Soon having no cash will not be an excuse to leave your friendly barista tipless.
A new electronic tip jar, dubbed the DipJar, is being rolled out in coffee shops around New York City, ensuring cashless caffeine fiends can still show their thanks for good service.
After witnessing hardworking servers' wages shrink as more and more customers use plastic to pay for their morning coffee fix, entrepreneur Ryder Kessler came up with the electronic answer to the traditional tip jar.
Sitting on the counter next to the old-school version, the DipJar is set by the store owner at a preset tip size, for example $1.
One swipe, or 'dip', of a credit or debit card will leave a $1 tip and each subsequent swipe leaves another $1 for staff.
'Customers who pay with plastic rarely tip with cash,' Kessler told Bonappetit.com.
'The idea for DipJar was born when I saw the take-home pay of counter workers drop drastically (as more people switched to plastic for small purchases).'
The tips are timed so store owners can divvy them up accurately to the workers who earned them.
At the moment, DipJar is only at three locations - two in Manhattan, including Oren's Daily Roast coffee shop, and one in Brooklyn.
But seven more cafes are set to install the machines as part of a pilot program.
The company is currently covering processing fees and the cost of the DipJar, so wait staff can pocket the full dollar patrons shove into the 'jar'.
But Kessler says at some point they'll have to deduct a small percentage to cover the cost of the system.
Even then, staff will still be vastly better off.
'The tips we're processing are all extra earnings for workers,' Kessler says, adding that they've found cash tips either stay the same or actually increase with the DipJar sitting on the counter.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2192743/Meet-Dipjar-tip-jar-takes-credit-cards.html
