

“But now with these credit card point of sale systems, they seem to care more. “Management wasn’t worried about us putting a brown paper box on the table and Joe Schmo putting a dollar in the box that’s been prevalent for a long time and we weren’t asked about it,” says another vendor who worked one of the RuPaul shows just over a month ago. But higher-volume cash coupled with management now able to quantify exactly how much customers are tipping on their cards since it’s counted in the same system as the sale, tours have enacted more stringent policies that have cut into the vendors’ tips. Rage Against the Machine Cancel European Tour Due to Zack de la Rocha's Leg Injuryīefore, when tips were less significant, a tour didn’t even think to look at revenue at the physical tip jar. Years ago, merch reps say, seeing anything more than $100 in the tip jar was considered a strong night, but now it isn’t uncommon to see even a theater-sized show bring in $1,000 (if not more) through credit card tips.
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How to handle tips for merchandise vendors at concerts has become a heated issue within the live music business, particularly as tipping has become more frequent in the post-pandemic landscape in which transactions are going increasingly cashless. And if they did beforehand, I would’ve refused or said no to working the show.” “That’s not industry standard, that wasn’t communicated to us, no one told us that was going to happen. “When I saw what happened, I was seething, livid,” says one local merch vendor who worked multiple dates on the tour. But the money they say they were shorted didn’t come out of their previously agreed upon base rate: They claim it was taken right out of the tip jar.

Now, multiple merch sellers from separate shows tell Rolling Stone they’re frustrated, claiming the tour paid them hundreds of dollars less than they were expecting.
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Merchandise vendors who were hired to work the RuPaul’s Drag Race: Werq the World tour earlier this month came to the venue ready to work like any other show, expecting a potentially lucrative day hawking T-shirts and knick knacks to hundreds of attendees for a concert tied to the long-running TV franchise.
