Today I was furniture shopping for my new place at Ikea. I think everyone knows by now that ikea is a self service mall. I was there with my pregnant wife (in a wheel chair) and Baby Aden ( on a stroller with my helper ) and I had 3 carts worth of packages to pick up and pay for. A ikea staff (Singaporean boy from SP) was helping me with some of the more complicated items and he offered to help me pick out and pack some of the boxes, he even helped me push 2 of the carts to the payment counter. Even thou he had a sian sian vibe throughout ( A Singaporean quirk I think ) he was actually really helpful and went out of his way to help me. So I offered him a tip. Which... You guessed it. He rejected it, very nicely I must add.
The point I'm trying to make here is, why reject the tip? Is it rude to or "frown upon" to take a tip in Singapore? Singapore's service standard is horrible to say the least, and people are in the service line to make a living. So why reject a good will tip when you clearly deserve it?
I'm not a supporter of the tip system where people are paid peanuts and are force to survive on tips. But wouldn't knowing that your good service might reap you some reward, finically or emotionally encourage a person to give even better service next time?
Anything for better service in Singapore right? I'm so sick of walking in my own country, my home and be greeted by grumpy individuals determined to turn your day into a nightmare.
What do you think? Would you take the tip?
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