When stay-at-home orders forced many businesses to shut their doors overnight in spring of 2020 and left workers in the service industry in a complete lurch, many customers stepped up and tipped generously. A lot of patrons started tipping restaurant staff even when they picked up their own takeout.
The number is at 25 percent now. 25 percent of people... aren't tipping! What changed??!
Now that pandemic restrictions have begun to fall away, people are reverting to their pre-pandemic tipping patterns — which are often inconsistent and less than generous. In fact, tipping patterns in June 2021 were almost identical to what they were in 2019, according to a new survey from Bankrate. In some categories like restaurants and food delivery, the percentage of people who always tip their servers actually decreased by a few points.
At sit-down restaurants only 75% of people are tipping all the time. Only 59% of people always tip their food delivery driver, down from 63% pre-pandemic. And just 23% tip at coffee shops, versus 24% who did so in 2019.
So... again, I ask... what happened? Did we all of a sudden decide we shouldn't be tipping those... who take care of us?
Thoughts??