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Is tipping culture out of control? A former server explains why she won't tip at Starbucks.

Is she right?

starbucks tips, tipping culture, meghan elinor
via Meghan Elinor/TikTok and UpSticksNGo Crew/Flickr

Meghan Elinor chimes in on the Starbucks tipping debate.

Tipping culture is rapidly changing in America, so understandably a lot of people aren’t sure what to do when they buy a coffee and the debit card reader asks for a tip. It used to be that people only tipped bartenders, drivers, servers and hairdressers.

Now people are being asked to tip just about any time they encounter a point-of-sale system. There is a big difference between tipping a server who lugged around hot plates of food for an hour-long meal and someone who simply handed you an ice cream cone.

"We're living in an era of inflation, but on top of that, we've got tipping everywhere—tipflation. I take it a step further and call it a tipping invasion. Because that's really what I think it is," etiquette expert Thomas Farley (aka Mister Manners) told CBS 8.

A lot of people are tipping just because they are uncomfortable saying no to the person hovering over them at the counter.

“What is happening is what I like to call the ‘guilt tip.' So we know about a guilt trip. This is the guilt tip. Where because you know you've got to flip that screen around ultimately at the person waiting and who's going to see how much you tipped," Farley added. "Not to mention the three people standing in line behind you are going to see what you tipped."

Things have really come to a head now that Starbucks has gone from a place with a tip jar to adding a gratuity option to its point-of-sale system.

Fitness influencer Meghan Elinor, a former server, went viral on TikTok for posting a video where she emphatically said we shouldn’t be tipping for a cup of coffee. The video has racked up over 1.3 million views and fanned the flames of the debate about tipping culture.

WARNING: Video contains strong language.

“No ma’am, we are not tipping at the Starbucks drive-thru,” Elinor says in the video. “That s*** is hard—being a server, being a busser, being a runner—like, that s*** is real difficult, so yes, I will 100% tip you 20, 30, 40 percent every single day of the week,” she claims. “But Starbucks workers, listen, I love y’all, I do, but I’m not going to f***ing tip you when all you’re doing is taking a cup and handing it to somebody outside the window.”

Elinor’s aggressive tipping refusal struck some people on TikTok as being anti-worker.

"U do u but imma keep tipping them bc i know they deal with some of the WORST customers and they deserve their tips," Caprist wrote.

"You tip a bartender to make a drink what’s the difference with coffee?" Jessica Downie added.

"It’s so cute that you think all we do is pick up a cup and hand it to you," Laura wrote.

Many current and former Starbucks workers added that the tip isn’t just for the person who hands you the coffee. "You don’t have to tip but to inform you the tip goes out to everyone that worked that day not solely the person at the window," Lyssa wrote.

The tip request is also a double-edged sword because some people tip because they believe the staff is underpaid. But the tip jar also lets management off the hook for lower wages. "I used to work at Starbucks, all the tips are added up then divided among all the workers, they use the tips so they can pay the workers less," user3391398860792 wrote.

The tipping debate is difficult, especially for well-meaning people who want those with service jobs to be well taken care of but also don’t want to be overcharged for a cup of coffee.

In the end, people should make economic decisions without feeling coerced, so the decision to tip or not should be a simple one. In situations where tips aren’t essential to the workers, such as getting a cup of coffee, give them one if you feel it’s deserved but never because you feel guilty.

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It should go without saying that having your private business shared with people you didn't consent to hearing about it can be upsetting. But imagine having it shared publicly, with the entire town after you took on a prominent role. It would be devastating. Except what happened to Dawn Clements, interim superintendent of Ben Hill County Georgia, was even more upsetting. Someone publicly outed her as gay.

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"I don’t need to be muscly. That’s what henchmen are for."

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Man tracks down the family that saved his life by hiding him during the Holocaust 80 years ago

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via MyHeritage

David Rossler returns to the place where he hid from the Nazis during World War II.

David Rossler, 84, and his mother were taken in by Georges Bourlet and his four young adult children in 1944 and allowed to hide in their home in Brussels in the waning months of World War II. Rossler and his mother were Jewish, and Belgium was occupied by Nazi Germany. If caught, they’d be taken to a concentration camp.

Rossler had already lost his uncle and grandfather after they were taken to Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland and he would lose his father, hiding elsewhere, to an illness.

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For years, Lionel Rossler, David’s son, did everything he could to find the family, including putting ads in the paper and posting on social media. After one such post, he received a message from Marie Cappart, country manager for MyHeritage in Belgium, who wanted to help.

MyHeritage is an online genealogy platform with 90 million family trees. Rossler's story hit close to home with Cappart.

"My husband lost his grandfather during the war. He died at the concentration camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau," Cappart told Newsweek. "My own great-grandmother also died in the camp at Ravensbrück. She was British and was in Belgium as part of the resistance. Sadly she was caught by the Nazis and deported. She never came back."

“After browsing records and cross-referencing data, Cappart found an Anne-Marie Bourlet, born in Auderghem in 1929,” Lionel said, according to SWNS. “She discovered that Anne-Marie married someone with the surname Dedoncker and had five children—all of them possibly still alive.”

“After a bit more research, Cappart found Xavier, one of Georges Bourlet’s grandsons, and managed to contact him,” he continued.

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“If I had Mr. Bourlet in front of me, I would want to kiss him,” said David. “To say thank you with all my body, with all my life, I am alive, I have a family of which I am very, very, very proud. To tell him that my life is thanks to him.”

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“Because of his heroic action, Georges was able to save the lives of my father and grandmother,” Lionel said. “Nine people were saved thanks to what he did; my brother, myself and our children would not be here today if not for his courage and kindness.”

As a final “thank you” to Bourlet and his family, the Rosslers want him to be recognized as Righteous Among The Nations at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center. This honor is for non-Jews who risked everything during the Holocaust to save Jewish people.

The medal given to honorees has an inscription with the Hebrew saying: "Whosoever saves a single life, saves an entire universe.”

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