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.

Comments

I've taken 2 Ubers and 2 Lyfts

[rsilvergun]

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.

While I'm on the subject

[rsilvergun]

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?

Gratuity should be illegal

[jader3rd]

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.

Re:Gratuity should be illegal

[Harlequin80]

It's also hard for tourists who come from a non-tipping culture. When I go to the US tips are clearly expected, but I have no basis for judging what the should be, or which industries deserve / expect them.

Re:Gratuity should be illegal

[Calydor]

Seen from Europe, tips are this quaint little way of lording over the working class that you have more money and power than them, and here are your alms.

Re:Gratuity should be illegal

[shess]

It's also hard for tourists who come from a non-tipping culture. When I go to the US tips are clearly expected, but I have no basis for judging what the should be, or which industries deserve / expect them.

Why do you think it's easier for people who live here?

I just mostly only bother to figure it out if it's a service I use frequently, like restaurants or haircuts. If some bellhop or shuttle driver really really really wants to get $5 or something for lifting the luggage I just shuttled across the country all by myself, well, sorry.

Re:Gratuity should be illegal

[Shados]

Yup, even for residents its really hard.

All service industries have SOME tips, the question is how much. And that even varies between states, drastically. And if you get it wrong, expect someone to spit in your food or an asshole cab to kick on your luggage. Doesn't happen often but it happens.

Re:Tips are frequently non-taxed

[NotAPK]

*ANY* kind of gratuity that is added to the bill automatically, and paid to the employee by the company, is (IMO) by definition NOT a gratuity. It's just the price and should be part of the cost, and it should be paid to the staff member as part of their wage. Slicing and dicing it any other way is just bullshit.

Here in the UK we pay staff a solid wage and dining prices (for example) are much higher than in the US. When I go to a restaurant I do not generally tip but when I'm really impressed (which is the whole fucking point of tipping) I do throw in some extras. However, when I receive a bill that contains the gratuity added automatically I specifically remove it and tell the manager why I've removed it and that I won't be returning to the restaurant because it's a *scummy thing to do*. Yes, I'm fun at parties...

An annoying thing about visting the USA

[ukoda]

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.

Re:Tips are frequently non-taxed

[PrimaryConsult]

Unfortunately laws allow wait staff to be underpaid significantly due to the US's tipping culture. While I applaud your effort to change it, the immediate effect is that you actually did the scummy thing by stiffing the service staff. Then again, theoretically, if everyone did that, we might have this changed.

Personally I find it stupid that tips are encouraged to be a percentage of the bill. If I go to a discount Vietnamese restaurant or a general chain restaurant, the waitress did the exact same amount of effort, so should receive an identical tip. Yet people yell at me when I overtip at cheap restaurants and (supposedly) undertip at expensive ones.

Re:Tips are frequently non-taxed

[RockDoctor]

Unfortunately laws allow wait staff to be underpaid significantly due to the US's tipping culture.

Which part of the OP's

Here in the UK

wasn't clear? Service staff in the UK do not get much in the way of tips, and never have done. They get their wages. It's only the exceptionally good service that attracts a tip at all. I can't remember the last time I added a tip to a restaurant bill, or any other part of the "service economy. But I do routinely remove added or suggested gratuities on the bill.

Same with ratings systems on various sales sites. I someone wants to get more than a mid-range rating, then they are going to have to be exceptionally good. Being competent or workaday will only attract a 50% rating, if I bother with the rating system at all.