On the topic at hand, yes one of my best friends is one of these people. He’s a great guy, and makes close to 6 figures, yet when we go out to some cheap place and the bill comes to say ~$35 he will refuse to put in more than a dollar. He rents cheap apartment with roommates and to his admission has tens of thousands of dollars a year put into savings.
He understands the wage laws we live under and that in our state wait staff make $3.13. He’s just… cheap. I’ve tried talking to him privately, calling him out in front of others, appealing to his fiancee who used to wait tables. Nothing works. Some people just dont want to let go of that extra few bucks.
Just a very cheap person. If he doesn’t have to spend that extra cash, he just won’t. I get separate checks and over-tip. One time I remember going to a brewpub with him and on a 54-something check he didn’t even break 60.
I remember going to IHOP with a group of friends about a dozen years ago. Our server was cool. He took all of our orders (about fifteen of us) including elaborate changes and substitutions and whatnot, didn’t write anything down, kept our drinks brimming the entire time without even asking, carried our plates to our table himself (no expediter) and gave everyone the correct meal while repeating (from memory) verbatim what they ordered and how they ordered a it.
At the end we all passed around the check and threw in our fair share including generous tips. All of us except Becky and Ben. Becky counted the money in the middle of the table and proclaimed that someone had already bought their meals and they would have at least paid the tip, but someone paid that too! How generous!
No amount of arguing would convince them that this was not the case. Everyone took their own cash back out of the pile and we sheepishly asked the server to split our check 10 or however many ridiculous ways it ended up being split and we all put our own cash back in our own tabs so Becky wouldn’t steal the poor server’s well deserved tip.
Great story. Although I haven’t done anything as outstanding as that, I have consistently asked for separate checks when dealing with bad tippers. But good for you, you at least got the server the tips he/she deserved.
Yeah, Im not sure exactly what you mean here. I worked fast food as a teenager and did not get any sort of gross sales percentage, $5.15 which after taxes gave me like 30 bucks in the mid 90s per day. I do remember working as a pizza delivery guy and getting 5% of the orders I took out as a gas reimbursement. But that job was great for a 17-18 year old because I got full minimum wage ($5.15) plus tips and that gas consideration.
Hell, I’d probably do that job today considering min wage is like around $8, getting reimbursed for gas is good and the tips from customers prolly pushes you into the high teens per hour as I live in an upper middle class area. But getting the tipped employee wage would negate that. Then you’re making as much as an entry level walmart associate.
This, although IME, it was 80% female. All of this experience is in The Pacific Northwest.
I also have augmented the tip left by a stingy cohort.
Well put. Becky and Ben are indeed a thieves. That was a good way to show them that they were wrong. I somehow doubt that they learned anything from it though. At least the waiter got his deserved tip.
I would have been more crass, I would have had the check split two ways. One for them and one for the rest of us.
The way I see it, somebody else overtipped her, at one time or another. Why subvert your guy and insult him? He was the host of the meal. Let him do what he wants.
You aren’t required to right all of the world’s ills. Had you had the cash at the meal, I would say go ahead, but, the whole thing is now unwieldy.
All this goes to show that it’s about time the US became civilised and started paying waitresses etc a proper wage, instead of them depending on tips.
First time I heard about that, I thought it was BS and that no sensible country would depend on such an exploitative system.
I’ve added to more than a few tips over the years that my dinner companions left that seemed inadequate to me. If I notice that their tip seems a bit thin, I usually just try to be the slowest one to get up and leave the table, so I can leave some extra cash without any of my companions’ being around to second-guess me. If I want to leave additional money for the waiter, it isn’t their concern, AFAIAC.
Insane as it may seem, the restaurant is only obligated to pay waitstaff something like $2.12/hour, while minimum wage for all other hourly workers is $7.25/hour, IIRC. The difference is supposed to come from tips.
So tipping is a big deal here. Bigger than it should be, sure, but as long as the laws are what they are, that’s got to be the way it is.
And I’ll just note in passing the absurdity of comparing how much money someone’s put on the table that you’re sitting at with the activities of the Stasi.
Whenever we joined Granny for breakfast at Frisch’s, we all took turns lagging behind so that we could supplement Granny’s quarter tip. And by quarter, I don’t mean 25%. I mean exactly one quarter.
That’s what she tipped in 1975 and that’s what she still tipped in 2000.
Agreed. But it’s amazing how deep people’s opposition is to paying waitstaff in the same way as everyone else.
My theory (borrowed originally from Tom Wolfe, IIRC) is that most people feel pushed around by people and forces they can’t do anything about. And this is their one situation where they’ve got some control, where if someone doesn’t serve them to their satisfaction, at least they can turn around and stiff the server on the tip.
Gah, I have this problem with my aunt and uncle (siblings). They are terrible tippers, possibly because they are also bad at math and might only be able to handle figuring 10% in their heads. I usually try to surreptitiously slip $5-10 under a glass as we’re leaving.
They’re also terrible customers in that they will take several rounds of “Are you ready to order?” to pick something from the menu, then spend 5 minutes interrogating the server on the ingredients of each menu offering and haggling over what ingredients can be subbed for the others and can I get a sample of the wine (seriously, we were at a Macaroni Grille, like one step above an Olive Garden, and my uncle is gravely contemplating his choice of wines as if the success of the evening depended on it), will return dishes if minor ingredients aren’t at full bloom of ripeness or the meat is a hair’s breadth too overcooked…and after all THAT, they tip 10%**.
It’s mortifying.
**Pre-tax! Tipping on the total after tax is for suckers!
I have a friend who is a bad tipper. I always get separate bills with him. Once he noticed what I left and thought it was too much, and was a little perturbed that it made him look cheap. I said jokingly you are cheap, the place is busy she busted her ass and leaving a 20 on a 15 bill is acceptable.
That part they got right; tax should not be included in calculating the tip. Neither should drinks be, though I usually add whatever I would have tipped a bartender for my drink(s).
I think Alice’s plan is good. I hope she can find the waitress; they tend to work varying and inconsistent schedules.
I disagree about the tax, but not that strongly - mostly I just think that the small difference it makes is probably more significant to the server than it is to me. Your idea about the drinks, though, is baloney. The server takes your order and brings you the drinks rather than just placing them on the bar, and (s)he probably has to tip out the bartender from his/her own tips. The drinks aren’t a separate part of your meal or your bill, and they absolutely should be included in the tip.