Bagel store ditches tipping, sees increased support for business
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BOUNTIFUL — Now more than ever, it seems customers are getting asked to leave a tip at the end of a purchase. Often, it is being asked in places that have traditionally not asked for tips.
There’s a time and place for everything, but with all the tipping options, it can be overwhelming.
One business owner is taking it out of the equation altogether. Just like her sign “Cheryl’s Bagels East Coast Style” reads, Cheryl Mignone is calling the shots.
“It’s me. Yep. It’s me. My business,” Mignone said.
For her business, that means when a customer pays, they will not be asked to tip.
“I don’t ever want anyone to feel the way I feel,” she said.
Moving from New Jersey in 2019, she opened the restaurant in 2020. From the get-go, she has been putting a different spin on the ever-growing tipping culture.
“Being a kid, having not a lot of money. And my parents taught me to tip, and you tip appropriately, and you tip well. And I always have, and I always will. Just somewhere, we lost it, and I was being asked to tip for things that I’d never before,” Mignone said.
She says her all-women staff has her back, which is a welcome relief for many of her customers.
“When I priced everything, my theory was about a family. I wanted a parent or family to walk in here, buy a dozen bagels to feed their family … I was raised you tip for sit-down service. You don’t have to tip for counter service, or you tip when someone does something extraordinary for you,” Mignone said.
There is a best tip in her book.
“I ask if they like us to spread the word. That’s what I want as a tip,” Mignone said.
She said even before she opened her business, she knew she would not ask for tips.
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Karah Brackin
