Is Skipping the Tip at the Counter Acceptable? Some Customers Believe So

Montelli paid for the water without leaving a tip and decided to share his experience on TikTok.

“Normalize clicking ‘no tip.’ I am dead tired of [tipping] for things that should not be tippable,” he said in the video.

After years of “tip-flation,” which saw suggested tip amounts soar up to 30 percent in some cases and gratuity prompts appear at places where they weren’t common before, frustrated customers like Montelli are hoping to swing the trend back in the other direction by leaving smaller tips — or none at all.

In a recent survey of adults who’d visited a sit-down restaurant in the last six months, 25 percent of Canadian respondents said they were tipping less than they had been in the past. Almost 80 percent of respondents said they’re not a fan of auto-tipping prompts on digital payment machines as well.

There’s even a tip-fluencer of sorts who goes by idonttip on TikTok. The anonymous, Los Angeles-based user shares videos of himself leaving no tip at every establishment, regardless of how good the service is.

Montelli still tips at sit-down restaurants or anywhere he says genuine service is being provided. His general rules are that he doesn’t tip on takeout, at coffee shops, or anywhere he has to stand in line to order — the same rules users of the Reddit community r/EndTipping share online.

Average tip amounts left by customers increased by about five percent in an effort to help service workers whose jobs were hit hard by lockdowns. As some pandemic hardships eased in the past few years, however, tipping percentages programmed into POS devices have remained high.

Tip options have also been added for products and services where they weren’t expected in the past, such as oil changes — a phenomenon known as “tip creep.”

Tipping, especially at places where customers weren’t asked to tip pre-pandemic, is a way for people to exert a bit of control.