I love this question because of the prevalence of these touch screens that get turned toward the customer at time of purchase. Do you feel that nudge...?

Answer: 48.5% (median tip is 17% or about $1 tip on a $5 latte)

Questions:

• Do you leave a tip at your local coffee shop/cafe? If so, how much do you normally tip? 
• Is your tipping behavior based on the service you receive or do you have a consistent policy?
  • Does the presence of a touch screen where the people behind you in line can see your choice of a tip have an impact? 
• Have you ever had a service job where you received tips? Does that impact your answers to the questions above? 

Here's the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day that you can use in your classroom.

Behind the numbers (from NY Times; sub required.):

As small, independently owned cafes, smoothie bars and fast-casual restaurants in the United States have adopted customer-facing touch-screen payment systems in recent years — and as credit cards have replaced cash for even the smallest purchases — Americans and (heaven help them) foreign visitors have been confronted with a new kind of tipping. Point-of-sale systems, with touch screens asking you whether you’d like to tip $1, $2 or $3 for that latte or 15, 20 or 25 percent for a salad, have been spreading like an infectious disease — or an infectious new dance craze, depending on your perspective.

(Tipping via credit card is nonexistent or at least much less common at large chains like McDonald’s and Burger King. Starbucks, though, allows tipping when customers order through their app and managers are free to put out a tip jar, said a spokeswoman.)

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Looking for more coffee-themed posts? Here's an interactive that shows how much you would save if you brewed your own coffee. 

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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