Yeah, what PiMan said. I'm assuming average suburban restaurant (i.e. my experience (although the place I work is a bit better than average)), not those fancy pants city types.
Tipping is stupid
- Thread starter Tekee
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Yeah, what PiMan said. I'm assuming average suburban restaurant (i.e. my experience (although the place I work is a bit better than average)), not those fancy pants city types.
Bamspeedy
CheeseBob
As a general guideline, think of how personalized the service is, and whether the server is coming to you, or you are coming to them.
Bus driver-He stops at pre-determined spots (bus stops) so he is going to where he picked you up and dropping you off whether you are there or not. No tip.
Taxi driver-More individual service, as it is usually just you and your party that he is transporting and taking you to a specific spot (such as just outside the front door of the place you are going, rather than the nearest bus stop which is several blocks away). Tip.
Barman-Since there is no 'line' at a bar (like there is a line in a supermarket or fast-food place), they won't always know who was the 'first' one that came to the bar needing a drink. Conversation (if it isn't too busy) and also making your drink (if you don't simply order a can/bottle of beer) are other reasons for a tip, since the service is more personalized. Tip.
Grocery store-Clerk doesn't typically go anywhere or do anything special, and food isn't prepared for you, so no tip.
Fast-food-You have to go to the counter, wait for the food, and take the food back to your table (and sometimes after pouring your own drink from the machine), so no tip.
Paperboy/mailman-They both do bring things right to your door/mailbox, and there are people out there that do give the mailman a christmas present (typically old grandmas are the ones to do this, as they are the ones who would feel more personally close to the mailman-"He's one of the only people that check up on me"). I guess the only difference is that the paperboy makes less money, so people think more about giving him a gift.
I'm sure some have tried, but the problem with waiters/resses is that those jobs are easier to fill when the economy is down. Before the recession took hold, some restaurants here regularly closed an hour or two early because they simply didn't have enough staff. Now, however, they're staying open until their stated closing time.So Valka the answer is for waiters to get themselves a union?
The thing about bus drivers and postal workers is that our taxes already pay their salaries, and they have a union that does its best to hold the public hostage to get the union members more $$$$$ and more benefits, or else they strike. No. Damn. Way. Am. I. Tipping. Them.
By "decent restaurant" he's not referring to family restaurants, but ones which have wine tasting etc. I object to the terminology that restaurants or diners catered to the middle class aren't decent, but that's what he's referring to.
Mise
isle of lucy
Waiter takes your order, gives it to cooking staff, brings back food for you. How is that any different to McDonalds?
EDIT: coupla xposts.
EDIT: coupla xposts.
Moggy
Warlord
Ok so it’s the personal service thing (although I agree with Mise that McDonalds staff are very similar, its just you carry the food the final couple of feet). Tipping is so ingrained in American culture that it is hard for Americans to see why other nations don’t tip. Of course the reverse is true and its hard for us to see why you do (for anything other than good service).
When I was in America once I went to an "English pub". The owners were English and they had tried to make it like pubs at home. Football scarves on the walls, chip butties available etc. But they still had a waitress who you had to order drinks from and who would bring them over to you. Which is weird! If you want a drink in a pub or club over here you have to go to the bar yourself.
Of course that’s nothing to do with tipping just a difference I noticed.
When I was in America once I went to an "English pub". The owners were English and they had tried to make it like pubs at home. Football scarves on the walls, chip butties available etc. But they still had a waitress who you had to order drinks from and who would bring them over to you. Which is weird! If you want a drink in a pub or club over here you have to go to the bar yourself.
Of course that’s nothing to do with tipping just a difference I noticed.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
You know, I've learned a lot here today (and yesterday).
I wonder how many other people are out there, annoyed that they had to pay a mandatory gratuity, vowing to never return to such and such restaurant again. The dynamics behind this mandatory group payment are never explained - and unless you've worked in the service industry you just won't get it.
Tipping & regional tipping customs should be more openly discussed by management, and there should not be such an air of taboo around the subject, if it's going to be such an accepted part of customer service. There is a lot of misunderstanding about customer service, tipping, etc. and it would do restaurants a whole lot of good to be a bit more open and transparent about it all. I suppose restaurants wouldn't want to notify their clients that they pay their servers $4 an hour, but as a customer, I don't really care - they should just bite the bullet and be honest.
This would solve a lot of problems - including the "oh those tourists from _____, their tips always suck!"
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
What if they got more than just 1 waiter to deal with a large group? Wouldn't that solve all the problems associated with such a thing?
Irish Caesar
Yellow Jacket
Have you ever asked the server to explain the tipping process?
They probably assume everyone from the country knows what to do for a tip... and whenever someone suggests a tip, it's likely they'll be given less; we don't like people to feel entitled to anything here (which should be obvious to most of y'all who find our government archaic and uncaring).
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
Just once, and I found it a bit awkward.
Irish Caesar said:
Which is not a good assumption - as you'll get people from other regions where other tip amounts are standard, and people from other countries - where entirely different philosophies regarding tipping exist.
Irish Caesar said:
This isn't true - from what I gather most waiters/waitresses in the U.S. appear to feel entitled to 15%. This is what the majority of American posters seem to be saying.
Speaking from the back of house perspective, cooking for a 15 top would generally require the use of every salamander available and other cooks dropping everything to help with the order, thus impacting the service to other patrons. When you're cooking for 7 groups of 2 tops you can serially complete each one with only paying attention to fire times for the items on each ticket rather than balancing the fire times, space, and ingredients for them.
Most restaurants take shortcuts starting in the morning with prepping what is needed for the rest of the day but that still doesn't eliminate the issues of a huge top.
Irish Caesar
Yellow Jacket
Ah, okay. Fair enough.
I would guess the vast majority of patrons will be tipping in the "acceptable" range, and those that don't are probably more likely to be people who know to but are just rude.
Unless the restaurant is in a touristy place, I doubt the amount of people who don't know how to tip properly makes up a very big segment of the customer base.
Tipping less than 15% is flat-out rude (assuming you know to do it) if the service was acceptable; I don't go out with people who won't tip that as it embarrasses me. The server shouldn't feel like it's coming, though. The only thing people are entitled to is their God-given rights, and if the Good Lord commanded a 15% tip somewhere, I must have missed that.
We don't tip the mailman, but we will let him have some fruit or a ice cool drink on hot days, it is no fun delivering mail in 100 F* weather
I tip well especially my regular haunts and my postman is the dude so he's included in my buildings Christmas bonus. I always bring my doorman food after having people at my pad for dinner or parties.
A new trend in restauraunts here is byob but with higher end food. I've been keeping my usual tip at 20% but only on the food. The restautants are adding small corkage fee to the bill. Seem fair tip on my behalf?
A new trend in restauraunts here is byob but with higher end food. I've been keeping my usual tip at 20% but only on the food. The restautants are adding small corkage fee to the bill. Seem fair tip on my behalf?
I've been trying to rationalize why a restaurant would even allow BYOB except for inventory constraints for wine selection.
Liquor licenses can be a pain to get in a lot of areas of Chicago bordering on "pay to play".
Word of caution to anyone who travels to Miami. Because so many foreigners go there many places charge 18-20% service so you should ask before tipping there.
So BYOB in Chicago is a way of circumventing liquor laws. Does this mean that most BYOB places are BYOB only?
Most likely. Philadelphia is much like this.
The only reason to do BYOB is if you don't have a liquor license.
If you do have a liquor license and have a BYOB night, you're losing out on a ton of profit, since the profit margin on drinks is far, far better than on food.
Definitely, which is why the entire concept of BYOB is a mystery to me except when explained.
If you're a BYOB you just serve food and no liquor. People can bring wine or beer and they'll serve it.
They seem to be most prevalent in big cities like Philly, NYC and Chicago right now. Could be economics but I think a lot of people prefer to drink their favorite wines.
So trend may be a combination of things from economics to the notoriously difficult process of getting a liquor license to some chefs, who've worked under great chefs at the bigger places, simply cant afford the dram shop insurance when they open a small place of their own. There are even some places that will have liquor licenses that still allow you to byob to drive more revenue during the week.
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