Grocery Delivery in the Boonies

That sounds like good service.

But I always find it strange that the USA is still stuck in a medieval barter system for some parts of its economy - the "tip". If it costs $10 dollars to handle the order and delivery, then they should charge $10. If it costs more for big loads, or for more distant customers, then they should either charge more to such customers, or have a slightly larger charge for everyone so that it evens out.

When you sell electronics, you don't tell customers that the board costs $100 and suggest a $20 dollar tip to the guy that soldered it.

Rare and occasional tips for exceptional service are fair enough. But "suggested" tips, or tips that are virtually obligatory, are nothing more than a way for an employer to cheat on taxes, underpay employees, and skip on whatever payments an employer is supposed to make on behalf of the employees. (I don't know what these are in the USA - typically it is for things like pensions, social security contributions, etc.) It means customers can't properly judge the real costs of services, and feel pressured into paying more than the service is worth. It means the system takes advantage of kind and generous people and rewards the greedy and selfish. It means honest tax payers pay more, and the state can do less, because you have a large unregulated black market of cash-in-hand payments.

An honest and open economy works better for all parts, as far as I can see.

Tips are an important part of our culture and pretty much can be used to sort out those who vote republican from those who vote democrats. Yeah, the waitress may wear a Bernie button , but they really do prefer to serve the Trump voter.

What's dishonest or secretive about a tip?

Unlike a lot of europe, the worker-guys actually get the tip. And it's tax-free. It means "thank you for the personal service" and is an effective incentive.

It's socialism one-on-one.

Maybe you prefer surly French waiters.

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Technically, it should be reported as income, but it's an honor system whet her they do or not.

Using money to enhance incentive is certainly capitalistic. I don't see th e socialism aspect.

On a similar aspect, free charging in rest area is socialism, because it do esn't serve the gas drivers. Rest area itself is socialism, because it doe sn't service bus riders. Highway itself is socialism, because it doesn't s erve the walkers, and even bikers.

I asked some French waiters if they got the 15% "service compris" fee. They laughed bitterly.

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the socialism aspect.

doesn't serve the gas drivers. Rest area itself is socialism, because it d oesn't service bus riders. Highway itself is socialism, because it doesn't serve the walkers, and even bikers.

How would they know if you are not working for the IRS, checking on their e arnings.

French chefs are famous for spitting in the food they prepare. I wouldn't order anything from them that's not hermetically sealed.

In US internet is full of videos of workers in food processing plants pissing in the product.

I guess the upside is that you don't design electronics.

Here it is a mixed kettle of fish.

A couple of years ago there was a fair bit of publicity over restaurants - mostly corporate chains - that didn't pass on the entire "tip".

Many have recanted, and state that on the menus. You can make an inference about the others.

tirsdag den 24. november 2020 kl. 16.36.23 UTC+1 skrev snipped-for-privacy@highlandsniptechnology.com:

it's an excuse to advertise an artificially low price that no one pays

or an excuse for the employer to save on tax and salary and push the risk of slow day onto the employees

Don't tip. It's your choice.

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sort out those who vote republican from those who vote democrats. Yeah, the waitress may wear a Bernie button , but they really do prefer to serve the Trump voter.

Don't you have that a bit backwards? I thought the left wants to share the wealth which is precisely what tipping is about, from those who have to th ose who need.

I'm no fan of tipping because it distorts the claim of "free delivery", but they also do that with the "ordering fee" which goes to Instacart. I was surprised when I saw that. I guess I expected the stores to "share the wea lth" of their markup, but I've always heard supermarkets have very low mark up on most of their products, so maybe there's not much wealth to share in basic groceries. I was glad I had tipped though. It's not easy to find my house and I expect it's a bit intimidating driving down a winding driveway on a dark night. I think you can add the tip after delivery, so I might d o that in the future so I can set it appropriately.

I did notice "shopping" in the "store" provided a lot of offerings I didn't exactly ask for, items that obviously had more markup. I did not see any sale indications although they did give some discount on one item once I pu nched in my customer card number. Maybe I can punch that in at the beginni ng.

My only complaint was not showing what was in stock or not. I don't know t hat this came from my local store. I got a huge bag of cat food I've never seen in this store along with a bucket of litter which they would not stoc k for sure. So I'm thinking they delivered from a city about 25 miles away . I hope the delivery guy was paid mileage. He was in his own car.

tirsdag den 24. november 2020 kl. 18.47.10 UTC+1 skrev snipped-for-privacy@highlandsniptechnology.com:

so the employer is sure to get paid and save on tax and salary, the employees just have to take the chance on customers paying a tip...

is that how you pay your employees?

Lots of places factor in a gratuity automatically for parties of 4 or more it's just part of the bill.

Never personally noticed that service or food quality tracked whether a place was tipping-based or flat-rate either. Some of the best restaurants I've been to with the best service didn't accept tips, I've had uncaring service from waitstaff that rely on tips all the time, probably because it's expected almost nobody leave no tip at all no matter how lazy the service is.

Silly outdated custom from the 1900s

There's little market-based incentive for tipped restaurant workers, almost nobody leaves large tips and almost nobody leaves no tip. If every customer gave you extra money that scaled up or down in direct proportion to how good a job you did that would be something. They don't. Some nights you get more, some nights you get less, sometimes you get a big tip and sometimes you get little and it regresses to the mean of how many customers the place is pulling on average which mostly isn't under your control.

French waiters aren't surly because they're underpaid they're surly because they're serving another PITA American tourist.

The optimal strategy here is to do the bare minimum for most customers to ensure you get at least the base tip and look for whoever seems like they're the richest person in there to devote as much attention to as possible in hopes of pulling the big ones.

And this is what servers tend to do in practice, it's less obvious in restaurants but it's very obvious in bars and nightclubs.

I love it how non-Americans get all bothered by tipping. There are lots of ways of looking at it, but in the end it boils down to who just wants to be a cheapskate

the employer and possibly the costumers..

Delivery costs money. (So do checkouts, of course, as well as security and everything else needed to allow customers in a shop.) I see nothing wrong with having a fee for the service - though a shop should be up-front about it.

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There's nothing wrong (IMHO) about tipping for a particularly good service - or standard service in particularly difficult circumstances.

But I think it's wrong to have a system which is /based/ on tipping as the norm.

Well, that's the key point. In the USA, service staff are often grossly underpaid, with the expectation that they will make up a liveable income by tips. In my view, that is unfair to the staff and the customers, as well as everyone who contributes to or benefits from the state.

It reminds me of something I heard (personally) from an Indian professor that was visiting the UK some time in the 1980's. He asked someone how much a policeman gets paid. He thought for a bit, and said "Well, if we assume he gets about the same from bribes, that's a good income".