Tipping Now Suggested At Self-Checkout Lines

Requests for tips have started to infiltrate even self-checkout machines when customers have not interacted with staff at all, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. 

Tipping researchers, along with labor advocates, told the Wall Street Journal that the tip feature’s trickle into self-checkout services is a way for businesses to avoid raising wages.

The tipping feature is an opportunity businesses are taking advantage of, said William Michael Lynn, a consumer behavior and tip culture professor at Cornell University’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration. “Who wouldn’t want to get extra money at very little cost if you could?”

One consumer described seeing a tip prompt at a self-checkout machine at the airport as “emotional blackmail,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

Some businesses have increased the tip percentage options up to even 30%, the Associated Press reported in January.

“Suddenly, these screens are at every establishment we encounter. They’re popping up online as well for online orders. And I fear that there is no end,” Thomas Farley, an etiquette expert, told the Associated Press.