^I read the OP to mean that it was a table set up in the mall that wasn’t selling anything. They were just wrapping gifts, and were hoping to make money for their charity in the meantime.
^ The gift wrapping is free. The only cash flow is the donation. I agree if it said $5/gift, no additional donation is expected. In this case, you haven’t bought anything, your just obtaining the service. Anyone that assumes such service is really free and no donation is expected is too clueless to function in society. How much you pay I guess relates to commercial value. I said $20 because I’d be happy to pay that to not have the headache of wrapping. But you’ve at least got to cover the charities cost and pay something for the volunteers’ time. Again, this isn’t really a tip, its just the payment for the service
Ugh, triple post.
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I agree, which is exactly why the charity should not put up “Free” signs. I can repeat at the expense of being redundant - you should probably pay money, so it is misleading for the charity to have this expectation while saying it is “Free”. In this case, the “Free” sign is just an attention grabber that does not represent their true intention. It is the responsibility of all parties, including charities, to be not misleading. The fact that the charity benefits some worthy cause does not exclude them from proper communications.
I thought the expectation is you tip/donate based on how much you would pay to have the gifts wrapped at a regular for-pay gift wrapping station.
i agree with you 100%. that said, it is possible the supplies were also donated, which would affect mine, and your, argument a little bit. i would never take advantage of a service/offering unless i’m paying for it already (e.g. health care, work stuff) or the person who’s paying for it can afford it easily (e.g. rich miser, well-to-do parents, etc), definitely not a charitable organization.
Ah, I skimmed too quickly. In that case, I’d feel I ought to contribute something, yes.
I think the issue there is just how to phrase things. “Free gift wrapping, donations to St. Mary’s Food Pantry appreciated” would be good. But set it up near lawyers and doctors, don’t set it up near wall street types.
$20 for unskilled labor per hour for gift wrapping. that’s interesting.
Right?! I hate that. In Japan, it is considered rude to tip. Let’s start emulating the Asian cultures. They are so much better than us.
My gripe is that everytime I go to some small, hipster coffee shop they expect a tip just for taking my order! Don’t turn that iPad around on me and guilt me into hitting one of those $1,$2,$5 tip options on the Square app.
I blame the restaurants and “18% mandatory gratuity will be added to parties of 6 or more” crap for starting this “tip as an entitlement” mentality…
Which reminds me… I was talked down to by a bartender gal the other weekend because she saw me put 0 for the tip amount on the credit card receipt. Unfortunately she didn’t realize I was pulling cash out of my pocket for the tip as she began insulting me. But don’t worry, I set her straight. I told her that if she wants guaranteed income, go get an education and a career with a salary.
Don’t like working in a job that depends on tips? Then QUIT.
If you don’t quit, then STFU about tips and just do the job.
enough said.
My last annoyance was an uber driver that missed the exit, made a 1 mile U-Turn to come back, and at the end of the trip, asked if there something extra I would give him. WTF.
When I plan to give a cash tip on something that I’m otherwise paying with a card, I always write “CASH” on the line for tips. That way they know there was a tip, but it’s not on the receipt. (I also fill in the total, so they can’t change it). Similarly, with take out food, I’ll write “Pick-up” if I didn’t have any table service.
Basically, if I leave 0 on a credit card statement, I write the reason why.
I also say “INCLUDED” when they pull that trick of including a tip with the the bill AND leave a separate line saying “TIP.” I sometimes miss it when the amount is small, but my math is good enough that I usually can tell when something’s off with the price.
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However, to your other poitn, it’s not clear that education will lift people out of the Starbucks Barrista class. Plenty of highly educated people are being replaced with educated people abroad. It’s better to be educated than not, I suppose, but when you look at the cost of an education, it’s no longer clear that it’s a postive NPV proposition. It takes years to be educated to the specialization that is rewarding today, and by the time you get there, the profession may have disappeared, so you get physicists driving cabs (another tip-grunging job where you run the risk of having clients like itera). Maybe the right answer is to try sleep with someone who’s well connected… if you’re a guy, maybe try to sleep with a gay guy who’s well connected…
^ Your last paragraph is true. Getting an education isn’t a ticket out of bartending anymore. Nor would it be NPV positive for many bartenders.
^ and to be fair, there are probably some bartenders that make more per hour than some of us. But they also don’t get paid that for 40 hrs a week and get 25 weeks paid vacation every year like me. #winsomelosesome
The last, and probably only, time I paid to get something gift wrapped was this year when I was in NYC for a friend’s wedding. The Macy’s charged like $10 to gift wrap something I bought from there. I felt like I was dying sliding my card, but gave in as I had no reasonable other options (and they did a really good job, as they should for those prices). Buying a thing of tape and gift wrap to take back to my hotel seemed like too much hassle.
Stop caring what the people standing behind you, posters or the ones wrapping your gift think. Tip whatever you feel is appropriate, whether it’s nothing or $50. There’s too many people out there that want to always live with specific rules and structure.
Can you get me a job there krazy?
haha. I wish that place existed. 25 days is more like what I get.
^ Damn, I was already planning May through September off.