This tweet was from 2022. Can someone go check if the prediction came true?

Do not tip the servers. It scares the sysadmins.

I don’t mind tipping for any hospitality service, but what I really hate about fast food and cafe tipping is that they often collect payment and push for a tip before the order was made incorrectly.

I’ve had my aeropress for years and have a love/hate relationship with it. I go on streaks that make incredible cups, followed by the worst cups of my life when I inevitably forget the ratios or change grinds. I really do like it and wish I could be a snob but I just settle for my Nespresso (when it isn’t broken and needing warranty replacement, again).

Oh there are definitely laws to stop price gauging but that's for small businesses and individuals who aren't rich.

why wouldn't they?

It's not even a matter of "why wouldn't they," do much as a matter of they must.

Absent of regulations, any company that doesn't abandon every conceivable human moral in pursuit of more profit will find itself hopelessly out-competed by the ones that do. If your every competitor is charging $12 for a latte and paying their employees starvation wages, and you charge a reasonable amount and pay your employees a decent wage, then every hour you're in business your competitors will be making more money than you, and you will always fall behind, unless something comes along to close that gap.

Libertarians might try to say that eventually the free market will close the gap, but adults know otherwise. The free market doesn't give a shit about human decency, the environment, the value of mom and pop businesses, or any of that. The free market can only ever want to make more money, every year, at a faster rate of increase, every year. Forever.

Government is the only thing that can reasonably account for how things should be. Regulations are the only reason we don't have 80 hour work weeks and children in the mines.

Is $12 for a latte even price gouging?

Like, $12 for milk and eggs? $12 for a pound of veggies or a gallon of gas or a jug of water during a hurricane? Sure.

But I can buy a bag of beans for $12 and make ten cups easy. I just don't know if I'd call it price gouging because you're willing to pay out the nose for foamed milk.

Lattes aren't essential. Charging $12 for one is neither predatory nor price gouging. It's arguably exploitatative but I don't feel it's our job to tell people they're not allowed to waste their own money.

I have a hard time arguing for price controls for lattes. We aren't talking water or housing or basic staples of food here.

It is like people who continue to feed ticketmaster and the resale markets with their predatory fees and prices. Why shouldn't they keep doing it if people will keep paying their insane prices for nonessentials?

At my local independent coffee shop the practice is that the baristas pay no attention and start working on your order as soon as you get to the tip screen so there's no pressure to assign a gigantic tip. They also have much better beans than Starbucks, to the point that the founder of this shop spun off the coffee bean sourcing/roasting into a separate business that he continues to manage and now is the supplier of beans for every independent coffee shop for a 50 mile radius

There’s a new coffee shop in Seattle that’s literally 4 robot arms making coffee at 4 different machines. There’s one guy in the store to keep things tidy, but that’s it.

Pay screen still asked for a tip.

The barista is an AI- generated composite of the employees that it replaced displayed on a tablet.

The baristas at the cafe my daughter and I usually go to (which is so good that even though it is half an hour away and one town over, we still go) are great. And really friendly. It's not especially cheaper than anywhere else, but they have a decent selection of non-coffee drinks like smoothies and bubble tea for my daughter, a drink called a dirty chai which I really like for me (chai with a shot of espresso), and a lot of surprisingly good gluten-free pastries and cookies. We aren't gluten-free and gluten-free baked goods that I've tried generally haven't impressed me, but these aren't bad. They also have gelato. Plus, a chill atmosphere and a lot of comfortable places to sit.

If you're ever going down I-70 through Illinois and pass by Marshall near the Indiana border, the Gypsy Queen Cafe is worth a stop, if for no other reason than to see a surprisingly upscale cafe for a tiny town in the middle of nowhere.

Edit: The menu on the website is incomplete. So is the menu on their sign. It's sort of distributed throughout the store. That's the one thing I don't like about it, but I'm used to it now.

And people complain that they are broke yet they continue to spend $$$ on things like cafe coffee

The barista is making 13$ per hour

I've never heard the term "hypermarket" before today, but according to Google that's what these type of stores have been called since 1968 lol!

So I understand why so many places like stadiums and airplanes are going cash free, but then I wonder if that's even technically legal as cash literally says legal tender for all debts public and private.

The only place I ever use cash anymore is to fuel my sporadic video poker habit.

I damn near feel like a criminal using it anywhere else.

And the day you can go throw your debit card into a video poker machine is the day I stop gambling. As ferociously disciplined of a gambler as I am (and I am ferociously disciplined with my budgets) I cannot in any way see that eventuality as ending well for any customer.

Anywho, rambling tangents complete, I wonder if cash will remain viable over the forthcoming years.

Lately where I'm from, things that go on display for $4-5 tend to come with a $12 receipt

My favorite thing is being charged extra for soy milk despite it being way less resource intensive and having a similar nutritional profile.

Yeah and I'll tip a dollar when they clearly know what they're doing.

The prediction was a bust, because I haven't walked into any local coffee shops in 2024. I didn't in 2023 either.

I don't know what the lattes cost because I don't buy them. My coffee at home is great every day.

Make sure you have your "I got cancer from sugar substitute" insurance paid up! That won't be covered any other way! Easy and convenient payment plans start at just $195 paid every alternate 9 days! At that price you can't afford not to get it!!!

Don't visit their bathroom's tho. You might get covered with human feces.

I bought 4 double cheese burgers last night for less than 5 pounds. I'm in the UK though.

And have socialized healthcare (although poorly implemented).

You didn't even get avocado toast? What don't you care about the economy at all?

Americanos used to be quite a bit cheaper than lattes. Which makes sense considering there’s no milk in them, save for any small bit of cream you put in. But sometime in the last two years they raised the price on americanos to be in line with lattes. I don’t go often, but when I do it stings to pay $6 for my drink.

Let me guess, that's 8 dollaridoos witbout taxes.

A latte here in NL is still € 4 with no tip required

And that's definitely just for specialty drinks, usually an up charge for additions and substitutes.

Black coffee vs a triple shot frappe with protein powder, oat milk, lavender mint syrup, on a raft, four-by-four animal-style, extra shingles with a shimmy and a squeeze, light axle grease, make it cry, burn it, and let it swim.

At least we've been always be allowed to strike by boycotting bad shops. What is the actual cost price of a latte over there?

The only exception is bartenders.

Or, hear me out, $9 burger no tip and I'll come back if it was good.

Wrong. You tip for counter service now. You tip the gas station attendant for ringing up your bubble gum. Soon you will tip your doctor for giving you a prescription. Thanks Obama!

Yet you bought it. If nobody bought it then he wouldn't sell.

Scooter would have to go back to living in a van, solving mysteries with 3 other strangers and a dog.

Is a water cooker different than a kettle? Serious question from someone who just started non-drip coffee.

Or Nespresso! Their patents have expired, so now you can enjoy a world of great and easy coffee at home without sponsoring Nestlé! Both 3rd party machines and coffee pods are available.

First time hearing of Aero Press, interesting concept. I can also recommend the French press or going Turkish.

Aero press is the bomb when travelling. Awesome invention.

Coffee: $10
Service fee: $3.50
Toilet fee: $1.50
Tip (we recommend 125-250%): -$20
Credit card fee (10% of total):-$0.50
Total:-$5.50

A bargain.

We have them in the UK. They are equivalent quality coffees to the coffee shop they are branded with.

Not quite as nice as a decent non chain coffee shop and they only use cow milk, but they aren't bad.

Kinda like this? https://www.cafexapp.com/locations

I remember when Jamba was good (in 2001)

Just buy fruit and make your own at this point.

I was there. I started slow clapping and slowly, but surely, everyone joined me as your father walked out in shame. The waitress came up to me and asked "who was that brave man that gave me that tip?" And I told her "your soul mate".

Maybe the problem with tipping is that corporations are able to play chicken with the consumer.

Who's willing to let the worker starve? The consumers are definitely more empathetic

To be very clear, I sympathize with people who are stuck working a shitty job. That being said, the consumer does not have to give handouts to companies in order to pay employees. If people cannot survive off of wages being paid, they will most likely find a different job. Capitalism and the free market and all that jazz. Hit corpos in the only place they care about, their bottom line.

Yeah, that somebody is their boss.

A barista isn't a tipped wage position. Virtually only restaurant servers are paid the tipped wage. Just because they put a tip jar out doesn't mean their hourly wage drops to pennies, you only get that wage if a significant amount of your income is from tips.

I agree with you, but what coffee are you buying that costs pennies to make at home? I don't buy the cheapest stuff myself, but I do get bags of whole beans and grind it myself. They are way cheaper than going someplace, but definitely not pennies.

I don’t own the $10000 marzocco espresso machine that produces consistent heat and pressure to brew espresso correctly and steam milk so it froths without scorching, nor do I have years of experience to do that correctly, and I’d rather meet friends out than keeping my home perfectly clean so guests can come over any time.

The one thing I'll pay for is espresso. Good espresso is incredible, and it's nearly impossible to do well without spending over $1000. Cheap espresso makers have channeling problems, or can't produce proper pressure, or both. You also need a very fine grind, so you're spending even more on the higher end grinders.

Sometimes I like paying for the experience of going and getting a cappuccino from a bougie coffee place instead of filter coffee from my crappy machine xD