Count me more with Christian Schneider than with Nate Hochman on the unwarranted expansion of tipping from a reward for good service into an expectation that the customer will pay people who do nothing but hand you something over a counter. I am by no means anti-tipping, and I customarily give a generous tip, but I resent being expected to tip cashiers as a routine matter of course, something that was unheard-of when I was working as a department-store cashier for $4 an hour in the late 1980s. The worst thing, however, is how electronic payment has led to requests that the customer tip before receiving their food. At that point, not only do you not know whether you will receive good service, it feels like extortion: tip well, or something might happen to your lunch.