Shake Shack upcharging non-tipping customers

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Kiosk no-tip upcharge

On August 8, 2026, a user on TikTok recorded himself at a Shake Shack located in a Salt Lake City airport ordering three shakes through a kiosk. When the couple denied tipping on the kiosk, the screen changed to say "Uh Oh! There has been a pricing update on one or more of your cart items. Please review these changes in your cart." After which, the prices of the shakes went up $0.50 each.

Shake Shack's response

On August 10, 2026, Shake Shake made an official blog post stating that the licensee, HMSHost investigated and determined it was a kiosk error "unrelated to tipping" and that "it is not Shake Shack policy, nor that of our licensees, to increase the price of menu items when no tip is added".

Consumer response

This incident caused many people to be upset at Shake Shack for allowing this to occur. A user on X stated, "This is should be a class a action lawsuit and they should face fines". Others stated the issue with tipping culture in the United States, with one person commenting, "tipping culture in the US has reached an intolerable toxic limit".