what the hell is with Taco Bell's new commercial advocating NOT tipping?

[charlie and algernon]

A customer tells the coffee stand guy to keep the change. Customer 2 says 'woah, what are you doing, you can get a burrito.' customer 1 takes the change BACK and says to coffee guy, you only pushed a button. what kind of message does that send?
Why tip when you can spend that money on yourself??

[reyd reid reed]

1. I've seen that one and thought

there are about a gazillion folks out there who live on tips that they just lost as customers. And I'm betting it's gonna be a big chunk of their customer base.

[Chan790]

2. Glad it pissed someone else off...

I mean dude, I made your coffee. Give me a little credit here man. Also, never piss off a barista for you will learn the ire of the barista-god:

"Please do not pick exact change out of the tip cup in coffeehouses, bars or counter-service restaurants just so you don't have to break a $1-bill."

I don't really want to contribute $0.38 to your latte purchase. Technically, I can have you arrested for this. I'm already being nice by not violating you to the county lock-up. You may not think they'll arrest you for 40-cents, but they will and your lawyer will cost you at least $200.

"Tip...our corporate overlords may not think you're expected to tip, but you are (unless your service was crap)."

I make crap wage because corporate works on the premise that you're tipping enough that I'm taking home as much as a bartender...I'm not, not by a factor of 10. You might feel that you don't have to because you're paying $4 for a coffee beverage but I don't see any of that. I make the same wage whether you order a complex drink or a bottle of water. Be nice, if you and every customer tipped $0.25, I'd make $25K a year; if you left a dollar, I'd be wealthy. Trust me, my job...harder than yours.
...
"I am a person; if you treat me like dirt...I will remember you. If you treat me with dignity and respect...I will remember you."

Respect the Barista, muse of the coffee, for I am a cruel and merciless diety; a kind and generous spirit. I can alter your beverage subtly to make you fall asleep on your desk, become completely incapable of concentrating or sitting still, or spend the next 4 hours straight on the can. I can also sample you a free pastry, salad, sandwich, beverage or coffee beans. I can decide that I'm not charging you today. I can decide to refuse you service. Which one would you prefer?

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=7712645&mesg_id=7712857

[charlie and algernon]

3. lol, that's great

taco bell's other two commericals are fine, a guy taking change out of a fountain and anoter guy diving into a dryer. But taking back a tip? that's just cruel. That second point is dead on, service people are paid terribly on the sole reason that they're counting on tips to make up the difference. The better you treat the customer, the more you get tipped and the more business the resturant gets.

[TommyO]

11. Stealing from fountains is also outrageous

Those coins tossed into a fountain are, in most cases, collected and donated to charities. Cedarpoint, an amusement park in Sandusky, OH just donated the $5700 it retrieved from its fountains to a local soup kitchen.

[madeline_con]

9. The tip cup should be emptied regularly....

but kept primed, to encourage its being refilled. And to discourage theft.

[Chan790]

10. It is to the best of our capacity...

we have to drop the tips into the safe and we're limited to the number of drops allowed per day by our manager.

[SacredCow]

12. My coffee beverage of choice costs me right at $4....

So I usually give them the $5 and dump the change in the tip jar. There's a good bit of barista turnover in my local shop, but it doesn't take them long to recognize me. I've not received any freebies, but I rarely wait for my coffee- they usually start it before I order and by the time I've paid, it's ready and I'm out the door.

[CreekDog]

13. I tip at the burrito place and it's worth every penny

not that I tip in pennies.

[Deja Q]

4. Who wrote it? What age; how old?

That way, we can have more bouts of generational fisticuffs...

[Chan790]

5. I'm blaming Futurama fans!!

:rofl:

Okay, no...not really.

It's clearly an ad written by some silver-spoon GOP shitbrick ad executive in his 20s or 30s, sadly. I have to be in the same age-group with that ass.

[Initech]

7. I'm in the late 20s age group

And people my age are the ones starting to get those lucrative high-paying marketing jobs. And we are starting to see the results. Like the Budweiser "Drinkability" campaign they're shoving down our throats, or the Carl's Jr. commercial where they imply that a guy is having sex with their burgers.

[Initech]

6. I saw a commercial earlier indicating that all Subway customers had the IQs of 5th graders

Which meant that all 5th graders are stupid. And that was some of the dumbest logic I've ever heard in my entire life.

[mitchum]

8. They are pursuing that all important cheap motherfucker demographic

[Aristus]

14. My brother, sister and I all make comfortable incomes, but we come from a blue-collar

background. We always overtip for good service, and never not tip, no matter how poor the service is. We understand what the corporations don't seem to: if you pay minimum wage, you get minimum effort. My sympathies are always with the workers.

[Shell Beau]

15. I think that they were just aiming that at the coffee shops

where the workers don't work off of tips. I always give the Starbucks crew my change, but I know they don't work off of those tips.

I am not sure. I can't imagine that they would be anti-tip, but that is just my take.