The coffee shop counter has become a no-cash, high-tech experience. For most workers, particularly in cities as expensive as Seattle, that’s a very good thing.
Jars full of change have been replaced by tablets with three options after someone jams their credit card onto a small cube: 15%, 20% and 25%. The customer can choose one of them, or hunt guiltily for the “no tip” tab. Few do.
Because of the new tech, customers are tipping more than ever, and servers often know before providing service how much a customer tipped, or if they simply abstained. Tipping has changed, and is changing the customer-worker relationship.
Most people haven’t paid much attention to the automated process that now happens on a tablet, said Nathan Warren, associate professor of marketing at BI Norwegian Business School, who has written several papers on tipping. But there are those who are angry about tipping when they haven’t yet…
