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Hot Topic: You REALLY don't want to tip in self-checkout

At the mall, it’s where band tees are the only tees. In Retail Brew, it’s where we invite readers to weigh in on a trending retail topic.
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Dianna “Mick” McDougall

less than 3 min read

Retail news that keeps industry pros in the know

Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.

We’ve never had such near unanimity in a response to a question before, so let’s start with that this week.

Last week, we told you that consumers in self-checkout in airport shops and elsewhere increasingly are being prompted to add a 10%–20% tip, even for something like a bottle of water that they grabbed themselves without any assistance.

So we asked if you’d leave a tip in a self-checkout line, and we cannot tell you how relieved we are that our heads were not close enough for you to bite off. No less than 99.1% of you said no, you would not leave a tip in a self-checkout line where no one assisted you, while just 0.4% of you would leave a tip in a self-checkout line where no one assisted you and 0.4% of you did not know or weren’t sure.

This week’s question: A while back, we investigated why Trader Joe’s, unlike many supermarket chains, doesn’t deliver, and the company revisited the issue on a recent podcast. “It’s that experience of being inside the four walls of Trader Joe’s that makes Trader Joe’s what it is,” Tara Miller, VP of marketing at TJ’s, said on the podcast.

You tell us: Should Trader Joe’s offer delivery? Cast your vote here.

Retail news that keeps industry pros in the know

Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.