No Tip Restaurant

[AHunter3]

I put that I’d go but that I don’t think it would work.
The “wouldn’t work” part is that folks would probably continue to tip. Maybe I’m wrong.

[Sterling_Archer]

I think these poll results are heavily influenced by non-U.S. responses. This wouldn’t work in the U.S. for numerous reasons:

1. People wouldn’t make the connection between higher menu prices and the lack of required tipping. It would just seem expensive for no discernible reason.

2. People LIKE having some influence over the quality of service.

3. The biggest reason this wouldn’t work is because no one would want to serve there. Lousy servers get paid the same as great servers, so there’s no incentive to provide good service. Also, what are these jobs going to pay? Servers can typically make > $25 per hour on a busy night in tips, but there’s no way the restaurant is going to set that as an hourly wage.

[SirGalahad]

@Sterling_Archer

I think these poll results are heavily influenced by non-U.S. responses. This wouldn’t work in the U.S. for numerous reasons:

1. People wouldn’t make the connection between higher menu prices and the lack of required tipping. It would just seem expensive for no discernible reason.

2. People LIKE having some influence over the quality of service.

3. The biggest reason this wouldn’t work is because no one would want to serve there. Lousy servers get paid the same as great servers, so there’s no incentive to provide good service. Also, what are these jobs going to pay? Servers can typically make > $25 per hour on a busy night in tips, but there’s no way the restaurant is going to set that as an hourly wage.

Number three is the reason it wouldn’t work at any real restaurant. Places I occasionally do Jazz gigs, the waiters pull in $2-300 in a six hour shift. That’s more like $50 per hour. Some fine steak and lobster places I’ve visited as a guest, maybe double that. The only waiters the “Che Cheapskate” will be able to hire will provide amateur craptacular service, and there will be nothing you can do about it, because the minute the servers learn how to do it right, they’ll be out the door working at a normal joint with tips.

[Malthus]

Question: do waitstaff in good restaurants in countries where tipping isn’t “done” earn significantly less than waitstaff in countries with tipping? Anyone actually worked in both types of jurisdictions and know?

[The_Tooth]

@voltaire

Out of curiosity, what percentage of the time do you opt to not leave a tip?

I don’t keep track. The last time I didn’t was two nights ago, when I had my hair cut. By a woman who’s been doing a fine job for a long time, and who called me to tell me she’s changed locations. Sometimes I tip her, and I throw in an extra 10 dollars or so (that’s nearly 50%) around Christmas, but this time I didn’t. And yet, she still does a damn fine job because she knows that’s what keeps me coming back and giving her my money.

And if you had to guess, what’s your average tip percentage, when you include the times that it’s zero?

10-15%.

Also, do you always at least speak to the waitperson/manager and inform them why you’re not leaving a tip?

No. Why would I? I’m such a nice guy I might not even complain if the service is bad.

I just hope you’re not naive enough to ever return to eat at the same restaurant where you’ve previously left without leaving any tip. Even that might not be enough to ensure horrible, unspeakable things don’t happen to your food, since people in the restaurant business move between different restaurants, work multiple jobs/shifts at different restaurants, and also socialize amongst each other. They all have pretty good memories when it comes to people who stiff them on tips, and they share their memories with their cow-orkers as a matter of course.

I only worry about unspeakable things being done to food in places I’d rather not eat anyway. McDonald’s comes to mind.

Always tipping well is worth it to me just to avoid increasing my chances of “extraneous ingredients” not to mention all the other good reasons.

I’m not worried about it. And there’s only one good reason to tip: as a favour for good service. Certainly not to bribe someone into properly doing the job they were hired to do.

[pricciar]

The Tooth:
Are you in the US? If not, I don’t think your thoughts on restaurant tipping are very far out of the ordinary.

[Peremensoe]

@The_Tooth

I give tipping a second thought because there’s no reason I should give money to someone who isn’t my employee.

@Simplicio

Its always seemed to me kinda weird that in restaurants we’re asked to figure out on our own how much someone else’s employees should be paid.

Being waited upon, in a tip-based system, pretty much is hiring someone briefly.

Having retained such services, I certainly can’t see how anybody other than myself could be a better judge of how well I have been waited upon.

[TreacherousCretin]

<Other>

Yes I would, but I don’t know whether or not it would succeed.

[Kimstu]

@pricciar

The Tooth:
Are you in the US? If not, I don’t think your thoughts on restaurant tipping are very far out of the ordinary.

Considering the way he spells “favour”, it sounds as though he isn’t in the US. In which case his insistence on treating tipping as optional has nothing to do with the US situation of routine tipping as an established and expected custom.

If you insist that tipping is optional in a culture where the established and recognized custom is to assume that tipping IS optional… well, duh. If you insist that tipping is optional in a culture where the established and recognized custom is to assume that tipping is (with few exceptions) obligatory, that’s another matter.