Tipping culture may be getting out of control, as one salon is being ripped apart online for encouraging customers to tip 50%, 70%, and 90% on a “walk-in haircut.”
The haircut tip screen was shared in a post on Reddit, where a man shared that he was prompted with the unusually high tip screen after walking into the salon for a simple haircut.
The photo shows the choices for the customer, whose haircut was only $15 to start, with the screen asking whether he’d like to tip 50% ($7.50), 70% ($10.50), or 90% ($13.50).
Like most kiosks, the man was given the option to tip a custom amount or decline it altogether.
The post sparked outrage online, with users calling the automated tip screen a “red flag” and others saying they wouldn’t have tipped at all after seeing it.
“That’s the most insane thing I’ve ever seen, I would do no tip just because of those options they gave and never return,” one user said.
Tip culture has long been disputed amongst generations, and after the pandemic saw an increase in gratuity for service workers, some have felt things are getting out of culture.
A Bankrate survey from last summer found that 32% of Americans were annoyed with the tip screens that auto-populate on kiosks. Another 30% said that tipping altogether has gotten out of control.
Another reason tipping culture is once again shifting is the recent economic struggles many Americans are facing, Ted Rossman, Bankrate’s senior industry analyst, said.
“The biggest change, within the past year at least, is that inflation is leaving people with less money to go around,” Rossman said last summer. “A lot of people seem to feel like things cost enough already, so they’re not as likely to tip on top of that.”
The Reddit user did not share where he got his haircut, though most did agree that besides the tip, $15 for a normal haircut was a good deal.