Wrangling Tips

Abstract

Service economies are largely predicated on the expectation that the power in service exchanges lies with the consumer. Customers control the interaction through overt demands and gratuities. However, as I demonstrate, the social power and institutional backing of service providers can undermine this notion. Based on participant observation of calzone delivery drivers, I explore interpersonal manipulation in fast-food delivery. The article focuses on the techniques employed by a group of well-educated, white, male calzone delivery drivers aimed at managing customers and their tipping behavior. I explore the ways that the drivers purposively presented selves and sculpted their delivery interactions in order to maximize their gratuities. I conclude by examining the social and structural factors that allowed these service workers to deviate from the cultural scripts and rules of etiquette that guide the majority of service exchanges and to engage in a liminal form of emotion management: “venture emotionalism.”