I was simply responding to what you said about consumers preferences driving tipping culture instead of the industry.
Yes, that’s right. That’s the topic at hand.
This example is basically to state that in order to eliminate the tipping culture and give workers the pay they deserve, the entire industry needs to change.
The only thing that will eliminate it is customers losing their desire to tip. They are under no obligation to. They do so because they want to! They could literally end it right now. But why should they? They clearly derive enjoyment from it, as found out in that tip rejection experiment.
Like you said, we 100% agree that the business would be better off charging more for the service (more revenue) instead of seeing the transaction split between the business and the workers (less revenue). There is no question that restaurant businesses, if it were up to them, would prefer to charge more for the plate over having tips. That gives them greater cashflow to work with and increased profitability on the margins.
But you can’t get blood from a stone. If the customer wants to split the transaction between the business and the workers, there isn’t much a business can do beyond saying “no soup for you” – but that’s even less profitable than accepting a split transaction. Restaurants are forced to begrudgingly accept (if they want to be profitable).