Yes, automated tipping is out of control

Consumers already contending with a squeeze on their bank accounts due to inflation are now facing more pressure as businesses introduce new tipping features at self-checkout machines.

Companies, including airports, bakeries, coffee shops and sports stadiums, have now introduced the self-serve tipping option, where customers can leave tips including the typical 20%, despite facing minimal to no interaction with any employee, according to a recent report by The Wall Street Journal…

William Michael Lynn, a consumer behavior and tip culture professor at Cornell University’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration, told the newspaper that businesses “are taking advantage of an opportunity,” and “who wouldn’t want to get extra money at very little cost if you could?”

Here is the story, here is my earlier Bloomberg column on tipping.  Just hand cash directly to individual humans who have helped you!  Via Anecdotal.

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