With inflation increasing, living wages being discussed, and the culture of tipping being scrutinized V.I.A. asked readers, is it all too much?
Specifically, we asked if "tipping is getting out of control?"
Resoundingly, the answer was yes.
Of the 896 people who voted in our poll, almost 85 per cent said the practice is out of hand; when including only locals, that bumped up over 85 per cent.
With restaurants often suggesting up to or more than 25 per cent as a tip (via the debit and credit machines, not the servers), it appears more is being asked of patrons than before, and it appears people are getting fed up with it.
In a poll V.I.A. ran last year, people noted they still tipped around 15 per cent, more often than other amounts.
At the same time, tips are being asked for at more and more establishments outside the restaurant industry.
“Suddenly, these screens are at every establishment we encounter. They're popping up online as well for online orders. And I fear that there is no end,” said etiquette expert Thomas Farley in a story from the Associated Press. He considers the whole thing somewhat of “an invasion.”
The V.I.A. poll ran from 2/20/2023 to 2/26/2023. Of the 896 votes, we can determine that 404 are from within the community. The full results are as follows:
Results are based on an online study of adult Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» readers that are located in Vancouver. The margin of error - which measures sample variability - is +/- 3.27%, 19 times out of 20.
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» uses a variety of techniques to capture data, detect and prevent fraudulent votes, detect and prevent robots, and filter out non-local and duplicate votes.
