Anecdote: My boss decided to axe tipping, raise prices 20%, and give the whole staff large raises and expanded healthcare benefits. We lasted about a month and a half like this- after an initial bump, sales plummeted and we were showered with reviews and feedback that the food was too expensive, had dropped in quality (it was the same food made by the same staff) and that the servers acted "entitled" because we didn't have to earn our tips. Even though the food was literally no more expensive than what it would have been with tip. We had to go back to a tipping model. Thankfully the owner kept the healthcare. Point is, the Average American resturant consumer is actually insane, as much as people complain about tips, most consumers do not want to pay what their meal actually costs unless they also get to pretend to evaluate someone's work preformance. Americans love tipping because its an expression of individuality AND its a class-based hierarchy, two things ingrained in American culture.