This has big “ill pay $20 if it has free shipping, but won’t pay $15 + $5 shipping” energy.
Id rather buy food from a restaurant that doesn’t need tipping and is more expensive because they pay their workers fair wage instead of a place where the workers feel like they have to do the food service equivalent of pan handling on the side of the street.
They get paid the same. One is less dehumanizing.
Leaving your wage up to a fickle customer is hell. Getting paid less because the cooks accidentally overcooked the customers steak so they felt like they werent “treated well” or some bs is ridiculous.
(The bottom half of this rant isnt aimed at you, but at tipping in general)
You misunderstand. I’m willing - excited, even - to have restaurants that charge more upfront. I’m not willing to pay double the expected tip just because the restaurant hoped to hide additional costs in the bill and hoped that the payer wouldn’t see it. In case my original comment was not clear enough, that was what they tried doing. 15% gratuity tacked on in small letters at the end of the bill, and this charge was never mentioned at any point, and there was additional space to add tip (of course, with the recommended option being 15% after the 15% gratuity). The sum of the pre-included tip and the tip that I gave is equivalent to tip that I would have given had restaurant not tried this kind of shady bullshit. So I fail to see how I’ve done the workers of the restaurant any wrong.
I choose not to revisit that restaurant for their shady business practices, not because I was unwilling to pay a mandatory tip. Given the original post, I figured that that was clear that that was what I had meant. Clearly I was mistaken.