People will do anything for attention. In the case of one guy, it appears that stiffing service workers all over Los Angeles is his thing. Yes, an anonymous influencer, who operates under the Instagram account @zerodollarstip, and the TikTok handle @idontip, has made it his entire mission to go to some of L.A.’s swankiest restaurants, bars, and coffee shops, order tons of stuff, and then leave the service workers at the establishment no tips.
The tip bandit of social media was recently profiled by one of the city’s local outlets, L.A. Taco, which asked him about his desire to openly proclaim that he’s not tipping anybody. His answer, in part, was this:
It’s not okay to wait a month for a doctor’s appointment, it’s not okay to have dirty streets in the city with one of the highest income taxes. And it’s not okay to put the responsibility on paying waiter’s salary on the customer. It’s time for change.
I was in one of the bakeries in L.A., and after ordering a danish that costs $3, girl turned the iPad and I saw: $1 / $2 / $3 tips options. $3 tips on a bun that costs $3, man. That moment NoTip was born.
In other words, this guy is the Barack Obama of shitty dining etiquette. He sees inequities everywhere and demands change. Yes, we can’t…
L.A. Taco, for some reason, also asked him if he was “frugal,” which is a ridiculous question to ask. This is a guy who apparently has enough money to spend $58 on a burger for lunch, $389 for an Italian dinner (which, according to the receipt, included a $174 cheese wheel pasta dish), $88 on Chinese food, and who seems to carry around a Prada wallet everywhere he goes, but who can’t, for whatever reason, spare a certain percentage of his exorbitant lifestyle budget on the people actually serving him food. As one Instagram commenter adroitly quipped: “new rage porn influencer unlocked.”
Discouragingly, @zerodollarstips would appear to have a lot of supporters. On TikTok, he has around 10k likes. On Instagram, his videos’ comment sections are shot through with various supportive jeers, stuff like “Love this page!” and “GOAT” and “Keep it going king.”
That said, not everybody is a fan.
“Where should I go next time?” the influencer asks at the end of all of his videos. “Jail,” one commenter replied. “Have you tried Antarctica?” another asked.
Gizmodo reached out to @zerodollarstip on Instagram to ask some follow-up questions. He referred us to an email address but never responded to the questions we sent. We will update this story when they do.
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