"If I'm Walking Up to Order, I'm Not Tipping" — Woman Says Tipping Has Gone Too Far

The TikTok account Subway Takes (@subwaytakes) is an interview-style show folks make, while on the subway, where people give their own takes on a subject matter as they're being interviewed on NYC public transit.

In a recent video, a woman touches upon a sore spot that many on social media have rallied against extensively: tipping culture in the US.

In a recent episode of the show, Subway Takes' host encountered a woman who had some very strong opinions on the tipping epidemic that is currently sweeping the country.

This culture is entering business sectors she doesn't believe it has any place of being in, and folks are not only expected to tip as a "mandatory" part of the consumer experience but they are often doing much of the work themselves.

For her, leaving a tip when she approaches a counter or puts in an order herself is absolutely out of the question.

The host, on the subway, hands a microphone over to the woman and asks her what her take on a particular subject is, she doesn't want any time into launching directly into her gripe: tipping on walk up orders she placed herself at a restaurant.

"If I have to go up to order I'm not tipping," the host starts laughing into the microphone before she goes on to argue her viewpoint. "Restaurants are all self-serve now."

"Zero percent?!" the man asks.

"Zero," she responds, "at this point I work there."

"You're doing the work you should get tip," the man says. "They have the nerve on the iPad to do 15% tip, Chas v'shollem, 20% tip," she goes on.

"Tip you? Why don't you tip me? Take 15% 20% off the bill?"

The man laughs again at the woman's take, "No literally just pay people a living wage and leave us alone already."

"Tipping when you have to do the work is awful," the host clarifies.

"Yeah what? Come a year, we're tipping 45% we're making the s--- ourselves?"

He laughs again, finding the speculative claim hilarious, but then follows up, "What about coffee shops?"

"Zero!" she clarifies, impassioned. "You didn't tip for that?" the man asks, pointing to the cup of coffee in her hand.

"Oh this guy was rude as hell, I want to even cover the name here, I don't even want to give them anything. I'm telling you right now, the business must pay their employees. They continue to levy more and more on the consumer."

The host, in what seems like an attempt to understand her viewpoint better, "You're doing a peaceful protest?" he asks.

"Yes, you tip where you have service, at a restaurant, tip 45%"

"Now you everyone expects 20%," he said.

She wasn't done with cafes, however, "Especially at coffee shops you know they love to flip it back the iPad, nobody flips one back, better than me. I don't give a f----."

"You hit zero and then you flip it right back?" the man asks.

She then demonstrates just how quickly she flips the iPad around, gesturing with her hand that she doesn't have any time or patience for coffee shop tipping.

The host says that he is inclined to leave a "pity tip," which the woman says should be the case for all gratuities.

"But that's what it should be, if you're feeling a tip, give a tip. But a mandatory tip, now we've lost the essence of the tip. Now we're doing wages. Now I work there, and I'm paying, to work there. By the way, people said oh well inflation, because inflation went up."

She explained what her problem with this argument is: "Yeah well a tip's a percentage, so you're getting a percentage of the inflated price. What are we double dipping? Pay your people and leave us alone already. Bring back the $2 tip."

"100% agree, I'm in," the host agrees at the end of the video.