Baked potatoes and rampant acts of tipflation | The James Brown Commentary

Have you heard of tipflation?

According to a new Pew survey, a solid majority of Adult Americans know what tipflation is, even if they don't know the term. (https://www.pewresearch.org/2023/11/09/tipping-culture-in-america-public-sees-a-changed-landscape/)

I'm one of them, so I'll explain.

It was a Saturday afternoon, and for the first time in what seemed like forever, the girlfriend and I were eating out.

Our lives have been in more muck and drama than you or my friends or even most of my family know. The drive there seemed like an exhale.

We headed to this new fast casual place, you know, one of those places where there are no waiters, and you stand in line to order food behind a glass, and you watch it be prepared.

This experiment in modern capitalism is centered on baked potatoes.

The vast majority of the meals that these baked potato experts served are smothered with your choice of vegetables, eggs, pepperoni, sausage, and chicken and such.

If you didn't see the potato at the beginning of the process, you wouldn't know it was there at the end.

The cost of this adventure?

Forty-ish dollars.

The total shocked me as did the expectation of a tip.

I begrudgingly paid 20% because they're a new small business and for some reason I felt guilty, so I walked away with a great baked potato while feeling violated by this rampant act of tipflation.

It's my hope that unlike actual inflation, that tipflation is transitory.

In restaurants that don't offer table service, stop requesting tips.

It's ruining the experience.

What do you think?

When should we tip and when shouldn't we?et me know what you think in the comments at jamesbrowntv.substack.com

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