13 December 21 - 27, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Tipped Over Tipping is expected in more places than ever and no one is sure what to do about it. BY CARLY MAY GRAVLEY I n recent years, there has been a signifi- cant change in tipping. While tipping at full-service, sit-down restaurants has long been commonplace in Amer- ica, according to business technology company Square, nearly 75% of all food and beverage transactions now ask for a tip, ex- tending to online orders and kiosks. Customers are even increasingly prompted for a gratuity from cashiers, who have histori- cally not relied on tips to the extent that serv- ers do. The nudging comes not from the cashiers themselves, who often avoid eye con- tact during this portion of the transaction, but from a mandatory screen asking customers how much they’d like to tip at bakeries, cafes, concession stands and bodegas. This raises many questions: How heavily is the cashier relying on tips? What’s the pro- tocol? These aren’t things that the customer has much time to consider, and there’s pres- sure to just tap 20% and be done with it. This experience is so pervasive that it’s become a TikTok sketch. Someone will per- form a small favor, like holding a bag, only to be presented with the tip screen afterward. One comment is pervasive: “Tipping culture is out of control.” But these jokes stem from serious con- cerns about the state of tipping. This phe- nomenon has been labeled “tipping fatigue” or “tipflation,” and it makes grabbing a bite to eat — or holding someone’s bag — not only more expensive but uncomfortable as well. According to the Pew Research Center, 72% of Americans say that tipping is expected in more places compared with five years ago. Only about a third of those polled said they have a good idea of when to tip and how much. Seventy-seven percent of those surveyed by Pew say that tipping largely has to do with ex- cellent customer service and, by and large, the tipping prompt is not viewed that way. Estab- lishments such as coffee and ice cream shops have traditionally had tip jars, but those were always understated and intuitive, offering a low-key invitation to either reward quality ser- vice or even just drop some change you didn’t feel like carrying around. The touch-screen re- placements are more invasive. Factored in with the reality that food em- ployees are far less likely to be making a liv- able wage, the iPad isn’t just annoying or inconvenient — it also adds uncomfortable stakes to what should be a simple transaction. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there is no place in Amer- ica where a full-time worker making mini- mum wage can afford to rent a modest apartment. In Texas specifically, you’d need to make between $19 and $26 an hour to clear that bar. The federal minimum wage (which Texas abides by) is $7.25 an hour, and data for the job title “restaurant cashier” on Talent. com shows an average hourly wage of $11.25. This, of course, doesn’t account for serv- ers in sit-down restaurants who make the sub-minimum “tipped” wage of $2.13, which is allowed under the assumption that tips will push servers’ hourly earnings to above the federal minimum. That’s a longstanding system which is also changing with the ad- vent of new technology. Ashley (who didn’t want to use her last name to protect her job) is a server at a popu- lar sit-down brunch spot in Dallas that re- cently introduced handheld card readers for payment. She says the technology is as awk- ward for her as it is for customers. She’s also noticed a decrease in her earnings. “It’s been even worse for us [since] we in- troduced the tablets into the restaurant,” she says. “I usually feel so awkward. I look away when I give them the tablet, so I end up getting stiffed. It’s so much easier when they have a pen and they physically have to write zeroes on the no tip line.” Another factor cutting into her tips is the restaurant’s policy of tip-sharing. “As a server, most of us are required to tip out to the other front-of-house and back-of- house workers like bartenders, baristas, buss- ers and runners, which significantly affects the credit card tips we make,” Ashley says. “This past Sunday, I made around $240 origi- nally from credit card tips, but I had to tip out $100 to different front-of-house workers.” We looked at job listings for the restau- rant where Ashley works, where starting pay for front-of-house positions ranges from minimum wage to $13 an hour. This is higher than the servers’ hourly wage, but still well below the figures put forth by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. The question becomes, do the tips collected through the tablet close that income gap? One Fair Wage, an organization advocat- ing for livable wages for restaurant workers, released a study showing that 54% of restau- rant workers polled were thinking of leaving the industry, but 78% would stay if they were making a living wage. You could look at data like that and deduce that the customer has not just the opportunity to be part of the solu- tion by leaving a tip, but a social obligation. But do they? Restaurant workers are far from the only people struggling to make a living wage. Is it reasonable to expect customers (and coworkers, as in Ashley’s case) who are also just trying to get by to pick up a restau- rant’s slack when it comes to livable wages? ▼ FOOD NEWS COSMIC THIRSTS THE SPACEY BEVERAGE AND SNACK SPOT IS PART OF THE “MCDONALD’S UNIVERSE.” BY CARLY MAY GRAVLEY M cDonald’s has a new fast-food con- cept, CosMc’s, that will arrive in North Texas next year. Although part of the “McDonald’s universe,” this new venture is being marketed as a com- pletely different experience from the fast- food giant’s familiar stores, with a menu and atmosphere all its own. If McDonald’s is Happy Days, consider CosMc’s to be Mork and Mindy. A press release describes CosMc’s as “in- spired by nostalgia and powered by a menu of bold, refreshing beverages and tasty treats.” As far as the menu goes, the focus is specialty beverages like the S’mores Cold Brew and Popping Pear Slush, snacks such as pretzel bites and ice cream, and existing McDonald’s breakfast items like the Egg McMuffin Sandwich. This description may have some astute readers wondering, “Is McDonald’s just rip- ping off Dutch Bros?” The answer is a firm no. Dutch Bros might have a strikingly simi- lar concept and menu, but it doesn’t have an over-the-top space theme and an elaborate fictional backstory about an alien commit- ting corporate espionage. Nobody else is do- ing all that. This is not the first time a fast-food cor- poration has made Dallas the unwitting testing ground for a new concept. In 2022, McDonald’s brought its first fully auto- mated location to Fort Worth. Yum! Brands, the company that operates Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC, has launched more than one new concept in Dallas. One was Super Chix, a would-be competitor to Chick-fil-A that debuted in 2014 but ironi- cally now has zero Texas locations. Banh Shop, another Yum! Brands joint that serves Banh Mi, debuted in Dallas around the same time and now has locations across the country, including a handful in DFW. (We’re trying not to think too hard about why Dallas is perceived as such a captive audi- ence for the latest in corporate fast casual din- ing.) Time will tell if CosMc’s will take off or fail to launch. Perhaps it will take its place among the stars and become as ubiquitous as the franchise it spun off from. Or maybe it’ll be sucked into the black hole of weird failures currently inhabited by the McPizza. While there is currently no set location or projected opening date for CosMc’s in DFW, McDonald’s plans to have 10 pilot locations up and running by the end of 2024 in San Antonio and DFW. San Dan Truong/Unsplash Is tipping for excellent service or standard? | CITY OF ATE | ▼ Dish >> p14 www.dallasobserver.com/signup go to WEEKLY EMAIL D SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY EMAIL LIST for feature stories, movie reviews, calendar picks and more!
