Tipping culture - sucks.

I’m frugal in terms of me not buying new things often. Living as a minimalist and opting to save myself a buck at every single corner.

On occasion, when it just becomes the opposite of cost effective to cook a dish I’m craving (that I have no idea how to make and will probably waste more time and money in ingredients to still end up hungry) I’ll buy it. So, I bought some food today that I know I won’t make at home. Just a quick take out option.

My dish was around $20. But what baffled me was that I ordered it by myself, at the kiosk, and was PROMPTED to tip in percentages starting at 18% but the crazy part is I had no human interaction at all. The food was then placed at a pick up station with my name called out, no greeting. I’m all for appreciating hard work and can tip when people go above and beyond in my service, or even when people are talking to me in a kind tone bare minimum but I believe kindness should be rewarded. This reminds me why eating out sucks so much & why I’ll go back to following a frugal rule: try to limit or eliminate eating out entirely.

Edit: of course, we can decline. Just making an observation to something I personally found absurd. Some people can click no tip and move on, I’m aware. Lol