A tippable moment

When I’m getting an iced coffee at Dunkin’, or a burrito at Boloco, I’m still capable of being amazed that there are so many young folks who no longer use cash, even for small purchases.

And as I stand there being amazed, I’m also wondering what happens to those tip jars (or the donation boxes for whatever good cause) in a cashless environment. After all, you might throw 42 cents in the jar, but you’re probably not going to charge a tip. After all, this is a pretty quick and low-cost transaction. I don’t even think that people sign for these small purchases.

But the tip jar folks are apparently one step ahead of me.

At a growing number of coffee shops and casual eateries around town, countertop iPads and other tablets are outing customers’ tipping habits. Customers are presented with the device and directed — in full view of the server — to choose a gratuity option on the screen: 15 percent, 20 percent, 25 percent, “custom,” or, if they dare, “no tip.”

…The countertop technology doesn’t drive up gratuities through guilt alone. The systems’ preset default tip options tap into the power of suggestion, sometimes pushing tips into the 50 percent range or higher. Some math-phobic patrons are happy to give a bit more if it means they don’t have to do any calculating. And the ease of using a credit card rather than cash reduces the pain of paying. (Source: Boston Globe)

At one Boston coffee shop, if you order a $3 coffee, the tip options are $1, $2, $3, and no tip. And those tip options are right in your face as you face the server who handed you the $3 coffee.

I generally throw the coin part of my change in the tip bucket at places that have them. If I’ve chatted with, say, the server at Boloco while I’m ordering my Bangkok Thai on wheat with white meat chicken, I’ll throw in a buck. I know that the (mostly) kids working there aren’t making much. If I can afford a Boloco burrito, I can afford a buck extra.

But it seems a lot more like a choice – not an obligation – if I can put the tip in the passive tip jar rather than have to sign off on it or not. (I’ve occasionally been in restaurants where they take your charge card and swipe it on a device before your very eyes. The server stands there watching you put the tip in. Having been a waitress, and knowing what the wait-staff goes through, I’m a pretty generous tipper. But I still don’t like putting the tip in while the waiter’s watching my every move.)

Then there is something even newer on the horizon:

…it’s DipJar , a tip jar for credit cards that sits on a counter and lights up and makes the sound of clinking change when a customer inserts her card.

I’m okay with this concept. Sort of.  Most places that have them apparently deployed with a present amount of $1. So by not dip-tipping, and just throwing in coins, am I exposing myself as a cheapskate with no concern for the plight of minimum wage slaves? Do people no longer even want those coins?

As for that “sound of clinking change”, one would hope that this is an option that can be disabled.

Meanwhile, I also suspect that the cashless society will have an impact on panhandlers.

Personally, I seldom give money to stemmers.

Unless I’m in a really harried move, I’ll talk to them about St. Francis House. If they tell me that they’ve been banned, I tell them to get unbanned and give them a few bucks. If it’s really awful out – blazing hot, Arctic cold – I’ll generally give someone a bit of money, and once in a while buy them a bottle of water or a cup of coffee.

Maybe street people need the ability to process credit card transactions, too.

Forget ‘spare change.’ Someday it’ll probably be ‘DipJar.’