Now I know we are all sick of hearing about America's awful tipping culture problem, but we're mad at the wrong people. Allow me to explain:
Last night I went to a concert where there was nothing on tap and the bartenders weren't mixing drinks. Everything was in a can.
Beer? Can.
Wine? Can.
Cocktail? Can.
Water? Well, plastic bottle but you get the point.
Ordered a wine and a margarita and was prompted to tip when they handed me two unopened cans of alcohol.
So here's where the rant changes. Is that ridiculous? Yes, absolutely, but it's not the venue's fault. Like most small businesses, they don't have their own POS (point of sale) software, they use another company's instead. After all, it's cheaper to buy at COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) product or rent a solution than to build one yourself, and by an order of magnitude.
If you notice, most of those tipping screens we all complain about are the same, and when we get angry it's at the business and not the POS company. They really get the best of both worlds: they get to take a cut of sales and tips, and we end up blaming someone else for it.
If we are going to take action, we need to start by shiftimg the blame to the right group and working together in order to solve this crisis.