Kiwis should resist the increasing pressure to tip for service.
Tipping jars, once unheard of at restaurants and cafes, now sit prominently on the counter as you pay. They're impossible to ignore, but I choose to do so for various reasons.
One, I'm still adjusting to the fact another unwelcome
US tradition, Halloween, has now been firmly adopted here. Secondly, I don't believe the onus should be on customers to reward excellent service - that falls on the business owner. It's to their financial advantage to ensure customers are looked after because they're more likely to return if that's the case.
Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett this week penned a letter in support of tipping, saying that Kiwis need to say "thank you" with their wallets.
Bennett's call follows an op-ed in the New Zealand Herald from Radio Hauraki presenter and columnist Matt Heath claiming hospitality service in the United States was better than New Zealand because of the tipping system.
