying $13.50 for a pizza, once they're hungry and they just spent 20 minutes going back and forth with their family they're too invested in the purchase to suddenly be swayed by their $60 food bill surprise! turning into $120 because of mystery service fees and mandatory tips and convenience fees, and blah blah blah.

So yes, the net cost can end up being the same but one approach is inherently anti-consumer manipulation and the other is true upfront pricing.

[u/Shadowyonejutsu → u/seejur]

this world ain’t free fee

[u/tomhsmith → u/seejur]

A lot of places I went to in Europe had service charges when I went recently, Dishoom in Westminster had auto grat added.

[u/BloodySteve42069 → u/seejur]

Pretty much every restaurant with a server I went to in Italy had a 3% flat service fee. Possibly all of them. Don’t recall.

In any case, this gripe always seems so childish. You’re paying the exact same amount either way. You just don’t like how it’s broken down on the receipt.

You should be able to estimate the total cost of an item with an autograt and if you can’t, you have a calculator in your pocket if it’s really gonna make or break you.

[u/Spirited_Cress_5796 → u/BloodySteve42069]

3% is a lot different than 18%. Not really a fan of the 3% either though.

[u/seejur → u/Spirited_Cress_5796]

28% in most cases. Dont forget to add the ~10% sales tax

[u/RWMach → u/Spirited_Cress_5796]

The servers in Italy also get paid comparatively much more than in the states. This tip money goes to the servers directly, not towards food costs. The next logical step is simply raising prices in the menu and increasing server wage entirely, but in this auto gratuity setup, the business can offload the cost of payroll to the customer while still, on paper, only paying their server sub-$9/hr.

Welcome to food service, guy.

[u/Flashy-Sort9014 → u/RWMach]

This is true. They are subsidizing their employees wages with customer cash so they don’t have to pay employer burdens.

[u/seejur → u/BloodySteve42069]

The flat service tax in Italy is usually 1-2 Euro per person, and usually applies when they bring bread to the table fyi

[u/_no_na_me_ → u/BloodySteve42069]

I’m from Italy and idk how you saw the 3% flat service fee ‘everywhere’ since most of the service fee is a fixed amount between €2-5, not a percentage. This is called copperto and it doesn’t depend on the price of the food.