Gratuity-fatigued Corey Anderson McCutcheon is closing up shop.
He’s fed up with dead-eyed cashiers everywhere, from the corner grocer to the gourmet lunch counter, swiveling iPads toward customers for tips.
The Upper East Sider is over stoic restaurant workers offering little in the way of friendly service while expecting gratuities of 15% or more.
And those infuriating AI-powered kiosks popping up at airports and corner shops, with automated machines now prompting customers to tip during entirely unmanned transactions? A hard no.
So, rather than giving in, McCutcheon is opting out.
“For me, tipping is no longer mandatory. If I’m at some random place, and the cashier’s done absolutely nothing, no, I’m not tipping anymore,” McCutcheon, 44, a hair salon owner, told The Post.
“I’m automatically being asked to tip 18%, 20% or 25% at the dollar store and self-service stores at LaGuardia, where there are no humans in sight,” he lamented. “Who the hell am I tipping if I’m doing all the work myself? It’s crazy. I’m done.”
McCutcheon is in the growing counterculture against tipping culture.
The New Yorker stands in outrage with the 78% of fed-up Americans who deem the trend a “ridiculous” racket, and the 42% who have no qualms about hitting that “No tip” button in the face of unfriendly, unhelpful or un-human staffers.
His righteous indignation is echoed by the 2 in 5 consumers who say tipping, no matter the environment or circumstance, should be banned nationwide, per trending WalletHub data.
It also clangs in unison with the complaints of those who feel “harassed and extorted” by the hidden costs and surprise surcharges now being tacked onto already-inflated bills at eateries and shops.
But slipping a few bucks to a waiter, barista or pizza delivery guy wasn’t always the bone of contention that it is today.
What began in the late 1800s as a widely accepted way to support minimum-wage workers — those earning the lowest legally mandated hourly pay, currently $17 in NYC — has since become a pain in the pockets of everyday patrons, said William Michael Lynn, who has studied tipping for 40 years.
“People’s attitudes towards tipping have gotten worse,” the Cornell University professor recently told The Post, condemning greedy corporations for “fueling [consumer] dissatisfaction” with tipping.
Etiquette expert Jacqueline Whitmore expressed similar sentiments following viral claims of Shake Shack’s tipping discrepancies, saying, “If you’re not having any contact, if somebody’s not bagging up your food, if there’s no one touching your food, no one cleaning your table, there’s absolutely no reason to add any additional tip [or] any tip at all.”
McCutcheon agrees.
And even when he’s being waited on in a formal setting, the dissenter won’t tip if the waitstaff is completely out of order.
“If you don’t provide good service, I’m not tipping s- -t. I’m not rewarding you,” he spat in a scathing vid following a sub-par experience at a local French bistro.
The buzzy clip, filmed immediately after he skipped the tip on a $94 check, garnered praise from fellow non-tippers in the Big Apple and beyond, cheering, “Good for you!” and “Tipping culture needs to be stopped.”
Will, a Brooklynite who withheld his last name for privacy, tells The Post he’s sick of the shakedown, too.
He credits his anti-tipping awakening to recent houseguests from Europe — where gratuity is uncustomary — who were aghast at a NYC bakery’s demand for a minimum 20% tip on a $7 croissant.
“The person behind the counter grabs it off the rack and puts it in front of you. No service other than facilitating my spending money at the store,” said Will, admitting that his friends’ outrage triggered his own “resentment” toward the racket.
And while he empathizes with service workers who depend on survival tips, the Gothamite isn’t willing to be the one left holding the bag.
“The argument that workers in the service economy live on tips is an admission that the service economy exploits the precarity of workers and outsources an employer’s duty to take care of their employees to the generosity of clients,” he griped.
Brittany Robinson, a 30-something married mom of one from Manhattan, is so exhausted by incessant tipping demands that she’s virtually stopped utilizing the service industry altogether.
“I don’t really go out to eat anymore. I stopped going to the nail and hair salons — prices are so high now, and then you’re expected to tip on top of that,” Robinson scoffed.
Prior to the tipflation boom, she routinely spent $1,000 each month on grooming treatments like acrylic gel manicures and flowing faux extensions.
“Nowadays, you can’t avoid being hounded for a tip everywhere you go, no matter if it’s self-service or you’re getting waited on hand and foot,” groaned the real estate executive, now based in southwest Florida. “But I always click ‘No tip,’ smile and move on with my day — I don’t feel awkward about it at all.”
Robinson reached her tipping point after being prompted to grease her Botox injector’s palm.
“I’d never heard of tipping someone who’s providing a medical service,” said the skeptic, reiterating frustrations she’d previously expressed to roughly 200,000 viewers in a TikTok rant entitled “I’m Officially Not Tipping Anymore.”
“I got regular Botox and a little filler for $1,000. A 20% tip on that would be another $200,” she calculated for The Post. “I wasn’t even given the ‘No tip’ option. So I entered $0, proudly walked out and never went back.”
Ivy Marie, a 24-year-old Arizonan with a tipping chip on her shoulder, claims the squeeze is just as tight on the left coast.
The ex-barista, now a creative brand strategist, says she used to refuse to accept tips during her coffeehouse shifts, adamant she shouldn’t earn extra for simply doing her job.
It’s an attitude Marie hopes her “entitled” fellow 20-somethings in the service industry soon adopt.
“Gen Zs were basically born with technology, so friendly human interaction isn’t necessarily our default,” she noted, blaming digital devices and social media platforms for her generation’s general lack of social skills. Unwelcoming stares are an unfortunate deficiency of the demographic, which makes up approximately 41% of today’s service workforce.
“If you’re not even going to say ‘Hello’ and smile while you take my order, what’s the point in tipping you?” she said to The Post, reiterating an argument she recently made to nearly 1 million cyber fans. “It might as well be a robot taking my order — they’re at least programmed to say ‘Hi,’ and ‘Have a great day.’”
Dustin Anderson makes no apologies about not wanting to tip Zs, machines or anyone in between.
The stand-up comedian, 44, a married father of four from Utah, even joked that tipping should remain exclusively for cows and canoes.
But when it comes to his money, the funnyman says the pressure to fork it over is no laughing matter.
“I’d rather these restaurants raise the prices of food than try to force me to tip,” he groaned over being tapped for an additional 15% to 25% when dining out with his family — especially after distasteful service.
Anderson voiced similar grievances to an online audience of 3.6 million, saying, in part, “I’m not tipping anymore. I’m done. I’m out…You don’t get 25% because you did your job. And I’m not the bad guy here.”
Unfortunately, pro-tippers have begged to differ.
“A restaurant influencer reposted my video and told millions of followers to give me terrible service,” he chuckled. “I’ve probably been eating spit and worse for years.”
Still, Anderson insists that he is open to tipping, but only when the hospitality truly hits the spot.
McCutcheon has set the bar just as high.
His objections notwithstanding, the New Yorker admittedly doesn’t mind doling out the dough when he’s actually treated properly.
He even trains his staff of hairstylists to go above and beyond for every curl, clip and coloring — without ever expecting more than the price of the service.
“Our job is to provide amazing customer service, meaning we smile, communicate and kindly engage with the person paying us,” said McCutcheon. “A tip is not mandatory. It’s an extra ‘Thank you’ for going the extra mile.”
“If you don’t do that, don’t expect anything extra in return.”
