+
Sign up for
The Upworthiest
Our top stories of the day delivered straight to your inbox.
upworthy
Joy

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.

From Your Site Articles
starbucks
Badge
Albertsons
O Organics
Sponsored

O Organics’ delicious, easy-to-cook homestyle spaghetti recipe helps feed America’s hungry

O Organics is donating a meal for every product purchased at Albertsons stores, up to 28 million meals.

via Two Plaid Aprons

Mei and Kyong and a delicious plate of spaghetti and meatballs.

True

When most people think about Korean cooking, they probably imagine the enticing aroma, colors, and flavors of a plate filled with kimchi and bulgogi or a hot bowl of bibimbap. But when cooking influencer Kyong reflects upon his childhood, he has fond memories of his Korean mother cooking him a delicious and easy-to-prepare spaghetti and meatballs recipe.

"My parents were busy running their dry-cleaning business and couldn't call off work or take long breaks like a traditional 9 to 5 job, so there wasn't a lot of time to cook,” he recalled. “So, my mom learned how to make quick-and-easy meals, and her spaghetti and meatballs were my favorites.”

Is there any better example of the American melting pot than a hard-working Korean mother cooking an Italian staple for her family?

Keep ReadingShow less
recipes
Pop Culture

Woman who lives on a cruise ship for free shares the 4 things she can’t do

Living on a ship isn’t perfect. It’s just close to perfect.

via Pixabay/Pexels

A beautiful ocean liner

Upworthy has covered a few stories about people who decided to live permanently on cruise ships because it's cheaper than living on land or in a nursing home. These stories have connected with millions because they say a lot about the modern cost of living but are also aspirational.

Christine Kesteloo has become popular on TikTok with over 680,000 followers because she shares what living on a cruise ship is really like. Kesteloo is the wife of the ship’s Staff Chief Engineer, so she gets to live on the boat for free. She only has to pay for alcohol and soda, which she gets for half off.

“I live on a cruise ship for half the year with my husband, and it's often as glamorous as it sounds,” she told Insider. “After all, I don't cook, clean, make my bed, do laundry or pay for food.“

Keep ReadingShow less
cruise ships
Badge
Albertsons
O Organics
Family

1 in 8 kids in the U.S. experiences food insecurity. One simple grocery choice can help.

It's truly a win-win.

Albertsons

No child should have to worry about getting enough food to thrive.

True

When you’re a kid, summer means enjoying the fun of the season—plentiful sunshine, free time with friends, splashing in pools and sprinklers. But not every child’s summer is as carefree as it should be.

For some, summer means going hungry. According to Feeding America, food insecurity affects 1 in 8 children in the U.S., largely because families lose the free or reduced-price meals at school that help keep them fed during the school year.

But back-to-school time doesn’t make food insecurity disappear, either. Hunger is a year-round issue, and with the increased cost of groceries, it’s gotten harder for families who were already struggling to put food on the table.

So what can be done—or more specifically, what can the average person do—to help?

The good news is that one simple choice at the grocery store can help ease the burden a bit for those experiencing food insecurity. And the even better news is that it’s also a healthy choice for ourselves, our families and our planet. When we’re out on our regular shopping trips, we can simply look for the O Organics versions of things we would already buy.

But wait—aren’t we all feeling the pinch at the checkout stand? And isn’t organic food expensive? Here’s the thing: Organic food is often much more affordable than you might think. The cost difference between organic and non-organic products keeps narrowing, and many organic and non-organic foods are now almost identical in price. Sometimes you’ll even find that an organic product is actually cheaper than its brand-name non-organic counterpart.

Since 2005, O Organics has helped give health-conscious shoppers more options by making organic food more accessible and affordable. And now, it’s helping those same shoppers take action to fight food insecurity. For every O Organics product you purchase, the company will donate a meal to someone in need through the Albertsons Companies Foundation—for up to a total of 28 million meals.

Look for the O Organics label in every aisle.O Organics

Here’s what that means in real-world terms:

Say you’re throwing an end-of-summer backyard BBQ bash. If you were to buy O Organics ground beef, hamburger buns, ketchup and sea salt potato chips, you’d be donating four meals just by buying those four ingredients. If you added O Organics butter lettuce and O Organics sandwich slice pickles, you’d be donating two more meals, and so on.

And where are those meals going? Albertsons Companies Foundation works with a network of national and local charities fighting hunger, and regional divisions choose organizations to fund locally. So every O Organics product you purchase means a meal on the table for someone in your area who might not otherwise have the nourishment they need.

No kid should have to worry about getting enough food to thrive. We all make conscious choices each time we walk down a grocery store aisle, and by choosing

O Organics, we can make a difference in a child’s life while also making healthy choices for ourselves and our families. It’s truly a win-win.
From Your Site Articles
food insecurity
Pop Culture

Airline CEO works a flight attendant shift and is 'astonished' at how 'challenging' it is

More CEOs should do this.

Canva

“Sometimes, you need to change perspectives in order to gain new insights!”

“Sometimes, you need to change perspectives in order to gain new insights!” is not exactly a sentence one might expect to hear from a corporate exec, but it is a philosophy that led Jens Ritter, CEO of German company Lufthansa Airlines, to taking on a shift as a flight attendant.

In a post shared on LinkedIn, Ritter detailed his experience of working as additional cabin crew for a flight heading to Riyadh and Bahrain, taking care of passengers in business class.

Though Ritter’s previous career as a pilot gave him some insight into the challenges of working a flight, taking on the responsibilities of an attendant left him “astonished.”

Keep ReadingShow less
workers
Identity

Man's eye-opening story about taking 'a black walk' in a white neighborhood goes viral

"There is an art to making white people feel safe."

Photo by Vonecia Carswell on Unsplash

Though we're all part of the same species living on the same planet, our experience as humans walking through this world can differ widely. Children see things through a different lens than adults. Women and men have different perspectives on certain issues. And because racism has long been an active element in our society, people with varying amounts of melanin in their skin face specific challenges that others don't.

Keep ReadingShow less
racism
Internet

Woman 'rats out' her neighbor when she realizes the ATV in their yard is stolen. Was she right?

It all started with a post on Facebook and some context clues.

Mandi|TikTok

Woman tells on neighbor for stealing ATV. Was she right?

Sometimes we see things happen that seem a little weird. Sometimes they go beyond weird and look suspicious, and then we are presented with the decision to do something about it or ignore it.

Mandi, a woman on TIkTok, found herself in a situation where she had to decide if she wanted to mind her own business or spill the beans when two and two started equaling four with her neighbors. In a video, she says she noticed her neighbor pulling a "side-by-side" into their backyard late at night. The situation seemed suspicious, so she checked her local Facebook page to see if anyone posted about something being stolen.

Her foray into detective work was short-lived because she quickly found a post from someone saying their ATV was stolen and they provided pictures. There was a small problem, though. The neighbors had covered the ATV they just pulled into their yard.

Keep ReadingShow less
justice
Family

Mom makes ‘Toy Story’ doll hearing aids out of nail acrylic to match her son’s

Woody has never looked so dapper.

The Columbus Dispatch|Facebook

Mom gives 'Toy Story' doll hearing aids to match her son's.

Representation is something you don't even think about if you've always had it, which can make the need for representation feel unnecessary to some. But kids look for themselves in their television shows, dolls and neighborhood, and seeing people who look like them or have other similarities is vital to their confidence and imagination.

Seeing themselves represented helps kids feel connected to the world around them, so many parents attempt to do whatever they can in order to provide their children with the representation they need. Mom Wendy Wuu took it upon herself to make sure her 5-year-old son saw a part of himself in his favorite doll, Woody, from "Toy Story."

In a video uploaded to social media, you can see the mom molding something clear and malleable into Woody's ear. Turns out this creative mom was using fingernail acrylic to mold the shape of the doll's inner ear...well as much of an inner ear as a doll can have.

Keep ReadingShow less
representation
popular

Adam Sandler sends Jennifer Aniston flowers on Mother's Day even though she doesn't have kids

Adam is awesome.

via Glyn Lowe PhotoWorks/Wikimedia Commons and Brett Cove/Wikimedia Commons

Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston

Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston have starred in three movies together, “Just Go with It” (2011), “Murder Mystery” (2019) and “Murder Mystery 2” (2023), and their chemistry is undeniable. They probably work so well together on screen because they’ve been friends in real life since they were in their 20s.

Aniston revealed their closeness in an anecdote she shared in WSJ Magazine. "Aniston, who does not have children and has spoken openly about her struggles with fertility treatment, says Sandler and his wife [Jackie Sandler] send her flowers every Mother's Day,” the profile’s author, Ellen Gamerman, writes.

Keep ReadingShow less
adam sandler
Trending Stories