Tipping etiquette 101: What to do at the Common Market (and shops like it)

The employee rings you up, turns the screen around, and there it is, sitting there in that space between the person you really are and the person you really want to be: Would you like to leave a tip?

• The answer, in a pandemic, has been yes.

What’s happening: Owners and employees of local markets tell me that tipping has surged during COVID-19, even on simple purchases.

• Pasta & Provisions owner Tommy George says employees at his three stores are making upward of $4 an hour more now, depending on the week, just because of tips.
• He says he spreads the tips around evenly, so that everyone, from kitchen employees to the front-of-the-store clerks, gets the same cut.

Why it matters: Tipping has been a hot topic for restaurant servers, with lots of arguments for moving away from it. But most bodegas and markets in Charlotte pay employees more than minimum wage as a base salary.

• So in those stores that are half-service half-convenience, what’s the proper etiquette?
• “You tip when it feels right, and you don’t when you’re buying a Coke,” Chuck Barger, Common Market co-owner, tells me. “It depends on if it’s service or transaction.”

And so you know, the stores are aware of the awkwardness. Pasta & Provisions will sometimes hit the 0% button on the screen before showing it to you.

“We struggled with that,” George told me. “I was’t really comfortable with (the tipping) part of it. Then I thought, ‘Well, shit it’s an extra incentive for my people to be good to people from a customer service standpoint.'”

Graham Worth, the operating partner for the Common Markets in South End and Oakwold, says that on small purchases he’ll often say, “scribble a signature and then you’re done.”

But part of the experience of these local markets, Worth says, is that the employees are versed in the beer and food selections.

• If you come in and recruit that expertise to find the latest stout or a good bottle of wine, well, Worth thinks it’s probably a good idea to add a little something.

“It’s a very simple question but a little more complex,” Worth says of the when-to-tip and when-not-to-tip question. “I would would flip it around and say, what service were you given?”

My thought bubble: My first job: first mate on my dad’s charter fishing boat on the Chesapeake. Second job: Serving popcorn at a movie theater. Third: delivering pizza for Domino’s.

• I know what it’s like to survive on tips. Now I’m an over-tipper. I probably won’t die a rich man, but I guess I won’t regret it.