For plenty of people, tipping fatigue has already reached breaking point.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!But one woman has sparked a huge online debate after revealing that even a self-checkout machine is now asking customers to leave gratuities — despite there being no staff interaction involved whatsoever.
The bizarre moment has gone massively viral on TikTok after Alexa Merico shared footage of herself buying nothing more than a $1.99 bottle of water from a self-service snack kiosk.
What should have been a quick and simple purchase quickly turned into something that left viewers stunned.
In the clip, Alexa walks over to the automated checkout, scans the bottle of water herself, and prepares to pay. But before completing the transaction, a tipping screen suddenly appears asking how much she’d like to leave.
The options included 15%, 18%, and 20%, with the machine automatically selecting 18% by default.
That detail alone was enough to send social media into meltdown.
Alexa summed up the moment perfectly with the text overlay on the video, writing: “Only in America will you be prompted to leave a tip at a self service snack kiosk.”
She also joked in the caption: “I need a 20% discount for my service,” pointing out the irony that she had effectively done the entire checkout process herself.
The clip exploded online, racking up more than 12.6 million views as people flooded the comments section with disbelief over just how far tipping culture appears to have gone in the United States.
Many viewers couldn’t understand who exactly the tip would even be going to.
One person commented: “for what? and for who?”
Another added: “The tipping culture has gotten way out of control. The only places I tip are at restaurants.”
Others felt the issue went beyond tipping entirely, with one viewer writing: “It’s not tipping culture anymore it’s begging culture.”
Someone else joked: “is the tip the discount you get for scanning your own purchase??”
The debate around tipping in America has been raging for years, particularly as many service workers rely heavily on gratuities because of lower hourly wages in certain industries.
While some people are happy to reward excellent service, others argue businesses should simply pay workers properly rather than expecting customers to continuously bridge the gap.
That frustration was clear throughout the comment section.
One viewer wrote: “Tipping is a GREAT thing for restaurants & jobs like Pizza Drivers but almost nothing else is justifable. These super rich companies are abusing it!”
Another admitted the video caught them off guard for an entirely different reason at first: “I thought the issue was the price of the water, but it got worse”
Others widened the conversation beyond self-checkouts and criticised how tipping prompts now appear almost everywhere.
One person commented: “My issue is…..you walk into a cafe a do the exact same this….a girl hands you your drink….and expects a tip!”
While another added: “Haha this is the first I seen this. Jesus. I ain’t tipping anything anymore.”
Still, not everybody thought the request was outrageous.
Among the sea of criticism, one person actually defended the idea of leaving a gratuity, pointing out that staff are still responsible for stocking and maintaining the machines.
“How about a tip for the person/persons keeping the kiosk stocked? I mean, that water didn’t climb on the shelf all by itself,” they wrote.
Even so, the overwhelming majority of people seemed to agree that asking customers to tip after scanning and paying for their own purchase feels like a step too far.
Featured image credit: lexmerico / TikTok
