Timing
Where tip prompts appear before service
A look at published reports where the tip prompt appeared before the customer received the product or service.
How this was calculated
This page includes a report only when the source or submission explicitly indicates that the prompt appeared before the customer received the product or service. Missing timing detail is not treated as before service.
Only approved, non-demo reports with a known city and state are included. Placeholder locations such as “Location not reported,” “Online,” and “N/A” are excluded. Duplicates and pending submissions are excluded. This is descriptive archive data, not a survey of all U.S. businesses.
What stands out
29 of 75 published reports are explicitly marked as before-service (39%). The table shows the settings where those documented prompts appeared.
This is an editorial reading of the current archive, not a causal claim. As more reports arrive or corrections are made, the takeaway can change.
| setting | reports | average highest suggested tip |
|---|---|---|
| self_service | 18 | 20 |
| counter | 6 | 17.4 |
| retail | 2 | 21 |
| takeout | 1 | 15 |
| other | 1 | Not reported |
| online | 1 | Not reported |
What this page can and cannot tell you
It can show how the published archive is distributed by place, time, setting, and prompt details. It cannot estimate the true rate of tipping requests across all businesses, prove that a business-wide policy exists, or replace the original source. Use the links above to inspect individual reports before repeating a statistic.
See the underlying reports. Browse the archive or add a documented report.