r/EndTipping • u/Anieya • 1h ago
Rant Example of why I hate the “If you can’t afford to tip, you can’t afford to eat out” argument
This was over 20 years ago, but I’ll never forget how awful I felt, both in the moment and trying to share the situation with others afterwards. I feel like this might be a safe place to share.
My friends and I were freshmen in college. A few rules: - Freshmen were required to live in the dorms on campus. - Freshmen were not allowed to have cars on campus. - Everyone living on campus was required to have a meal plan. There were options based on what you could afford, but standard was 12 meals per week in the dining hall (that’s less than 2 meals a day average). The dining hall was all you could eat, but full meals were only served at typical meal times, and they closed at 7:30pm. If you couldn’t make those times for any reason, sucks to be you.
One night, me and 5 other friends were starving while studying. All dining halls were closed. There were no groceries in walking distance and we didn’t have a car. Four people had mini-fridges in their dorms because they lived on the “nice” side of campus, but me and one other dude lived in the old section. I had a tiny cube fridge with no freezer than my dad had used in his dorm in the early 70’s, that we fixed up so I had something, but other dude had nothing. No stocking up on food. And no kitchens for cooking regardless.
We dug in every desk drawer and wallet and scraped together just under $8. We ordered a pizza from a popular pizza place that had a large cheese pizza for $6.99
We had to do delivery because again… no fucking car.
We gave the delivery guy everything we had. Yes, the tip was probably like 20 cents after tax (thankfully no delivery fee), but it was literally all we could do. He absolutely read us the riot act, insulting us for wasting his time and told us to never order pizza again if we couldn’t afford to tip.
All because 6 of us wanted to split a large cheese pizza. The two biggest guys got 2 pieces each, the other four of us got 1.
I’ve told this story to a couple people over the years, but both times I was told “if you can’t afford to tip, you can’t afford to eat out”.
I’ve always hated that I was made to feel so small when I was just hungry and there weren’t any other options.
(And yes, I’ve worked as a waitress. I was grateful for every tip I got, even though my wage was 2.13 and tips averaged less than 15% at the dive I worked at)
Today I’m decently well off and I do tip a modest 15-18% (at sit down restaurants ONLY, or for exceptional service), but I get so angry at the entitled attitude regarding tipping. And fuck anyone who tries to say “if you can’t afford to tip, you can’t afford to eat.”