A Southern-inspired fast-casual restaurant chain, Chicken Salad Chick, is drawing criticism after a customer reported being prompted to leave a tip while purchasing a gift card. The incident, which occurred at one of the brand's over 330 locations across 22 states, has sparked a debate online about the increasing prevalence of tipping requests.
The customer stated that a manager alerted him to an upcoming prompt on the checkout tablet before he purchased a $50 gift card for his wife. The screen reportedly offered tip percentages ranging from 18 to 22 percent.
"I told her that I wouldn't be tipping, because my wife would also get asked to tip when she used the card and I didn't want to tip twice on the same money," the customer wrote on Reddit, according to reports. The manager responded that she did not believe the system prompted a tip when paying with a gift card, but noted it might.
This exchange led to a discussion on Reddit, with some users suggesting the manager could have simply bypassed the tipping screen. Others commented that the customer overly complicated the transaction by explaining his reasoning for not tipping.
Some observers view the incident as indicative of a broader trend of unavoidable tipping requests in the United States. Similar debates have arisen following reports of restaurants adding mandatory gratuities to bills, particularly in cities that hosted international events like the FIFA World Cup 2026, to account for potential cultural differences in tipping customs. In many European countries, service charges are typically included in the bill, making tipping less common and potentially leading to confusion for international visitors unfamiliar with U.S. tipping norms.
Chicken Salad Chick has not yet commented on the incident. The customer's experience highlights ongoing discussions about tipping culture and technology's role in prompting gratuities for services that may not traditionally involve tipping.