Metro ran an article last Monday about how Greenpoint deliveryman Larry Fox, 20, was so
enraged after receiving measly tips that he started a site — www.15percent.tumblr.com — where he called out bad tippers. One day after the article ran, Fox was fired from his job. Now, in an exclusive column for Metro, Fox tells why he risked his livelihood to shame the cheap:
I started 15 Percent with no original plan for the blog, and definitely never expected press. When it originally got picked up it only had five posts and hadn’t been updated in weeks. Yet it quickly became a place for everyone in the service industry to speak up about tipping etiquette. I got a lot of heat from both my workplace and, of course, the Internet. My hate-mail folder is massive.
I feel it’s something that needs to be done though: A lot of people think they can leave a poor tip and just walk away from the table. Now I’m holding people accountable. If you leave an unnecessarily poor tip, you risk getting called out on it. Especially if you live in a sky-rise condo on the waterfront, I don’t need your pity dollar of a tip. It came as no surprise that I eventually got fired from the deli for which I delivered. But even after the blog lost me my job, I’m still running the site as long as submissions and complaints are rolling in.
And if anyone from “The Good Wife” or CBS is reading this, I’d love to hear an explanation for your 5 percent tip policy.
My inbox is open.
Worst, Larry
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