Woman says she refuses to tip at ice cream shops, then does the math on a single scoop: ‘You scooped my ice cream for 15 seconds’
She also states she will not tip anywhere that asks before the service is done, such as a smoothie bar.
A smoothie bar asked a customer for a tip before her drink was made, and she says that moment led her to set strict rules for tipping. According to Daily Dot, content creator Alitzah laid out those rules in a TikTok video. The first covers any business that asks for a tip ahead of the service, whether or not the work has started.
The prompt came before her smoothie order was finished. “The answer is no. One, y’all haven’t made my smoothie. Two, I haven’t tasted my smoothie,” she states. She then asks, “Why am I tipping?” A smoothie bar, she adds, offers no sit-down meal that lets a customer judge the service.
Restaurants and nail salons are different because customers get to experience them, from the food and service at a table to the ambiance of the room. Even there, she argues, the tip should match how the visit went, good or bad, and should come after it. A tip prompt can also appear at checkout before any work is done, as with a Shake Shack kiosk tip refusal.
Coffee and ice cream shops get no tips
Coffee and ice cream counters are where she draws the line. “Ice cream shops are just a no for me,” she states. She adds, “You scooped my ice cream for 15 seconds and put it in a cup.” Declining to tip counter workers has come up before, as with a woman who skips counter tips.
Her view is that businesses have pushed too far on gratuities. Employees at both kinds of shop are paid by the hour, she says. If those wages fall short, workers should raise it with their employer. Customers, in her view, should not carry that expectation. She also runs a planner business with its own website. Every planner is handmade, yet she does not offer buyers a tip option. “Leave a tip for what?!” she asks.
Federal rules treat tipped workers differently from other staff. The U.S. Department of Labor lists a federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. It also lists a minimum cash wage of $2.13 an hour for tipped employees, with a tip credit of up to $5.12 an hour. A worker counts as tipped when they receive more than $30 a month in tips, and the credit lets an employer count tips toward part of the minimum wage.
A Pew Research Center survey, published Nov. 9, 2023, found that about a quarter of Americans who buy coffee or other drinks at a coffee shop always or often tip. Among diners at fast casual restaurants, 12% do. Among Americans who have food delivered, 76% do.
The outlet states it could not confirm the account in her video on its own.
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