What Are Tipping Robin Hoods?

A couple weeks back, I wrote about tipping via screens: It’s down across the board, percentage-wise, and I think the suckiness of the tipping prompts is at least partially to blame. One common strategy people employ to deal with the prompts is to ignore them, walking away from the counter when a screen asks whether they’d like to tip $1 or 25 percent or whatever, opting out of the transaction completely. You have likely walked up to a counter to buy a matcha latte only to see that the person on line ahead of you has abdicated this opportunity to tip. Maybe you even thought, I could leave a tip for them.

This is what the Robin Hoods do. I’ve since heard from people who do exactly this: These are Good Samaritans who, when confronted with a tip prompt abandoned by a person in front of them, simply leave a tip on that person’s behalf. Surely they meant to leave an appropriate gratuity, right? Tap. Twenty percent. Done.

Is it good? Our legal department would likely advise me to state that I am not advocating for or against this practice, merely observing its existence. But one friend who participates in this act of selflessness says he had a change of heart after he heard from an employee at a shop where Robin Hooding is known to happen. The affected customers, upon seeing they were charged for a tip they don’t remember leaving, blame (and take action against) the café, not the consumers who activated the tip. This, of course, is bad for business. So if you are going to participate in this new custom — and, again, I’m not saying anyone should or should not — just make sure the person who was in front of you doesn’t look like the type to scan their credit card statements too carefully.