This is an opinion piece. The views are the author’s own.
You know the moment. You grab a bottle of water from the fridge, carry it to the counter, and the cashier swivels the payment screen around to face you. There it is: a row of percentage buttons, a “Custom” option, and a small, apologetic “No Tip” tucked in the corner. For a bottle of water. That you fetched yourself.
I’m not against tipping. I tip well at restaurants, I tip the person who cuts my hair, and I tip whoever carries a couch up my stairs. What I object to is the screen that asks everyone, for everything, every time.
I’m not the only one grumbling
In Bankrate’s 2025 tipping survey of 2,277 U.S. adults, 63% held at least one negative view about tipping, up from 59% a year earlier. Forty-one percent said tipping culture had gotten out of control. Thirty-eight percent said they were annoyed by pre-entered tip screens, and 27% said they tip less, or not at all, when they’re shown one.
Read that last number again. The screen meant to raise tips is putting a lot of people in a mood to give less. That should worry the businesses that installed them.
The problem is the question, not the tip
A tip used to be a response to service. Now it’s a prompt that arrives before any service has happened, with the worker standing right there watching you choose. That isn’t generosity. It’s a small social test, and most of us resent being tested at the register.
It also muddies the money. If the prices on the menu don’t cover a fair wage, the honest move is to raise the prices. Bankrate found that 41% of people agree that businesses should pay employees better instead of relying so much on tips. I’d rather pay a dollar more for my sandwich and know where it’s going.
A modest proposal
Keep the tip line for sit-down service, where it belongs. For grab-and-go purchases, turn the screen prompt off, or at least make “No Tip” as big as the other buttons. And put a tip jar by the register for anyone who wants to use it.
Let me be generous on my own terms. I promise I’ll be nicer about it.