Because it takes alot of convincing to get someone to part with hard-earned cash that’s never asked for by the merchant. How was the importance of tipping explained to this vast majority you’re referring to?
I have asked servers about that, and you are totally, 100%, dead wrong. Friday and Saturday are the most lucrative nights of the week for waitstaff. One of my friends, who has 20 years experience in the industry, and has a good enough resume that he can pretty much set his own employment terms, will only work those nights. The rest of the week doesn’t provide enough income for it to be worth his while.
Okay, maybe it depends on the type of restaurant. I worked at Ruby Tuesday’s, which isn’t the weekend destination of choice for serial restaurant goers.
Anyway, did you ask these servers about the average size of a tip, percentage-wise, per person when comparing weeknights to weekends?
And, indeed, you would receive poorer service for more money. Under the current model, you pay an average 15% tip to your waiter. If the service is lousy, you pay less then that. If we abolished the tipping model of buisness, and all food prices were increased by 15% to cover the increased wages, you’re going to be paying that extra no matter how bad the service is. Doesn’t matter if your waiter busts his ass to get your glass of water and basket of breadsticks, or if he spends his time chatting on the cellphone while your food gets cold at the pick up window. You’re still paying exactly the same out-of-pocket costs.
The same way it’s been explained, over and over again, in this thread. At the very least, people should understand that the server is getting taxed on tips you are stiffing them on.
If it’s a matter of principle for you, then don’t eat out. Punishing the server because of your principles, especially when you’ve had the real deal explained to you, is just plain theft of service.
Okay…I just got back from dinner at a Popular Chain Restaurant and my waitress, though nice enough, lost 5% on her tip for the following reasons:
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When we said we thought bread came with my husband’s order, she said, “it used to.” The correct response would have been to offer us something comparable, since it was obvious we wanted said item. Nope. Didn’t happen. Negative cha-ching.
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She made me box my own leftovers. Sorry…when I’m out to eat it’s often because I don’t want to perform kitchen duties. I know many places don’t offer this service anymore, but many still do and it’s a nice touch. It pisses me off and I will cut your tip if you don’t package my leftovers for me.
She still got 15%, but she could have had 20%…my standard for good service.
I always felt if you can’t afford to tip, don’t eat-out (or order in, I guess).
But the delivery guy seems to want it both ways - not responsible for the order being correct, can’t take action if the order is wrong, yet wants tipped like a water/waitress who does do those things.
Don’t get me wrong, I tip - but they should make the call if the order is wrong.
I’m not sure either of these are fair. If the restaraunt changed the menu and decided bread was no longer part of the meal, it’s not really on the waitress to start randomly start offering up free stuff. She could get fired if her manager found out.
Second - regarding boxing the leftovers - after way too many years of restaraunt experience, I actually prefer this. A plate of leftovers looks a lot like a plate of garbage and I would be lying if I said I’d never seen someone tip someone’s leftovers into the garbage, and then seen a frantic waitress try to fish it out.
No, I’m not kidding. No, I never did this. Yes, it’s horrendous and gross but it still happens.
Wow.
When I ask for a doggie bag/box, I insist on boxing it myself. I want to decide what comes off my plate and into the box. Not someone in the kitchen.
See how life kinda sucks for food servers? You deduct her pay for not boxing your food. I come and deduct her pay for boxing my food.
She’s pretty much fucked, unless she learns to read minds. What’s this “the correct response should have been…”
Who are you to decide? Take it up with the chef, or the owner. They’re the ones who decided “no bread with meal! No substitutions! No give free stuff to bitchy customer!”
A good waiter will ask, I know I always did.
“So, would you like me to take this back to the kitchen and box it up for you, or would you prefer if I just bring you folks out a few boxes?”
Ah, so the restaurant used to offer free bread, and when she told you this was no longer the case you expected her to go ahead and give you something else for free?
What should she have offered you at no cost? Which item did the owner not pay for to his distributor?
So you deducted 25% of her tip because she didn’t take the initiative to steal from her boss? Just to offer a token of your awesomeness?
At least you have the high moral ground on this one. :rolleyes:
Actually, I read it as that the waitress should’ve suggested some similar dishes that they might’ve ordered.
Maybe I read it wrong. I interpreted “Bread comes with this order” as an item being served with the dish at no extra cost. No longer the case. A waitress saying “Well it used to but it doesn’t anymore” wouldn’t make me immeditely think she should say “But let me find something else I can give you at no extra charge with this meal.”
Of course, I wasn’t there, so I have no idea how snotty her attitude was in not offering something free. Personally, if she couldn’t substitude the non-free bread with a martini I would have tipped nothing. Ingrateful peon.
A tip, for civilized people, is generally based on a percentage of the price. If bread isn’t served with the item, it’s not part of the price. I don’t care if bread used to be served with it. The waiter/waitress doesn’t decide the menu. The percentage of pittance you throw them isn’t nased on their pricing.
To punish arbitrarily the waitress for a change the owner made is douchebaggedness to the highest.
And to include in justifying the punishment the fact the server didn’t break a rule that would get him/her fired just to make you feel the power you weild is appalling.
Well, all I can say is I didn’t read it that way… and I can understand how if you go out to eat, and your server doesn’t try to suggest something else when the bread you wanted to snack on isn’t available anymore, that one might not tip 20%… but a 15% tip is a good tip, all in all. I only tip 20+ for really outstanding service.
I see I have come here a little late in the piece…however, for the love of god, DO NOT TIP in NZ, unless you have been difficult customers, late or you’ve had exceptional service. We do not tip and I think it is an awful system which employers abuse, I do not want it coming here although I see it creeping in.
I hate going to the US because I don’t know when I should tip or how much. I want to see the price of something and know that that is exactly what I will need to pay.
By the way, putting money in the hat of a street performer/busker is customary, but I’m damned if I’m going to be forced to do it. The risk they take for having this as their sole monetary source, is that noone will put money in the hat.
That’s more or less how I read it too. Thing is, if 15% is what you consider the standard tip, and 20% is for outstanding service, then I can see being a bit disappointed the waitress didn’t correctly anticipate your needs, and just giving her the standard tip.
But if you feel 20% is the standard tip, and you deduct 25% of that because she didn’t guess what you wanted her to say, it’s dickish.
I’ve worked at a high-end Chinese place, as well as having eaten at innumerable Chinese places, and I can’t think of anything that would replace bread, if they stopped serving bread. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever gotten bread at a Chinese place. What are you supposed to recommend to people instead of bread? Rice? Fried Won-ton noodles?
You know, if it’s a high-end place and I’m your sommelier, and we don’t have your favorite wine, I better be prepared to sell you on something different, but fabulous and “I really think you’ll like it.”
But bread? All I can think is, “well, there’s that Italian joint around the corner. I hear they got lots of bread.”
Here’s a question: when did our “culture” decide that shittty service was the baseline to work from? What if customers actually expected good service? I’m not talking excellent or even very good. How’s about just plain good service? I resent that I am expected to tip to PROTECT me from lousy service. the next time I eat at
my usual restaurant I’m going to ask my server what she thinks her service was worth. Lucky for me she is a terrific waitress. But she will probably never wait on me again because she’ll think I’m a nutcase! I usually tip 20% because i was a waitress once in a Denny’s type restaurant. I know what it’s like to wait on a table full of drunken assholes at 3am who don’t tip.
Well, throwing money in the case of a street performer is, in essence, tipping. And it’s customary? Seems you have a half-step to go to equating the two.
If I leave the house with a spare dollar and have the choice of giving it to someone that brings me food as their job and someone that is on the sidewalk playing an instrument in what is all honesty begging, guess where that dollar goes?
I enjoy seeing a street performer and will tip from time to time when able, but it better be more entertaining than someone catering to my wishes, even if it’s just a person whose job is to deliver me a plate of food as if I were a 15th Century King that is too good to cook my own friggin meal.
People called servers should be seen as what they are. People that do what you don’t want to do because you want to feel good about yourselves.
I was a bartender for years and never a waiter, but I worked with plenty of wait staff. I give a minimum of 10% even if the waiter spits in my food at my table.
Know why? Because he’s human and may have had a previous customer that posted to this thread. He’s human. I’ve been less than cordial to people while bartending because the last customer was a douchebag. I made it up in the end with a comp drink usually, but I’m human and sometimes let emotion take over.
However, if the same guy was a douche the next time, that was reason to not be so friendly. A 5% tip and refusal of his services in the future. The 5% just because I find it very hard to get into a confrontation over a couple bucks, and a few bucks saved in bail money is worth it to me. I expect a modicum of respect when I enter a business, but I don’t expect everyone to cater to my whims. I enter the deal knowing I don’t write the rules.
Some don’t. Some think they have a Thor-Ring when a menu is presented in laminated form. Sad, really. It’s their one chance to shine and they abuse it and we get threads about them often.
Could someone please explain this to me:
In California, there is no “tip credit” against the minimum wage. That means that a server at Denny’s earns $6.75/hour whether she is tipped or not. Other states do allow the tip credit. In a different state, the Denny’s server may only earn $2.13/hour (from her employer) and at least $3.02/hour in tips. However, if she is earning less than $5.15/hour, it is up to the employer to compensate her at a rate equaling minimum wage.
So how come if I go to Denny’s in California and then go to a Denny’s in another state, the menu items are not significantly higher in California? Are the California Denny’s profit margins just that much lower?
If tipping is to supplement a server’s income because an employer can pay $2.13/hour, does that mean we shouldn’t tip in states where there is no “tip credit” against minimum wage?
IMO, there shouldn’t be a “tip credit.” Employers should pay their employees a certain wage and if customers want to thank them with monetary compensation, that should be between the server and the served.
Whereas tipping was once a thank you for great service, it has become more of an apology. “I’m sorry you had to put up with my shit; here’s a twenty. Let’s call it even.” “I’m sorry your boss doesn’t pay you enough; here’s a twenty so you can pay your rent.” “I’m sorry you had to spend the last hour treating my like I am better than you. Here’s a twenty so you won’t hate me for being better off than you.”
My parents’ old neighbor was once a server. She under-reported her income for many, many years. It came back to bite her when she found herself in a position to file for disability. She received very little due to it being a percentage of her reported income.
This is kind of a good analogy, except a sommelier indicates a wine-server.
A restaurant that has a (sorry) sommeleir will have a person serving/suggesting wine. A high-end restaurant that has a Sommelier is in a different league than one that stops the offer of free bread.
Free bread, people. Think about that.
(the follwing isn’t to the quoted part)
With all the misery and suffering of the average American due to oil prices, I’m amazed that anyone has the money to buy the overpriced gas to drive to their underpaid jobs to spend the money at any restaurant that would offer free bread with the meal they pay for. Then bitch about not getting the free bread.