A woman’s confession that she doesn’t tip Starbucks workers when she goes through the drive-thru has started a debate.
In a TikTok video, Meghan Elinor, a former server, criticized the idea of tipping a worker in a drive-thru, especially at Starbucks, because the workers don’t do any work other than handing you your finished drink at the window.
Elinor says she doesn’t tip at the Starbucks drive-thru window because they just “take a cup” and hand it to you.
In Elinor’s video, which has had more than 900,000 views, she put together a clip of another woman asking if it’s necessary to tip Starbucks workers at the drive-thru.
Are we tipping Starbucks now?
the woman asked.
Are we tipping people now at the window?
Elinor shot down the idea right away by saying loudly, “we are not tipping at the Starbucks drive-thru.”
She went on to say that, as a former server, she feels “extremely passionate” about tipping rules and what it means to leave a tip at all.
I worked in the service industry for the first ten years of my life,
she revealed.
From the time that I was legally able to work at the age of 14/15 until I was 24/25, so about nine to ten years.
Elinor agreed that being a server, along with being a busser and runner, is a hard job.
She usually leaves big tips for waiters and waitresses at restaurants, but she won’t do the same for people working at the drive-thru window.
Listen I love [Starbucks workers], I do, but I’m not going to f-king tip you when all you’re doing is taking a cup and handing it to somebody outside the window.
Elinor knows that the way people think about tipping is “controversial,” especially on social media, but she’s “not sorry” that she didn’t give Starbucks drive-thru workers tips.
People on TikTok had different ideas about whether or not people should tip workers at drive-thrus.
Several people agreed with Elinor’s point of view, and many said that the “tipping culture” has gotten out of hand.
The only people I tip: waiters, delivery drivers, movers, hairdressers/any salon service and that’s it,
one user wrote.
Another added,
I agree 100% Paying $7+ for coffee is already paying for the service of having a coffee made.
But other people didn’t like Elinor’s reason for not tipping, and they said she was wrong to downplay how hard and stressful it can be to work at Starbucks.
You do understand that the only you tip goes to all the workers right? Not just the people working the window,
a third user said.
A fourth user said,
Starbucks Batista here, it’s a lot harder than most assume it is. And yes those tips are divided amongst all of the Baristas, [and] the entire store.
I’m a former Starbucks worker… I was making $8 an hr! While making 100+ drinks a day. it’s not as easy as you say,
a fifth user wrote.
