'Coerced into tipping'? How apps are changing the culture of tipping in SF

An example of a Square payment screen. Click through the gallery to read about etiquette rules that San Francisco needs. An example of a Square payment screen. Click through the gallery to read about etiquette rules that San Francisco needs. Photo: Laura Skelding, McClatchy-Tribune News Service Photo: Laura Skelding, McClatchy-Tribune News Service Image 1 of / 39 Caption Close 'Coerced into tipping'? How apps are changing the culture of tipping in SF 1 / 39 Back to Gallery

The white iPads at the register at coffee shops, food trucks and bakeries across San Francisco now feel like a part of a standard procedure. Order your food or drink. Get your card swiped. Then, someone swivels around a screen and you're often faced with a choice of a tip — 15, 18 or 20 percent? 18, 20 or 25 percent?

The ubiquity of Square for payment processing and the ease with which it allows businesses to suggest tip percentages are having an effect on how people tip in San Francisco and what they feel expected to tip on, customers and service industry workers I spoke to for this story agree. But in the midst of this shift — which is happening in tandem with a shift toward cards over cash, in general — no one is quite sure what the rules are.

For a sit-down restaurant meal, a 20-percent tip is standard. But what about a food truck? A food truck where you're being served by the owner? A coffee shop where you're getting a cold brew from a tap? A bakery where you're getting a muffin? A bubble tea shop?

Transactions that would have ended with someone sticking a dollar bill in a tip jar now end with the iPad or card reader plugged into an iPhone and its accompanying suggestions, making some customers feel judged or awkward navigating away to type in their own custom tip amount — or press a less prominent button to decline to tip at all.

In SF and other cities where Square is ubiquitous, not everyone is a fan.

"I hate when I'm prompted to tip on fast food restaurants. Even worse, before I even get my food," Nando Albuquerque tweeted at Square last year. "Taking my money (plus tip) isn't service. Wouldn't you agree?"

"I'm asking not to be coerced into tipping before receiving any service," he went on. "I'm sure you can solve this, if you only accept it's a problem."

"Why can't Square have a tip option that says, 'it's nothing personal, but I can't give you 20% for handing me a pre-made sandwich," Daniel Nigro asked on Twitter in May.

Privately, many friends and acquaintances of mine have expressed versions of the same thought — but accompanied by the confusion and guilt of not wanting to be in the wrong or be a bad, cheap under-tipper. Others are just happy that they're spared the need to do the math for every given transaction.

Square started offering the card readers in 2010 (SFGATE reached out to Square for its thoughts on this story and will update if we hear back); Matt Cohen, founder the Off the Grid series of food truck gatherings, told The Chronicle earlier this month that of the 250 vendors that work with Off the Grid, a majority use Square for payment processing.

In some cases — as with the wildly popular Filipino fusion food truck Señor Sisig — vendors only use Square, having ceased accepting cash at all.

"We didn't really see a shift other than what we already knew, which is that people tend to tip more on credit than cash," said Evan Kidera, one of the founders of Señor Sisig, of the shift to cashless. "So there is an increase in tips a little bit."

People interviewed behind the counter at five coffee shops, bakeries, counter-serve restaurants and food trucks agreed that the tip suggestions create some pressure for the customer as the person at the counter turns the iPad around and stares them down while they make their choice — although naturally, some thought that light shaming of those who don't tip could be a healthy thing.

In some cases, the lines are blurred as restaurants shift more of the work that was traditionally done by waitstaff onto the customer; the New York Times reported on the expanding popularity of the counter-service model of dining as a way to control costs here in San Francisco earlier this summer.

In other cases, the expectation of tipping seems to be expanding beyond even the realm of food service, something Kidera said he's encountered as a consumer.

"The other day, I think bought a battery or something and it gave me the option to tip — I thought, this is weird," he said. "I'm not used to it. Food, I get it. But this is getting kind of out of hand."

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Filipa Ioannou is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at fioannou@sfchronicle.com and follow her on Twitter