It's my livelihood, and professional courtesy means I rarely, if ever, tip under 20%. That's on the high end, there are favorite places and staff I happily tip a little more, but I'd rather err on the side of generosity, but I get it, it's gotten away from itself a bit much, I mean, a dollar on a cup of coffee to go? That's 30%. And the etiquette on tipping on to go orders, it annoys me, in part because I have to tip out the kitchen on the order, but in other part because no one should be expected to tip on a to-go order. I generally try to fast forward the customer past that screen, forgetting to only when I'm tipping the kitchen on a few hundred dollars of to-go orders that I've received nothing on...
But I was in the valley the other day, with the boy, and we hit a fashionable little cafe, like a lot of places out here it's counter service, order at the till, give them your money, they give you your drinks (twist tops, open yourself) and bring the food to your table when it's ready. Take this wooden spoon with a number with you so they can find it.
There's a tipping option on the debit pay machine, and I'm a little shocked to notice that the preset tipping options are 15%, 20%, and 25%. I'm more than shocked, it's laughable, absurd, this is counter service, on a good day it's worth 10%, tops, and yet here they're raising the bar, a "cheapskate" can leave you 15% and still feel cheap when they've not even given them 10% worth of service. And here your tipping them up front, before any service other than retail has been rendered. It's offensive. I have to wonder what staff here leave when they go to a restaurant and have food and drink and menu's brought to them, drinks made especially for them, et cetera, et cetera, but out here, there's a large and entirely clueless body of people that have suddenly on the recommendation of their accountants found themselves in possession of restaurants without the faintest clue as to how they should be run.
Tipping: There can be too much of a good thing.