Crumbl cookies is the fastest growing dessert franchise in the U.S. Reviews of the $5 cookies have been mixed.
Gabi Broekema
gbroekema@herald-leader.com
I’ve always considered myself an OK tipper, but apparently, I am a bit of a cheapskate.
At least, that’s what Crumbl has led me to believe.
If you aren’t familiar with the Crumbl cookie company, here’s a brief rundown: It started in Logan, Utah, in 2017, and is now the fastest-growing dessert chain in the country.
Its phenomenal ascent inspired this snooty headline in Bon Appetit: “Dear Lord, Crumbl Is Supposedly America’s Fastest Growing Dessert Shop.”
Apparently, Crumbl is too humble for the sophisticated palates of the Bon Appetit crowd.
Anyway, the chain, which offers a rotating menu of weird cookies, is popping up all over California.
Over the past few months, it opened two stores in San Luis Obispo County — in Paso Robles and Pismo Beach — and a third is scheduled to open in SLO.
At $5 each - at least in California - the cookies are a splurge, but they do have fancy toppings. Plus, the portions are generous — the cookies are somewhere between the size of a compass and a Frisbee — and they are presented in elegant pink boxes, sort of like on Ted Lasso.
In other words, a lot goes into a Crumbl, but $5 is still steep for one cookie.
Sticker shock at the touchscreen
The real sticker shock, though, is the “suggested” tip schedule on the touchscreen: The options in my store are $2, $3 and $4.
Yowsers!
If I did the math right, a $2 tip on a $5 purchase works out to 40%.
Of course, a $2 tip is not mandatory. There is a “custom tip” choice, but that requires more thought and more keystrokes, which can be awkward if there’s a long line of customers.
Then there’s the option of leaving no tip at all.
Not a good idea if you plan on becoming a regular, or if you don’t want to embarrass yourself in front of the customer standing directly behind you, breathing down your neck.
In case you’re wondering where those gratuities wind up, “All tips are allocated amongst our bakers,” according to Candyce Paige, PR strategist for Crumbl.
“Our process is standard of most food and beverage processes with a tip screen being showcased as part of the buying experience. However, this is optional and customers are able to select $0 or no tip,” she added in an email.
More and more customers are bypassing tip jars and tipping via touchscreen. Alex Cason CharlotteFive
The new ‘tipping culture’
I don’t begrudge tipping the Crumbl staffers, who are both patient and unwaveringly pleasant. (I wound up leaving a buck.)
It’s this not-so-subtle corporate pressure to not only tip, but to also tip in ever-increasing percentages, that makes me feel like I’m constantly being nickeled and dimed.
Not only are prices for everything getting higher — a couple of pizzas can now easily cost 50 bucks — tips have been escalating right along with them.
At a restaurant, 15% to 18% percent used to be considered a decent tip. Not anymore. At least, not according to an often-quoted Feb. 23 article in New York magazine, called “The New Rules of Tipping.”
“At restaurants, the previous and ethically expected tip was 15 to 20 percent; now it’s 20 to 25,” the magazine advises. “The higher your disposable income, the more you should tip, but anything under 20 percent is rude.”
Oh, and if you’re at a coffee bar, tip at least 20%, unless you’re buying just a plain coffee, in which case you can get away with tipping $1.
“If you’re buying an item that involves no preparation (a bottle of water, a muffin) it is acceptable, though miserly, not to tip,” the article continues.
In other words, according to the tipping culture of today, we’re misers if we don’t tip the person who puts a muffin (or a cookie) in a bag (or a box) and hands it across the counter.
Yet at the same time, we aren’t expected to tip an employee at a shoe store who may bring out a dozen different pairs of shoes for us to try ... and still not make a single sale.
Go figure.
Californians called the ‘worst tippers’
Apparently, not many Californians got the memo about the new tipping etiquette; Golden Staters are the worst restaurant tippers in the nation.
We tip a measly average of 17.5% on restaurant meals, according to TOAST, a digital technology platform for the restaurant industry. The top state — Delaware — tipped an average of 21.8%. (The data did not include cash tips.)
Even so, California’s restaurant workers earn more than their counterparts in many other states, since tipped employees here are entitled to full minimum wage. That’s currently $15.50 per hour, and higher in some locations that base the minimum hourly pay on the Consumer Price Index.
Californians are the worst tippers in the nation, according to TOAST, a digital technology platform. Photobuff Getty Images/iStockphoto
That doesn’t mean California’s restaurant workers are making big bucks, especially when you consider the cost of living here. So by all means, if you can afford to leave a generous tip, do so.
Ultimately, though, when it comes to paying a living wage, the buck should stop with the employer. Consumers should not be expected to subsidize worker salaries, especially at businesses that operate more as retail shops than full-service restaurants.
And if that means raising the price of a Crumbl cookie to $5.25 or $5.50, so be it.
Just don’t expect a $2 or $3 tip on top of that.
In fact, how about adding a $1 option to the touchscreen?
This column has been updated with a comment from Crumbl.
Opinion Editor Stephanie Finucane is a native of San Luis Obispo County and a graduate of Cal Poly. Before joining The Tribune, she worked at the Santa Barbara News-Press and the Santa Maria Times.
