No. of Recommendations: 2
I am now seeing tip cups on every horizontal surface - bakery counters, supermarket checkout lines, fast food checkouts and so on. The US fixation on tipping is a legacy of when restaurant workers made almost nothing in wages.
I see this continuing given the lack of federal tax on tips. We too have noted the irritating items you list, and tend to reduce tips as a result. If I go up to a counter to grab a meal, no tips from me. I used to get insanely large tips when I waitressed, because I gave insanely great service. These days, it seems as though you are expected to tip because they breathe.
We were in Italy in '75, and got the same bizarre things for change, particularly when going through tolls. We were told it was because the Italian Gov't was so broke that the Lira was pretty worthless, making things like stamps, or even grocery store savings tokens or small hard candies the preferred choice, not that the gov't gave you a choice!
IP
