"Why should we tip more on the pasta with truffles than on the one without? Call it a wealth tax. There’s also a celebrity tax. One waiter, whose diners have included Selena Gomez, Jon Hamm, and Matthew Macfadyen ('He ordered two entrées successively,' he recalled. 'I was impressed'), said that those who are rich and identifiable typically leave thirty to fifty per cent. 'Robert Plant tipped me twenty per cent, which I respected,' he said. 'There’s this paranoia of being despised by the waiter, and they overtip to compensate. I always thought that was pathetic.'"
From "Has Gratuity Culture Reached a Tipping Point? Paying extra for service has inspired rebellions, swivelling iPads, and irritation from Trotsky. Post-pandemic, the practice has entered a new stage" (The New Yorker). Lots more about tipping in that article. My excerpt isn't a summary, just something random that interested me.
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55 comments:
they flip the screen and the 25% is already highlighted.
That's extortion.
I draw the line at tipping in a fast food place.
I always considered myself a good tipper at 20% rounded up to the next dollar, but when the iPad gets rolled around and it goes up to 33%? I just tip the minimum.
I tip my WalMart delivery driver extra because I'm so grateful I no longer have to wander the store and stand at the check-out. Post-pandemic has brought this amazing service.
However, I doubt the New Yorker addresses this kind of tipping.
Real people and their real problems are calling on the white phone.
Rush Limbaugh was apparently such a generous tipper (more than 100%) at NY’s most expensive restaurants that the waiters who otherwise loathed him for his politics used to fight over who got to serve him. Always thought that that was the most fitting metaphor of the political divide.
The idea (similar to taxing tips by assuming it averages to 8% of the food bill) is that sometimes you order the more expensive dish, sometimes you order the cheaper dish, and it all comes out even in the end.
For years people have complained about the expansion of demands for tips, with all sorts of businesses putting out a tip cup where it used to be limited to people who, through their own personal efforts, could make your experience better or worse. What was once a way for the patron to reward effort is now just a money grab.
the new thing is turning the machine to you, and DEMANDING that you tip.. BEFORE the service.
I went to a micro brewery in Decorah, to buy some beer for a Xmas present..
The counter girl EXPECTED a tip, for taking a carton of beer out of the cooler (right behind her), placing it on the counter, and scanning the carton.
I was GOING to type that she "ran my bill", but she DIDN'T!
After she scanned the carton, I inserted my card into the machine.. THEN she turned the thing around and asked me to "approve the sale" the scanned price was on the readout (she NEVER checked), and it asked me to enter a tip (the starting box was 20%).
Fortunately for the brewery (because otherwise i'd have cancelled the sale), there was a place for ZERO
If a waitress has to put up with me for an hour (or a fishing guide for 5), i tip for pleasantness. But a cashier? WHAT am i tipping for?
As to the ACTUAL POINT of this post.. The Reason to make us think that the tip should be a percentage of the total price is because the owner LIKES that: it encourages the waiter to push the more expensive things.
Now, WHY does the customer OBEY? because customers are cattle
The scale of tipping has steadily been creeping up. I remember when tipping 15% was for excellent service, now I see restaurant receipts reccomending 18.5% as the lowest acceptable tip. I get the waiter's feeling the celebrity heavy-tippers being pathetic. It comes off as fear of not being liked. No one like scaredy-cats. I remember stories of just after Bill Clinton left the White House and how he would tip 100% at some places he was visiting now as an former President. I also remember the Clintons leaving the white house with some of the silverware and the furniture, allegedly because they were so destitute.
When I was waiting we always respected twenty percent but yes, the celebs avoided any opportunity to earn a reputation as a cheapskate. Prolly the way it should be…
I’m a fan of ROW attitude towards gratuities. We have so many rules they feel like the fish fork trap…
or - they flip the screen and the choices begin at 20% and go up from there.
20%, 25%, 30% +
LOL.
and all they did was hand you something.
Dude, you poured me a coffee. Turn that iPad back around!
I am finding the restaurants I used to like and frequent, are crappy now.
Service and food are lackluster at best. prices are higher than ever...
Laughable when NBC-Biden a-holes tell us prices are coming down.
I eat at local restaurants less and less.
My rule is simple re tips for services that previously weren’t tipped (on iPads): If someone behind the scenes can’t spit in my food, no tip.
"the new thing is turning the machine to you, and DEMANDING that you tip.. BEFORE the service."
exactly.
tip first... the pressure is on.
Don't want us to spit on your food? tip first.
The trajectory of clust-F*** follows the democratic party rule.
As democrats take over our nation with their one-party fascist rule - everything else deteriorates along a parallel line.
rebel.
Stop going out. stop putting up with the communists.
F biden and the corruptocratixs
There is a few full serve gas stations in our area. Price is the same per gallon at self serve stations. When I'm lazy I go full serve and tip the guy. And it's always a guy it seems.
There once was a celebrity who knew he had to tip generously or people would really get the wrong idea.
Jack Benny
I like Robert Plant.
Wrt. Screens: who writes the software? Who selects the configuration?
I had my car wrapped in a paint protection film. They had an iPad (like?) device to pay, and it had a ‘tip’ section. On a several thousand dollar purchase. The guy who did the work said just ‘ignore that screen, it’s just the way the software works’.
I’d like to pay cash for the tip, but I don’t think my wallet has seen any dollar bills in months (in fact, how does one get cash? I don’t have an atm card, which I assume are still a thing).
It annoys me, though, that wait staff are ‘exempt’ from minimum wage (which, in and of itself, is a stupid idea - if you set a minimum wage, don’t be surprised that is what people pay - government has put a price on labor: whatcha gonna do, go against the government?!)
In the old days of cash money, people would tip 1 cent. "No, I didn't forget to tip you. Your service sucked." Really angry customers would put the penny in a cup of water and then flip the full cup upside down with a menu (trapped penny in water -- it will make a mess no matter what).
The current tip era started during COVID19 as no one wanted to serve anyone, and the restaurants had to bribe employees to come to work. The first lockdown-era restaurant openings had waiters/waitresses wearing full face shields. Then Bidenomics started paying people to not work, paying off student loans, banning evictions, and places like California raised minimum wage to $15 and now $20. And many people lost all social skills with their noses buried in smart phones 24/7. Who's going to take a restaurant job now? Hmm???? Revolutionaries always demand utopia until they get it and it sucks.
Just enter $0 on those counter machines, or $0.01 if you are old school and want to announce your anger.
Oh, the article did answer something for me: the actual cooks (I generally don’t frequent restaurants with ‘chefs’). They are not subjected to the ludicrous ‘server minimum wage’.
Pay your bill with cash. There is no iPad suggested tipping nonsense then. Also, servers prefer cash tips. It's a win-win.
NEEDLESS to say.. EVERY waitress KNOWS that SHE deserves a BIG TIP..
Why is that?
watch a blog like whatever.com
They'll ask a panel of 20 year old girls, to "rate Themselves on their looks"
And the girls will say: "I'm a TEN!", when asked How they rate a ten (on their looks), they'll say:
"Because i like myself, and ALL woman are Tens!!"
In today's Brave New World..
ALL girls (including the 300lb ones) are TENS..
ALL "waiters" DESERVE a BIG TIP, for standing at a counter and turning an ipad
REBEL!!
I tip 20% generally but occasionally 25%. At Waffle House and other downscale restaurants I tip 50 to 100 percent. The amount makes no difference in my life but might be of help to a server or cook.
Usually "servers" in the restaurant business share tips with kitchen staff. The more expensive meals are likely more labor intensive, therefor everybody shares in your financial admiration.
“I draw the line at tipping in a fast food place”
Went to a new (for us) Chinese restaurant the day after Christmas, because our usual one was closed that day. Forced to order online, and spent a half hour getting the bill paid (they like and expect Apple Pay). And a tip was automatically added in. Default was 20%.Plus a $1 curtesy fee for taking credit cards. For what? I drove up, gave them my name, and they handed me the bag of food. The other Chinese place would cost us $50 for the two of us. This one cost us $75, including tip and convenience fee.
It’s just an iPad folks. It’s no different than leaving a tip on the credit card slip. You don’t have to give it a tip, if you don’t want to. Here’s a tip: push zero or no thanks and leave your tip in cash. You can, gasp, even wait until you have received the service to leave a cash tip.
On the truffle conundrum, I have a friend who tips on food but not on drinks. You can even adopt a personal policy of leaving a flat amount for service without regard to what you ordered.
As to the old saw that tipping is communism, no less an authority on communism than Trotskydid not agree:
“Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky refused to tip and had soup spilled on him by vengeful waiters in the Bronx (where he lived briefly). He believed that tipping allowed capitalists, a.k.a. restaurant owners, to get off the hook. If the waiters were being paid a decent wage, he said, tipping would die on the vine.”
Tipping was once for service. A great server or bartender, or doorman, or other provider of a service, would make your day, make a meal, an evening, or watch over you.
Today tipping you are requested to tip someone just for showing up. Today's yoots have ridiculous and unreal expectations from the world around them.
No- we don't believe gender is on an infinite scale.
No- you cannot make all of society equal as long as we are individual biological beings. Deal with it.
No- you are owed nothing.
No- you don't get tipped just for showing up. Do something.
And...get off of my lawn.
"Rush Limbaugh was apparently such a generous tipper (more than 100%) at NY’s most expensive restaurants that the waiters who otherwise loathed him for his politics used to fight over who got to serve him. Always thought that that was the most fitting metaphor of the political divide."
Which reminds me of the year a waitress brought out a birthday cake for me at the end of a meal that said "Happy Birthday Rush!" My wife and I puzzled over this for a minute before realizing that the waitress was late in putting in the order, and so had written "Rush!" on the ticket.
My standard is 20% except at the holidays- then I go to 30%. It isn't complicated.
AFAIK, it is illegal to make servers share tips with kitchen personnel. They can "tip out" to bussers and bartenders (if there are drinks on the tab and only on that amount), but never the kitchen. I recently saw a class action lawsuit regarding this.
Servers in mom and pop restaurants might once in a while throw some cash to the cooks, but rarely.
A waitress I worked with a long time ago texted me and asked me if I remembered her. I replied, "Remember you? Your food is still dying in the window"
MarcusB. THEOLDMAN
I was such a fantastic full service gas station pump jockey, I got tips. The biggest tip was from an elderly illegal Mexican gentleman after I cleaned his battery terminals and connectors and his car started.
I generally tip 15% for nominal service. It goes up or down from there depending on the attitude enthusiasm and performance of the server.
Before they raised the fuel tax, I used to refuel at the full service pumps in New Jersey. I tipped based on the service and the weather the poor chap had to endure (never had a woman refuel.)
I understand that, if you use one of the home delivery services, like DoorDash, you are expected to tip before the action is complete. Indeed, the service provider sees the tip prior to delivery. That sounds a lot like extortion.
I am cutting back on all tipping. It is getting out of hand, especially in like cities like San Francisco with city add-on taxes.
The screens start at 20% and go up from there.
And since I rarely eat at sit-down places, there is little value-add other than cooking the meal, which is the baseline of why I'm there.
It was so nice living in Japan and not having to worry about tipping...ever.
P.S. My son was at an obscure Mexican restaurant a few weeks ago and saw Jon Hamm in a nearby booth : )
I've made my life easier by 1) making a firm decision to NOT tip in any ordinary commerce, period, and 2) carrying cash so that I can tip directly in those situations where I normally DO tip.
Just last night I was at a concert and the bartenders offered the swivel screen---where the lowest tip option was 18%!! Rather than take that bait, I noticed that there was also a glass with cash tips in it. I tipped a dollar for each (ridiculously overpriced) drink we got. Ironically, I got thanked for putting money in the tip glass, but the people who hit a tip button on the payment screen didn't get a personal thanks.
Servers like cash!
Oh, one more thing.
When I do tip, I always try to leave cash.
If the tipee is around, I will tell them, "Don't report this to your boss or the government."
When a waitress is running her ass off in a diner, serving you efficiently and pleasantly, I think you should tip accordingly---as though the final bill for your bacon, eggs, toast, and coffee was the much higher price you would have paid in a standard restaurant.
Blogger Michael said..." At Waffle House and other downscale restaurants I tip 50 to 100 percent. The amount makes no difference in my life but might be of help to a server or cook."
I often tip big, and this is the reason.
"It was so nice living in Japan and not having to worry about tipping...ever."
In Kyoto, I had a waiter chase me down the block to return a coin (probably worth a buck or two, I don't remember) that I had, apparently, left behind inadvertently.
That's absolutely right about the tip jar. My rule of thumb is I always make sure the server sees me stuff the cash in the receptacle. Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
All this really is, is the process of business incorporating new technology in a way that improves their own profit margins. The restaurant pays a pittance to staff, and automates the gifting process, structuring tips to become invisible and automatic if you're not paying attention. They've shifted the wage burden over to the consumer, or they're trying to - using a guilt reflex to effect it. Then the inevitable inflationary creep enters the picture. Why not tip 30% for the nice cashier that took your counter order and then handed you a bag, instead of the typical 10% or 15%?
Well - I'll tell you 'why not'. Because they didn't do anything to earn it! Doing nothing and setting the default to 20% or 30% doesn't equal 'getting the reward'. You're not getting it from me, because I'm paying attention, instead of bestowing gifts to ingrates.
I'll gladly tip 20% for competent, attentive service in a restaurant, more if there an effort made to engage and show interest. It's tough waiting table and being good at it. I haven't encountered anybody even trying to be good at it for about 3 years now.
I learned long ago that a fat cash tip with the first round of drinks in a bar is an investment in my subsequent drinks. I don't go to bars anymore though...
I tip in cash. I even write "cash" on the bill.
Marcus Bressler said...
AFAIK, it is illegal to make servers share tips with kitchen personnel.
back in 1983, i was a professional dishwasher at the (at the time) fanciest restaurant in Ames.
I got full minimum wage ($3.35/hr.. Then went up to $3.50/hr).. NO sharing of tips.
My roommate was a (very good) waiter at the same restaurant; he got $2.85/hr (i think it was) + tips.
He'd USUALLY clear a hundred bucks in tips on Saturday nights.
i hated Saturdays.. WAY Too busy
ps.. bussers got a portion of tips.. Cooks got paid well.. I got permanently puckered hands
Usually "servers" in the restaurant business share tips with kitchen staff.
Actually, if you read the article, it points out that this is illegal (at least in most states) and probably has something to do with the disparate minimum wages of servers/non-servers and the risk of management siphoning off of pooled tips. The types and qualities of the restaurants that got caught at this (e.g. Nobu's paid a fine of over $1 million) is interesting - wouldn't you think the Nobu's owners make enough without stealing tips from the waitstaff?
'I learned long ago that a fat cash tip with the first round of drinks in a bar is an investment in my subsequent drinks. I don't go to bars anymore though...'
This is the way.
I do this at weddings with open bars.
Give the bartender $20 with your first drink order and you get their attention the rest of the party : )
I always used to tip 1/6 of the nominal price. My husband, a 15% man, never understood how I calculated that. But apparently, by current standards, we're both skinflints.
I resent being asked to tip for picking up food at the counter. And then discovering the order is incomplete.
I have two daughters that waited tables in high school. I remember the nights they came home crying because there were no tips. Any one else heard of low tippers referred to as "Canadians?". Well, my daughters waited at Waffle House and Ruby Tuesdays, in an area with a lot of "Canadians."
Whenever there is a tipping opportunity, especially for restaurant servers, I always over tip. 20% is just a start. I can't bear the thought of anyone being so hurt as my kids.
It has bled into other areas, too. I am a sucker for the "tip flip." It doesn't bother me. I tipped the loader at Lowes $10 the other day, because he loaded my van with cinder blocks, twice, by hand. He deserved it.
I vote Democrat.
I support Abortion rights and open borders.
I support Not Tipping.
The three seem to go together.
Of course in reality, I usually am a big tipper. Unless I'm with my wife, who thinks its a wasteful American habit.
I'm at loss with the new tech whereby you order from a screen. It tries to force you to tip, but how much is getting to the people who take your order? Usually, I just tip in cash. But if I don't have the right amount on hand, I go with the screen tip. Am I getting ripped off? It makes me uneasy.
Probably the only time I dont tip a waitress is if they are deliberately rude or give us terrible service. Once, we had a college girl wait on us right near graduation time. She was extremely...lets say lax.. in doing her job. It was obvious she was graduating, didn't need to pay for her education anymore, and was just running out the string.
No tip.
OTOH, if some poor girl is overloaded with work, and we have to wait a while, I understand. Dealing with the general public is a nightmare I don't wish on anyone. Its amazing how many assholes customers think they own the waiters/waitresses because they are paying the bill. Same with coffee shops where people make these absurd demands "I'd like my coffee exactly 104.2 degrees and with 1.5 inches of foam, and tripple the amount of..." and then "ask to speak to the manager" if one little thing is wrong.
They deserve all the money they get.
My tipping is up with rising prices. But, man oh man has the quality of service gone down.
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