Does the tip improve provision of the wine or water?
Should i tip at Maccas?
I tip on the food service, not the fees/taxes, which are added by the computer and have nothing to do with an actual person providing a service. As the stepson of a bartender, yes I tip for drinks.
Years ago, I used to tip 15%, since that was the typical tipping percentage at the time (80s, 90s, and early 2000s). I usually tipped that percentage on the whole bill if the service was good.
Then I read somewhere that it really made no sense to tip on the sales tax. And also the expected tipping percentage had gone up. Around the same time, we started going to some of the fancy restaurants at Walt Disney World (WDW). They had some programs where you could get discounts on meals. The catch was that they automatically included a mandatory tip on the pre-discounted total (which was fine with me because I always tipped anyway). The way they did this was an 18% tip on the pre-tax amount. This is actually a bit more generous than 15% on the amount after taxes in most areas.
So I figured if this is good enough for the servers at WDW, it’s good enough anywhere else in the U.S. So that’s what I do: I tip 18% on the pre-tax amount. If I happen to get a restaurant discount (like a coupon), I tip 18% on the pre-tax and pre-discounted amount.
If the restaurant happened to add additional fees, I wouldn’t tip on those either.
Regarding the second question, I also include the cost of any alcoholic beverages in the total that I tip on.
and as you know, eat in meals taxed, take out not 
The place where I stop for a pizza they have a sense of humor. Written on their tip jar they have “We knead the dough” so I chuckle and put extra in the jar. A woman I know who bartends lots of events has on her tip jar, “Just put the tip in, it’ll feel good” and she makes out like a bandit.
I tip on the entire bill. Not a specific percentage though. Typically around 15-20%, and usually rounded up to so I can just fill in the total on a credit card receipt or so I don’t have to wait for the change when I pay cash. That’s for meals at a sit-down restaurant. Take out and delivery will be whatever I feel like.
Why wouldn’t someone tip on the alcohol? I’ve never heard of this.
Anyway, tip on the whole amount, usually rounded up a bit.
Highly overpriced relative to the meal in most cases. An expensive bottle of wine can cost the same as the rest of the meal, hardly justifies the doubling the amount of the tip. $1 a drink for service at a bar was the custom for a long time, might seem low now at places where every drink costs $10 or more. Trouble with tipping is it should be based on quality of service, not the price of the food, or even the cost of the service to the restaurant, but we’re stuck in this system for time being.
This is unrealistic – either you’re going to tip multiple times the bill at Applebees or you’re going to leave tiny tips at really nice places.
In Pennsylvania wine has a crazy markup. Why would I tip $6 for a $30 bottle of wine, but tip $60 for a $300 bottle of wine when the server’s effort is the same for each?
Then again we were at a brewery Friday night. Our tab was $50 for the beer we drank. I paid our tab with a card and then left a twenty for our tip. After, my gf said I tipped high, but then I explained some details. The bartender knew my number (for the mug club) so I didn’t have to show my card. The bartender poured me a 6 ounce taste of a beer that won’t be tapped for a few days. The bartender also never let my empty glass sit more than a minute. The bartender also synched the two tvs (watching Premier League) when I complained to her about them being off by a few seconds.
Interesting concept I never thought about the tax, why should I pay a tip towards tax?
It’s unrealistic to change the system in any way.
Because it’s such a small amount compared to the total that you’re fretting over pennies, and you’re likely to round the total up or down such that it makes the point moot. On a $50 bill that adds 7% sales tax ($53.50), the difference if you generally tip 20% is $0.70. Who bothers with that level of nitpickery? It’s like arguing over tipping 18% versus 19%.
I do find the notion of not tipping on alcohol strange, but I do also understand the reasoning behind it. The thing is, if you do subtract it out, and you don’t write a note to that effect on your receipt, then all the staff knows is that you’re a crappy tipper, or they think they did something wrong.
I wonder if waitstaff people are generally aware of the “rule” about tipping on alcohol. I’d generally buck up and tip on the whole thing even if I had a $200 bottle of wine. But I can see cutting back on that a bit. I hate to have the server feel insulted.