A Canadian restaurant is turning heads for allegedly steering customers to pay gratuity by covering up the “no tip” option on its card machines.
In a post on Reddit by reddit_Lemur, the restaurant was identified as Chicken Plus x Sulbing Cafe in Burnaby, B.C. in the r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit, which has over seven million members.
However, a representative of Chicken Plus x Sulbing Cafe denied the restaurant’s involvement in an email to Now Toronto.
“We have looked into the reddit post and it is not our cafe,” a spokesperson said.
The post, which has since been removed by the page’s admin, showed an image of a card machine with a strategically placed sticker over the part of the screen that typically displays a “no tip” button.
“This restaurant covered up the “No Tip” option with a sticker to force tipping,” the original poster wrote.
Many Redditors were quick to express their frustration at the restaurant’s apparent dishonesty. The establishment has since denied the claims.
One user suggested simply selecting number two on the keypad and entering zero when the machine asks for a tip percentage.
“I’d tip 0.01 just to make a point lol,” someone wrote in response.
“I consider myself a generous tipper but I wouldn’t tip at all if this is how they’re going to play this game,” another person commented.
“If I saw this, I’d take the sticker off and leave no tip,” one user said.
But Chicken Plus x Sulbing Cafe said its staff get 100 per cent of the tips and that it did not put any stickers on the card machine.
Meanwhile, some restaurants are removing tipping models altogether. One establishment in Toronto is making it a thing of the past by pivoting to a profit sharing strategy.
WoodHouse BBQ in North York stopped accepting tips back in February, but its staff still earn at least the same as they did before, if not more.
Profit is shared among front and back of house employees based on their working hours.
“So far, staff have gotten a little more than they would have with tips,” owner Hong Dai told CTV News.
It is becoming increasingly common for restaurants in Toronto to adopt no tipping policies or to register as living wage employers.
Beast Pizza is a no tipping restaurant and shares any gratuities collected evenly between its staff. Similarly, Richmond Station includes service charges in the pricing of its food, and Emma’s Country Kitchen is a certified living wage employer, meaning it pays its staff the living wage for the region.
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The Toronto living wage is currently $25.05 an hour.
