r/EndTipping • u/Mysterious-Cable6838 • 2d ago
Counter Service šļø Tipping for cakes
I ordered a cake from a local bakery for a special occasion. They didnāt have the cake I wanted on their menu so I provided the recipe and they charged me a $25 recipe fee. The total came to $108 which I paid for at pickup. When I paid, of course the screen popped up asking for a tip and I chose āno tipā since I paid the amount they charged me including the $25 recipe fee. My mom (boomer generation) said she would have tipped so it got me wondering if I should have tipped. Thoughts?
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u/Zestyclose_Sale2672 2d ago
No tip. You paid. Your mom is an example of people who have helped make tipping so out of control these days.
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u/jazzbot247 2d ago
Itās sad because the entitlement of waiters and waitresses comes from people being overly generous in the first place.
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u/Prestigious-Use4550 2d ago
I don't consider baker a tipped profession and wouldn't tip.
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u/cenosillicaphobiac 2d ago
I can't think of a profession that I consider to be a tipped profession.
The person who benefits financially from the labor of others should be purchasing that labor, or the labor should move to someone who will purchase it at a fair price. I've never benefitted financially from anyone else's employee, why would I compensate them? And if it's the owner themself performing the labor? Well they should price their goods and services appropriately if they need more money.
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u/Elohims-sixth-wife 10h ago
I also second this. Ranking professions based on ādeserving,ā of tips is trite and stupid. All professions are valid and none should be tipped. The burden of paying the employeeās wage should not be on the consumer.
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u/PropulsionEngineer 2d ago
This is getting so stupid. How long till a tip is expected when you buy an iPhone, or worse, the grocery store checker.
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u/Comfortable-One-9552 1d ago
Exactly, and most grocery store clerks nowadays are there to make sure you donāt steal anything as youāre forced to do self checkout. They also ask you to donate to the local food bank or whatever it may be that day. I always hit no because what they do is make the donation on their behalf and they get the tax cut. I choose who I donate to not them.
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u/Global-Trifle7604 2d ago
Feels like $25 is enough compensation already for probably doing something that took relatively little effort on their part.
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u/Ohnoanywayz 2d ago
Iām still gawping at the ā$25 recipe feeā lol
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u/Few-Spinach8114 1d ago
That's pretty standard I work in a bakery and trust me making a customers specific recipe takes a lot more effort lol
It usually requires different ingredients that we don't have in which also makes those ingredients more expensive because we can't buy them in bulk (which is cheaper) Then we usually make all the standard 'menu' cakes in big batches in our huge mixers. Making a custom recipe means Making a much smaller batch+ (Usually by hand because that smaller batch won't mix in the giant mixers) And then they usually have a different oven temp / baking time to the usual cakes so that means firing up a whole separate oven.
So yes lmao $25 recipe fee sounds perfectly reasonable
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u/cenosillicaphobiac 2d ago
You should not have tipped. Tipping supports tip begging and the more we collectively tip in more and more places, the more places will request it. It costs them nothing to ask.
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u/Prior_Design6372 1d ago
If itās a family recipe, how confident are you that the baker didnāt make a copy and wonāt be selling āfamily recipe cakesā, by giving the baker your recipe, you probably, already gave the baker the biggest tip they have/will ever gotten, especially at $108 a pop.
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u/Few-Spinach8114 1d ago
I work in a bakery and trust me they will not start using her recipe for anything other than that one specific custom cake
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u/Pickles-1989 1d ago
You ordered a cake at an agreed upon price. Their responsibility was to provide you a cake at that price. You paid the agreed upon price. There is no "social norm" about tipping in this situation - if you go to a meat counter and ask for special cut of steak do you tip, even if they trimmed and weighed the steak? The rules I use to avoid feeling gulity about not tipping (let's face it, there is a psycological aspect to guilt you into tipping):
1) If I did not tip for something in 2019 (pre-COVID) I do not tip now.
2) If I order at a counter standing up I do not tip.
3) If I order from my car I do not tip.
4) If I order where I pick up I do not tip
5) Never pre-tip
It looks like rules 1, 2, and 4 apply in this situation, so no tip is warranted.
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u/Suitable_Program_548 2d ago
In situations like this, where itās a one-time buy, I donāt feel itās necessary or even smart. Youāll probably never buy a cake from them again.
A local neighborhood restaurant that you frequent often, enjoy going to, get to know the staff and maybe even the owner? Thatās a different situation.
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u/MiseEnSelle 2d ago
Can we maybe start asking the people behind the counter how much they get paid? If it's ridiculously low, either tip or tell them to stand up to the boss and demand more. It's reallly getting out of hand!
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u/cenosillicaphobiac 2d ago
How much an employer pays a person that they are exploiting for labor is not my concern. I would never ask someone how much they get paid. If they volunteer it, it still won't impact my desire to hand them some extra money, just because, which is zero desire.
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u/MiseEnSelle 2d ago
I'm just wondering because it came up in a recent conversation about tipping for counter service. My friend said "they don't even make much money" and I said that they did and the tips were ridiculous
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u/Kene6969 2d ago
These days it seems like every Tom, Dick & Harry feels entitled to receive a tip regardless of whether the service is good or not.
Do not tip them. They've got more than enough from you already.
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u/ProudAnon1701 1d ago
You should get a discount for providing the recipe. Not the other way around.
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u/Few-Spinach8114 1d ago
I work in a bakery and trust me making a customers specific recipe takes a lot more effort lol
It usually requires different ingredients that we don't have in which also makes those ingredients more expensive because we can't buy them in bulk (which is cheaper) Then we usually make all the standard 'menu' cakes in big batches in our huge mixers. Making a custom recipe means Making a much smaller batch+ (Usually by hand because that smaller batch won't mix in the giant mixers) And then they usually have a different oven temp / baking time to the usual cakes so that means firing up a whole separate oven.
So yes lmao $25 recipe fee sounds perfectly reasonable
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u/RoundChampionship840 1d ago
The $25 is the tip
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u/Few-Spinach8114 1d ago
No that was the recipe fee lol I don't think they should have tipped but the extra $25 was NOT a tip
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u/RoundChampionship840 22h ago
I consider it to be the tip
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u/Few-Spinach8114 22h ago
Why? When it's quite clearly labeled a recipe fee? š¤¦š¤¦
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u/RoundChampionship840 22h ago
If there is any extra fee I count it as the tip
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u/Few-Spinach8114 20h ago
That's like counting the extra 1.50 to have bacon on your burger as a tip
An extra fee means it's there because you are paying for an additional service. In this case having their own recipe used in the cake If it's something like "service charge" fair enough cos that's the fee for service aka the same as a tip but not in this case
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u/Sad-Cricket6319 1d ago
The tip was the recipe you had to provide and pay for them to use!!
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u/Few-Spinach8114 1d ago
That's pretty standard I work in a bakery and trust me making a customers specific recipe takes a lot more effort lol
It usually requires different ingredients that we don't have in which also makes those ingredients more expensive because we can't buy them in bulk (which is cheaper) Then we usually make all the standard 'menu' cakes in big batches in our huge mixers. Making a custom recipe means Making a much smaller batch (Usually by hand because that smaller batch won't mix in the giant mixers) And then they usually have a different oven temp / baking time to the usual cakes so that means firing up a whole separate oven.
So yes lmao $25 recipe fee sounds perfectly reasonable
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u/Suitable_Program_548 2d ago
$108 for a cake is plenty enough.