Just The Tip

"Just the tip!"

About three years ago, I started to make the tiniest of gestures. After getting a decent-paying (and ever so cushy) job, I made it a New Years resolution to tip above average so long as the service was at least mediocre. I figured I should share my good fortune in some small way with people who work tough jobs and might not be bringing in as much dinero as others. After all, I wasn't far removed from living paycheck to paycheck myself.

On a whim, I decided to add a minute addendum: Any time I paid with a debit/credit card and the merchant's receipt copy gave me the option to tip, I would automatically tip just one dollar. However minimal, if any, service they provided me, I would tip $1 like clockwork.

I often order subs from Jimmy John's. The deliverer has to drive maybe 1.5 miles to get to my office. I tip him $2.25 for his trouble. Many think that's exorbitant and/or that I'm somehow being self righteous. I don't think me paying more means I'm on a moral high horse; it just makes perfect sense to me.

Seems to make sense to one of the drivers too. If I opt to not order a cookie, which I often do, he throws a free one or two in there for me. It's almost like I didn't tip him at all. He rewards a nice gesture with another nice gesture, I really appreciate it.

That's not a shocker, I suppose. I'm far from the first person to be rewarded for generous tipping, but what about the times I just tipped one, meager dollar?

The value of a dollar

I also often go to a Chinese buffet restaurant and grab food to go. The sole service the employee at the register provides me is handing me the to-go trey and doing the transaction on my way out. That's it. Regardless, I stayed true to that 2013 resolution and tipped him $1 every time like clockwork.

At first, the guy at the register took it as some kind of act of pity, acting sketched out with each +$1 I gave him. The lady who owns the shop however, she started giving me the VIP treatment. She noticed that 90% of the time I would dart straight to the salmon (my favorite food). If she saw me come in the door, she'd beat me to it to make sure it was fresh and there was plenty of it. If it wasn't good enough for her, she'd run back to the kitchen and bark orders at her employees to scrap the old salmon and immediately cook me up a fresh batch.

Just paying an extra $50 max a year at an already affordable place allotted me special treatment. I always walk away with my favorite food cooked as fresh as possible.

The best and most surprising experience I ever had with just tipping a lone dollar was when I went to a hookah bar with friends. I went to the counter and ordered myself a drink. I tipped the, I believe, Lebanese gentleman at the counter $1. When he saw it, his jaw hit the ground.

"Sir, did you meant to do this?"

"Yes, why?"

"No one's ever just giving me a dollar at the counter like that. I only get tipped if I actually walk out and serve the hookah and food."

"Oh, well, first time for everything I guess."

"Thank you so much!"

Humus anyone?

Shortly after I got back with my friends, three trays of pits with humus among an assortment of others things were just gifted to us. It was easily $20 worth of food and product. Giving that dollar for a simple transaction came back to me as a twenty fold increase.

The person working in the food service industry, you have no idea what their circumstances are. Maybe that's their sole source of income and they're barely scraping by. maybe it's there way of paying for school or living expenses. Maybe a $1 will totally make their day. Maybe that $1 or big tip will put them over their quota of paying bills on time that month.

Tip as you see fit, but tipping people when they don't "deserve" it certainly hasn't done anything to harm them or me.