Tipping expectations are getting out of hand

By Lethbridge Herald on March 23, 2023.

Editor:

Has tipping and other forms of panhandling gotten out of control? That’s the question I pondered on my way home recently from a quick trip to the grocery store.

Inside the main doors on both sides of the lobby were tables set up with a single person at each soliciting for completely different agencies. Like everyone else I kept on walking – they kept on yakking.

Later at the till, I was asked if I’d like to donate to another worthy cause. 

It seems everywhere I go today I’m being asked to donate, donate, donate, or round up my tab to the nearest dollar. 

Some establishments are slipping in a “small” charge (like three per cent) for using a credit card – be alert. 

The entire panhandling game has changed. How has it changed? Tip-by-tablet is now a public affair. Intimidatingly, in front of everyone looking at us and over our shoulder we’re being publicly shamed into adding to our bill anywhere from 15 to 30 per cent for nothing received in exchange. 

I am not intimidated and often tell my personal panhandler you should be tipping me – without me darkening your doorway, there would be no you! 

I view current tipping practices as another in the river of pervasive wealth transfer practices – pickpocketing being one of them, all magically happening without a single hand in the pocket.  

Check your utility bill!  I looked into this further and found panhandling version 2023 seems to have widened the boundaries even more than I’d imagined. 

In Portland Oregon, a guy fixated on reducing his waste footprint visited a greenie product store to purchase “green” dishwasher pods. There the tablet register promoted him to leave a tip. 

It gets better. A lady took the kids to a “pick your own apples” place after making a reservation to do so. That online reservation application requested a tip of between 10 and 20 per cent. 

Is this stretching the boundary of bold or what? I have no idea whatsoever how much more brazen retailers and the general panhandler can become, but I do know that as a fixed income person, who earned every nickel honestly in this grand life, I’m avoiding the craziness of panhandling – version 2023 – in every way possible, and I will not be intimidated doing so.

Alvin W. Shier

Lethbridge