What things do you tip for?

Excuse me? Pretty sure you have no idea what I do and do not know about coffee. I was born and raised in Seattle and when I had a job there I would buy, every DAY, 2-3 "fancy" coffee drinks at Sbux and dozens of little coffee stands that are on every street in the entire state of WA. I know exactly what goes into my drink, I know how to operate the machines myself, and I know exactly what they do. I dont give attitude, I dont make my order endlessly complicated (typically it'll be a giant ____ flavor white choc mocha. fullstop.). Sloshing some milk into a steamer, hitting a button, walking away, pumping some syrup into a cup, and dumping shots into said cup are not complicated actions, and its a total of maybe 10 or 15 seconds of work, on a very simple drink that I really am not fussy about (I wont bitch about the kind of milk, temperature, or amt of flavor). I refuse to tip $1 or $2 on a $4 mocha that took 10 seconds of your time to make. a 50% tip? REALLY? I think as a whole the tipping of baristas is total bullshit for routine simple drinks like mine. So dont go halfcocked on your assumptions that Im some pain in the neck yuppie thats abusive to baristas

I put some money in the jar a couple of times a week at 'my' Dunkin' Donuts, because they are always very friendly and sweet in the mornings, when I am blurry and incoherent. I consider it like training my dogs - catch them doing something good, and reward it.

I didn't notice how different the people I see every morning were until I starting traveling so much. Holy miserable people.

The paper and mail people also get tips at Christmas time, but we don't do it all the time. The farrier and vets are on my Christmas cookie list, and we often run baked goods out to the guy who plows our driveway (and is nice enough to come back up the road and finish up if we are slow to move cars out into the road).

And this makes sense and seems reasonable to me. But I dont get the idea of tips expected on every drink.

Waiters/waitresses first and foremost. I won't eat out if I can't tip generously and TBH I kinda look down on people who do. :/

I always tip people who deliver things to me. UPS is super sneaky so I can't offer them anything. A lot of our local stores (like walmart where I work) require employees to decline any gifts from customers, so I've gotten in the habit of not tipping the people who bag my groceries, and I am young and able-bodied and can carry my own stuff out of the store.

In Mexico, tipping is... socially mandatory, really. If you appreciate some service that is provided, it is acceptable and appreciated if you tip. I always left tips for the fishermen's wives who ran a stand by the beach and made the most awesome fish tacos. We had a language barrier issue, but I showed my appreciation with tips and they showed their appreciation by always tucking a little something extra into my bag. That's how you build a relationship with businesses in mexico, since most places are small and privately owned. If you're a stingy dick, they're not gonna go out of their way to offer you service next time. Especially food and drink service. Some people just got blown off entirely by the entire waitstaff of a restaurant I liked because they didn't "believe" in tipping. Um, hello? It costs like ten bucks for a giant shrimp dinner and you're thinking the restaurant is making bank off that? LOL.

Sometimes I'm just flat broke. Thats when I buy ramen and eat at home, and don't order stuff that has to be delivered or go out to a sit-down restaurant and eat.

But yeah. I try to tip especially well when I know the worker is in a tip-dependent job, not getting paid minimum wage.

I tip when a tip is earned and allowed.

I tip my waitress/waiter. I also tend to leave a small tip in the tip jar at my local Biggbys. ONLY because when I walk in there, they are friendly and they know what I want. It doesn't matter if I have been there yesterday or 2 weeks ago. I do not tend to tip at my hairdresser. If I am in there doing something complicated and time consuming then yes, but for a general hair trim that takes 10 minutes no I don't tip.