Shopper scanned his own Perrier with no cashier in sight. Then the machine asked him to tip: ‘The robot wants me to tip it’

A shopper’s trip to a self-checkout store turned into a viral moment after he was asked to leave a tip despite never interacting with a single employee. The video was posted under the username GalarianGengar on Reddit‘s r/mildlyinfuriating. It shows a man recording himself walking through the store and using the automated checkout system.

In the video, he explains that the store has no employees before picking up a bottle of Perrier sparkling water. He scans the item himself at a self-checkout kiosk with a touchscreen monitor and payment terminal.

After scanning the Perrier, priced at $4.29, and pressing “Next” on the screen, he was shown a prompt asking, “Would you like to leave a tip?” with options for “No Tip,” “15.00%,” “18.00%,” and “20.00%.”

Shoppers question where self-checkout tips actually go

Reacting to the prompt, the man said, “I have not seen a single employee. I have scanned my own Perrier, and now the robot wants me to tip it.” The video’s on-screen caption read, “Now they expect us to tip non-humans.”

The clip drew a number of comments from other Reddit users. One person wrote, “Companies will take any and all chances to take money from you.” Another asked, “Who the HECK is tipping at a SELF CHECKOUT?” A third joked about the machine’s internal parts, saying, “It has a family of 8 CPUs…” One comment went further, stating, “Tipping needs to be entirely eliminated. It has fully crossed into being predatory at this point.”

The video adds to a wider conversation about self-checkout kiosks prompting tips, even when customers have not interacted with a worker. Wall Street Journal reporter Rachel Wolfe addressed the issue in comments reported by CBS News, noting that there is no guarantee tips left at these machines go to an employee. Other customers have run into similar surprises after declining a tip prompt at checkout, only to watch their total climb anyway. 

“Machines don’t have the same protections as tipping human employees, so while the law requires that something called a ‘tip’ has to go to employees, when you’re tipping a machine, you can’t be quite so sure,” Wolfe said.

Self-service kiosks are now common at airports, coffee shops, restaurants, and stadiums. Merchants have programmed these machines with pre-set tip amounts, sometimes 18% or higher, in an effort to generate more revenue. This has left many customers confused and dealing with what has been described as tip fatigue.

Wolfe said research has shown that customers feel more pressure to tip when using a machine, even without any interaction with a human worker. Tips have traditionally gone to waitstaff, bartenders, and other service workers who are paid the federally set tipped minimum wage of $2.13 an hour, and who depend on tips to make up the rest of their income. 

Wolfe said some companies that already pay workers a living wage still use self-checkout machines and add tip prompts as a bonus for employees. “But researchers are worried that companies are using tips as a way to put the onus on consumers for paying their employees rather than raising wages themselves,” Wolfe said. The pressure to tip isn’t limited to machines at home. One traveler described being singled out for a tip abroad once a server assumed he was a tourist. 

Etiquette expert Diane Gottsman said tipping today can be confusing, and said she is not against skipping a tip for quick transactions, according to CBS News. Brian Warrener, a professor of food and beverage operations at Johnson & Wales University, said a good rule of thumb is to tip food delivery drivers between $3 and $5, no matter how the food is delivered. Otherwise, Warrener said tips should be optional and given only when an employee provides exceptional service.