[gtfoutttt]

>What I want to talk about here is how the type of behavior that makes us look smart in the moment (i.e. penny pinching) ends up not being smart in the long run.

Well said. I disagree with the article title, due to my experience with delivering pizza.

We all certainly knew the non-tippers. And they almost always were in the wealthiest neighborhoods. So once you go to a house 3 or 4 times, and get stiffed (or hear about it from the other drivers), they become your lowest priority.

Working class and poor neighborhoods almost always got better service and faster food delivery from us because we knew they tipped more often. The non tippers typically ended up with cold pizza and dropped 2 liters cause we didn't give a crap.

[diggernet]

Based on my own experience, I would slightly adjust what you say. The wealthy neighborhoods did have more repeat non-tippers than they should, but they also had some of the best tippers. There were also a fair number of non-tippers in the crappiest poor neighborhoods, but I was fine with that.

On the other hand, the "gig economy" has really screwed up pizza delivery since the shops started laying off their own drivers. There is no control over quality, and tips don't really count for anything anymore. The dude who showed up an hour late with a cold pizza got no tip, but so what? He'll never be back, and doesn't answer to the manager of the restaurant. Good tip for a good, prompt delivery, sure. But that won't earn better service, because we'll never see that driver again, either.

[sheepybloke]

Urg I completely agree. My college had a good mix of richer kids and middle class ones, and you could always tell their background because the richer ones would penny-pinch everything. They'd ask you to pay a couple dollars for gas if you went to the grocery store together, or one of my friends bought a couple of decorations for the our shared house and asked us to pitch in for it. If you went with one of the poorer people there would be a sort of understanding that you might split a pizza together later and so you don't have to pay for gas now, and felt much more charitable. It was interesting how stark the difference always was.

[vineyardmike]

Weird - i had experienced the opposite, where most rich kids didn't care about the money (it was their parents anyways!) so they would buy you dinner today, and you'd buy it tomorrow while the middle-class ones had to work for their money, so they wanted it to be "fair" and split by person because they only had so much.

Not saying your experience can't also be true! I was fortunate to have my parents help with money and was fairly charitable, so maybe i didn't notice other behavior.

[lupire]

I guess they liked cold pizza if they kept ordering more.