To tip or not to tip? That is the question.
Now more than ever before, customers are being asked and challenged to tip, even when the situation might not call for it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had an iPad flipped around on me asking for a tip, and how many times I’ve crumbled under the pressure and left some extra money even when I haven’t wanted to.
It’s a great conundrum, right? There are some situations where I’m cool with leaving a tip, and then there are some questionable instances where I ask in my head, “They’re really wanting a tip for this?” For example, if someone makes me a cocktail at a bar, they are getting a tip. No questions asked. But what if the bartender just cracks open a beer for me… does that call for an extra four bucks? Would just a dollar per can be fair? The carry out order is another grey area in the modern age of tipping. You didn’t wait on me, am I still expected to tip the full 20%? You don’t really tip at McDonald’s so how is this any different?
This scenario has landed an Evanston, Illinois, (right outside Chicago) restaurant owner in hot water. Kenny Chou owns a ramen restaurant in the area called Table To Stix, and when a customer left the restaurant without leaving a tip, the owner was angered. But here’s the kicker… the customer is a regular who has been coming in for a while.
Chou followed the man outside the eatery and onto the street, yelling at him for not leaving a tip. The conversation intensified and Chou threatened to “slap the sh*t” out of him. In the video, you can hear the customer – who pulled out his phone to capture the tipping meltdown on camera – say this:
“You gonna tell him? I paid for my food. I handed you $20. You cannot charge more than what them and you paid so what are you talking about.”
The heated discussion went on for… well, way too long, before the customer went on his way and the business owner returned to his ramen restaurant. And now, after the video went viral online, the situation has both caused the ramen restaurant to be review bombed and an intriguing debate about tipping culture.
In the comments of the Instagram post, the customer confirmed that he did indeed “sit down” with a waiter, and when asked why he didn’t tip, he said “Oh, I just didn’t want to” with a laughing face emoji. In other comments, he claimed to be a “homeless bodybuilder,” and has started a Go Fund Me… which I will not be linking to.
In a sit-down with CBS, Chou apologized for his actions:
As you can see, Kenny Chou has since watched the video and feels incredibly ashamed about his actions. The owner even gifted the customer his favorite order, along with a handwritten note apologizing about the whole thing, saying that his restaurant’s doors are still open to him.
Of course, it didn’t take long for community activists and Northwestern students to show up and turn this into a racial thing. Even though Chou is a minority himself, and said nothing racist towards the man, a full scale protest was organized in an effort to get the business shut down. The woman who organized the protest, Carolyn Ruff, said:
“I’m not really here for no apology. I’m here to shut this (restaurant) down.”
I think a number of things can be true at once… tipping culture can be out of control, this man should’ve never followed him out of the restaurant and threatened him, and the customer definitely SHOULD have tipped on the waited service, which for better or for worse is customary in the United States. AND… he’s a regular who regularly skips out on the tip… so I can understand the owner’s frustration.
This is not the way for either side to handle to it, and props to the kid for not responding to the owner’s aggression with violence as well. Although, in our ridiculous internet culture, the customer received a number of comments calling him soft for not fighting the angry owner.
“Bro you a B****”
“Knock his ass out. The other guy stood on business.”
“Ngl bruh why u go out like that… gotta handle that.”
“Both y’all soft asf.”
“Don’t ever let nobody walk up on you like that bro like you have zero survival instinct.”
“Man you weak as hell…. and it was more than one of y’all..”
“You just stood there and let buddy yell in your face like that.”
“When Alpha meets Beta.”
“He knew u was a b*tch lol”
“Recording and do something.”
Unreal, right? Kid refuses to resort to physical violence, even though he had a few friends with him who were more than willing to go, and bozos on the internet are calling HIM out for it? We’re doomed…
Only time will tell if the customer will return to the restaurant, or if the eatery can withstand this kind of bad publicity. The ramen restaurant has since deactivated their social media and had Yelp pause any new reviews in an effort to avoid more backlash. That being said, the conversation is really just getting started online, and many are siding with the customer in this situation:
“Tips should be optional. It’s out of hand now.”
“Some people may only have enough money to purchase the food. Expecting a tip can seem so insensitive at times.”
“Mind you 20% on $20 is $4… the owner walked several blocks to press the customer for $4.”
“Tipping culture has gotten out of hand.”
“This tipping culture is out of control all the way down to cashiers. They all feel like they should get tipped for nothing.”
“Trying to force your customer to tip in this economy is crazy.”
Again… tipping culture has gotten out of control lately, especially in this post pandemic world, but let’s not pretend that he’s in the right here. If you sit down at a restaurant with waited service, which the kid admitted to, you’re expected to tip. You don’t get to screw a server out of a tip because you want to change the system or because you’re “a homeless student” as he alleged in the comments. It’s an agreed on upon system right now… for better or for worse. Was the restaurant owner out of line? ABSOLUTELY… and he’ll deal with whatever legal punishment is warranted (the kid has indicated that he wants to press civil charges).
But to turn this into a racial thing is absurd, and to say that he’s justified in repeatedly not tipping is wrong too. If you’re a homeless college kid, go to the grocery store and pick up those Maruchan ramen noodles for 35 cents like all of us college kids did back in the day… don’t being going to restaurants where it is 20 bucks a bowl. Just some advice…
Stay tuned… I’m sure it won’t be long before there’s some ridiculous follow up to this completely avoidable story.
