💸 Ask Tip! — "Confused in Kalamazoo"

Are you struggling with tipping? Resentful at the the till? Introducing our very own Tippi Pointier on navigating the 25% tipping economy with confidence and savoir-faire. Très generous! Très French!

“Confused in Kalamazoo”

Dear Tippi,

This morning I was in my local coffee shop. I practically live there these days. The Wifi is hi-speed, and if I get the table by the big plant, I can take Zoom calls without needing the “blur-the-background” feature. What’s more, I can work all morning for the price of a 12oz coffee. (I bring my “movie theater” Thermos for refills.) The point is they should know me by now and they don’t, but that’s not the “point-point.”

The “point-point” is that up until the moment I was paying for my coffee this morning, the barista was surly. It’s something I’ve noticed about people with tattoos that work with espresso. This surliness has been getting progressively worse, and instead of tipping with my usual “round up to the nearest dollar” strategy, I stood up for myself. This is difficult for me when tipping, but your advice has meant “la monde” to me. I hope I wrote that correctly.

In any event, I decided to “round down.” All the way down. My tip for the $4.28 12…