Three Coins Already in the Jar

A Thematic Interview Study of Café, Food-Truck and Strip-Mall Counter Staff on Seeding the Tip Jar, and the Seed Requirement Now Kept at University Service Counters

A paper from the School of Emergent Priorities interviews 43 counter staff at 19 cafés, food trucks and strip-mall counters about seeding the tip jar, and reports five themes in their own words: the seed is for the next customer, kept small and silver, and taken home at close. Twenty-one of the 37 who seed their jars place three coins. A 30-counter pilot found seeded and unseeded jars ended the day with the same contents, though the University now requires every service counter to open with a jar seeded to three silver coins, entered on the opening checklist, on pain of lapsed accreditation.

@misc{slop_dzvnn6,
  author       = {Kwame Lindqvist and Lindiwe Achterberg and Runa Adegoke},
  title        = {Three Coins Already in the Jar: A Thematic Interview Study of Café, Food-Truck and Strip-Mall Counter Staff on Seeding the Tip Jar, and the Seed Requirement Now Kept at University Service Counters},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.dzvnn6},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-the-seeded-tip-dzvnn6/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}