Bride-to-be baffled after being asked to tip for wedding dress: 'Tipping culture is weird'

People have become very worked up about the tipping culture in the United States and rightly so. The tradition that exists as a form of appreciation to service workers is now being carried forward to industries outside of the service industry. The whole idea of tipping has been a divisive subject and customers aren't too happy to see it crop up in other industries. A woman shared a video on TikTok explaining a bizarre experience she had of the tipping culture when she went out to shop. She was asked to tip at a place that one couldn't even imagine: A bridal store. She mentioned in her video how unnecessary it was and made a strong case for why the tipping culture needs to be revamped.

“Can we talk about the tipping culture, the real quick and weirdest place you’ve been asked to tip?” the woman said. “I went shopping for my wedding dress a week and a half ago and I ended up finding my dress at the first store I went to,” she explained. She then revealed that when she went to make the payment, the staff asked her for a tip. “When I tell you, I full-on froze. Like, I just stood there and I think they saw the blood leave my body,” she said. The woman close to nowhere expected to be asked to tip for a wedding dress. Elaborating more about her experience, the woman mentioned that there were no other customers present at the store.

“It was just me and my best friend and the three people that work there,” she said. While she assumed one to be the owner and the other two just staff, she couldn’t understand why she would have been asked to tip. The woman was taken aback by the idea of tipping for a wedding dress and decided to confirm. She mentioned that her friend was around, checking out other dresses and they knew a different language. Her friend had bought her wedding dress from another store some time back. The woman then went over to her friend and asked in another language, “Hey, did you tip when you bought your wedding dress?”

When her friend responded with a “no” the woman further asked whether she was at least asked to tip. When her friend replied negatively again, the woman was surprisingly trying to figure out why the store in particular asked for tips. “I’m just standing there doing the math in my head cause the dress is already expensive right?” She mentioned that wedding dresses cost thousands of dollars and adding even a 10% tip to the same would mean adding hundreds of dollars as tips. 

“If you can afford a 10 thousand dollar dress, then tipping isn’t that much of a problem,” the woman mentioned. However, she redirected attention to those with budgets who find it hard to even pay for a decent wedding dress. “I’m not gonna tip a hundred dollars because that’s a lot and why am I tipping a bridal store?” The woman further shared the confusion that was on her mind as she figured out what to do. “Tipping culture has been weird lately,” she concluded. @aspenfors said, “I literally have no shame just pressing ‘no tip.’” @astheweedtumbles said, “I think we all need to collectively put them on the spot. ‘How much tip do you think you deserve? Why?’”