The digital tip jar is a new tipping trend that has consumers sweating it out at checkout counters across the U.S.
A new checkout trend is sweeping across America, making for an increasingly awkward experience: digital tip jars.
"I don't know how much you're supposed to tip and I study this," said Michael Lynn, a professor of consumer behavior and marketing at Cornell University and one of the leading researchers on US tipping habits. Tipping can be an emotionally charged decision. Attitudes towards tipping in these new settings vary widely.
One barista in Washington State said that he understands if a customer doesn't tip for a drip coffee order. But if he makes a customized drink after spending time talking to the customer about exactly how it should be made, "it does make me a little bit disappointed if I don't receive a tip." In "The Itching Palm," a 1916 diatribe on tipping in America, writer William Scott said that tipping was "un-American" and argued that "the relation of a man giving a tip and a man accepting it is as undemocratic as the relation of master and slave."
He theorized that a 15% to 20% tip at restaurants became standard because of a cycle of competition among customers. Many people tip to gain social approval or with the expectation of better service. As tip levels increase, other customers start tipping more to avoid any losses in status or risk poorer service.