Many Americans will tip at restaurants, even for terrible service

5/3/24 11:28AM

Tipping point

While adding a healthy percentage onto restaurant bills has been the norm for nearly as long as the hospitality industry has existed, the integration of touch-screen tipping — everywhere from coffee shops, to drive-thrus, to self-checkout kiosks — has meant that many Americans are now feeling the gratuity squeeze.

Domino’s recently announced a bizarre solution to beat tipping tedium: yet more tipping, launching a “You Tip, We Tip” promotion last week that gives US customers discounts on future orders for every $3+ they leave for drivers.

And, if such a promotion is going to work anywhere, it’s in America. A YouGov survey of ~10,000 adults conducted last May found that 10% of Americans would tip “every time” they go to a restaurant with terrible service, compared to just 1% of Danish pollees. In fact, nearly half of all Americans surveyed said they would likely tip for a terrible experience.

That tipping culture is fast-developing into tipping fatigue, as screens imploring consumers to give a little something extra become ubiquitous. Since digital payments became commonplace during the pandemic, 1 in 3 people now feel pressured to tip, according to a 2023 Forbes study, and nearly two-thirds reported tipping more digitally than they would with cash.

Saleah Blancaflor

5/15/26

From Desi Arnaz to SpaceX: Understanding the rules of the modern economy

We talked with “Planet Money” author Alex Mayyasi about how AI might help or replace you, the superstar effect, and how the compounding effect extends beyond money.

Globes covered with various currencies suspended in space

Millie Giles5/8/26

Ahead of Mother’s Day, Google searches for “same day flower delivery” have ticked up a little earlier this year

If you’ve already made plans for a Mother’s Day gift in advance of this Sunday, congratulations. But if alarm bells are suddenly ringing, consider this a gentle reminder that, like a sizable share of the US population this time of year often does, you can still scrape together some last-minute flowers for the woman who carried you for nine months.

Data from Google Trends reveals that searches for “same day flower delivery” spike in the US in May every year, when Mother’s Day takes place. As we noted last February, the same query also gains traction around Valentine’s Day.

This year, however, it appears that searches for last-minute flowers have remained elevated in the last two months after the usual peak in February — with the search interest this April actually exceeding that seen around Cupid’s Day.

Honestly, we’re not sure why searches are spiking a little early. One explanation might be that Passover and Easter have overlapped at the start of April, and Americans wanted to celebrate with some flowers. Maybe it’s a host of Claude bots that are now running errands for AI-obsessed execs — or perhaps Americans are just impulse-buying some seasonal spring blooms after an unusually warm March, without a particular occasion.