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Instacart Reverses Course After Backlash From Shoppers Over Plans To Eliminate Tips (techcrunch.com)
Instacart says it is adjusting planned changes to its pay structure for full-service shoppers. The change of heart comes after independent contractors threatened to boycott the grocery delivery startup's plans to replace tips with an optional 10 percent fee collected by the company. From a TechCrunch report: CEO Apoorva Mehta stressed that the decision came from customers looking to continue tipping, rather than complaints from shoppers, which he called a small group that was "very vocal" about the change. However, following removing tips, Instacart received some backlash from shoppers who said they were losing significant portions of their earnings. The backlash went so far as to inspire a boycott among some shoppers, though again Mehta said that this was not the primary cause for returning tipping. [...] Originally, the company sought to raise the overall earnings payout per delivery while removing tips, which was an attempt to make earnings more reliable instead of burst-y as a result of tips. Top shoppers, however, accustomed to getting larger tips because of their performance were concerned that they would lose a significant portion of their earnings. The vocal minority, it seems, was loud enough -- and perhaps so was the customer base -- that Instacart had to reverse course. Update: 10/15 21:25 GMT by M :Title updated to fix a typo. I regret the error.
Elim i nate.
What is "elimanate" anyway?
It sounds like some two point oh startup thing, but it's not missing any vowels.
Can we please explain this in TFS? (It's not in TFA either) Not all of us are up to date on the latest app-de-jure.
3 times it was people recently laid off desperate for work to make rent and the 4th was a lady laid off from a good paying job as a clerk (work moved to Mumbai) and now making 1/2 as much.
This isn't the sharing economy, it's the desperation economy.
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Although illegal, tips are frequently unreported income.
That means effectively 40% more of the value goes to the servicer. When the company does it, it's all reported and taxed.
(And also the thing about tipping for good service, versus tipping across the board.)
any one else notice that these "Sharing Economy" workers aren't the same immigrants that I always used to see driving taxis? Why haven't the immigrants moved to Uber/Lyft/Instacart?
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Lucky. I wish he would grab mine.
Tips are a non-advertised hidden cost to a good or service, and make an excuse for an employer to not pay their employees higher wages. I would be much happier if they were eliminated all together.
Get a real job.
To Ensure Proper Service
One of the more annoying things about visiting the USA is tipping. Always trying to figure out when you need to tip and how much. Most of my travel to the USA is business so costs are reimbursed but trying to fit tips in to official paper work is a pain as my country has no tipping so no accounting system for it.
I have traveled to quite a lot of countries around the world but the USA is the only place where I have had to deal with tips. It leaves me wondering if there are any other countries that consider tips a core income for employees as it apparently is in the USA?
Tip for USA international travelers. Don't tip in other countries you travel to, unless you have been told it is customary there. It annoys the crap out of the rest of us as setting an expectation that all foreigners tip. Your tipping systems is annoying, we don't want it infecting the rest of the world.
As a side note we have a 'minimum wage' here (New Zealand) and there is a push to have a 'minimum living wage' where the minimum wage is set to a level that you can live off it. The numbers are not far apart so I suspect it will happen soon. Such ideas as minimum wages and the minimum living wage are gather popularity around world, certainly in first world countries. It sounds like something badly need in the USA before you can phase out your tipping system.
Or you could just pay your delivery employees a fair wage.
Oh 'merica, when will you learn?!
my God, I've heard people I know (libertarian types) say exactly that about prostitutes. Not saying we should punish them but I would like to live in a world without it.
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I'm don't want to pay tips on a regular basis. Tips are for when someone goes out of their way. I'm really tired of the standard 20 percent and having to keep change on hand as well as to add it to calculations in my head. Standard service and price it into the product. I see tips and jobs where people get tips as the bottom of the barrel. Those employees are always cheated.
It's a joke at some places like the las vegas strip where they are as high as $25-$32+tax a night.
Most service workers in America make as much as a 1/3 of minimum wage before tips are considered. Also most restaurants and bars or delivery services employ their staff on a part time basis or by contract to avoid having to offer insurance and other full time benefits simply because they can't afford it to be viable in the industry which means the employees foot all of their own medical bills. These jobs are both challenging and inherently stressful on both the body and the mind (and cars) and do require a level of skill to provide good or better service.
If you disagree with what the restaurants or in this case, delivery service, are doing by suggesting tips then don't use the service. By not tipping you are both supporting the business model you disagree with and telling the employee a big "F.U." by saying that you are ok that they are busting their ass to provide you with good service and that you are ok with them making poverty wages in order to do that.
Instead of shafting the people servicing you because you disagree with the business model maybe you should just shop for yourself or go to places that don't suggest tipping like McDonalds and Taco Bell (companies who pertuate poverty in this country systematically) and try to find decent service or good food there.
Yeah, I agree with this. I love the idea of grocery delivery and would absolutely use it...except for tipping. I hate tipping. It's as if just because I want to use a service, I have to ALSO sign up to decide how much the server should be paid today. "They were really friendly and helpful, so 25%? The drinks were slow, though, and one of the entrees was wrong, so 15%? Maybe 20%..." Ugh. No thanks. I'd much rather companies just paid people something reasonable, and if the service sucks I won't use them again. If the service is great, they'll have a customer for life and I'll happily pay them more than average service places.
Everyone here sounds like Mr. Pink from Reservoir Dogs.