A restaurant put a sign in its window. It read: “We don’t pay our staff to smile at you. Service charges are NOT tips. Tip well, or get out.”
Then the bill came. $165 for the meal. $209.65 total — a mandatory tip, already built in. Stamped next to the total, three words: “the least you can do.”
Sit with that for a second. The tip wasn’t a request. It wasn’t left up to the diner’s judgment, generosity, or mood that night. It was taken, automatically, before anyone had a chance to decide anything. And the receipt still came back with a moral verdict attached: not enough. The least you could do.
