DoorDash users who don’t tip may start getting chided by the app. A new feature the San Francisco-based food delivery titan is rolling out will drop a passive-aggressive hint to stingier customers to drop a few dollars for their delivery driver—in DoorDash parlance, their dasher. The program is not in place for everyone quite yet, as it’s currently only in effect for a selection of customers in some U.S. and Canadian markets. But already, DoorDash says it has “seen a meaningful decrease” in non-tipping customers since the pilot began. According to a Bankrate survey published in June, 50% of Americans said they always tip food delivery workers, compared with 25% who said they only sometimes or never tip. (The former number could be inflated, however, as individuals surveyed may not want to seem miserly.)
I think the culture on tipping is really changing from rewarding people for good service to tipping out of shame. I talk it over with etiquette expert Valerie Sokolovsky and seek her advice below: