Oren’s Daily Roast Testing DipJar Innovation in Midtown

Earlier this month, Bon Appetit picked up a story on DipJar, a device being tested at the Times Square location of Oren’s Daily Roast (Broadway between 40th+41st), that allows customers to swipe their credit card to quickly leave a tip. Eater NY quickly followed up. Although the ML team was somewhat perplexed by the newsworthiness of this story, when we dropped by yesterday, yet another reporter was there with photography crew in tow. According to the DipJar website, the inventor’s justification for producing such a device is the drop in tips baristas experienced after the rise in having “plastic only” and an excuse for leaving nothing in the tip jar. The device is being tested out in just a handful of locations (apparently those without a tip line on their credit card receipts) and each business sets the tip amount. Oren’s set amount is $1. According to DipJar, when fully up and running, the service will take a small fee for tips processed at no cost to retailers, while collecting a significant tip money for employees that would otherwise not exist. As Bon Appetit points out, the tips will also be on the books, so employees who underreport tips to get by might be doubly hit.

11 Comments

  • Nifty invention, but I kinda wish that the baristas would do like other tip-based establishments with credit cards do: give you a receipt so you just fill in the tip. Also, does that thing let you specify how much you want to tip or is it an automatic 18%?

  • Sounds ripe for credit card skimming.

  • If anything, this leaves me LESS inclined to tip. As a rule, I try not to pay for things like lunch and/or coffee with a credit card (pay interest on a falafel? No.).

    I also have a personal policy regarding the tip jar – I tip for very good service, not because of the presence of a jar at the register. The existence of the jar does not automatically obligate me to augment a coffe-house worker’s income. Perhaps that is a topic best addressed with their employer.

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    Completely agree with @FoodGoesInHere. I find this very offensive, not the least of which is the $1 minimum for a tip. I think the entire tipping system is terrible — why should we supplement sub-par wages from these people’s employers?

    • Why should my coffee be $3 when the price right there on the board is $2? Unlike a restaurant, where someone adds value — that is, brings me what I ordered, checks up on me, and cleans up after me — the price of goods includes paying the staff.

  • Even more deplorable – don’t know how many of you have witnessed this – is the practice of coffee shops putting one tip jar at the register and then ANOTHER tip jar at the station where you actually pick up your coffee. Why not just pull a knife on me and rob me properly?

  • Another reason to not go to one of these pretentious coffee houses.

  • Well, at least it’s appropriately named. Only a dip would tip $1 on just a cup of coffee, prepared by employees who are already being paid to do their jobs.

  • Guess who is not tipping. [The answer is me]

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