I usually go between 15-20% when I tip…
This thread makes me think of “Reservoir Dogs” and the conversation Mr. White initiated at the restaurant.
“Remember that??? that was Awesome!!!”
-Chris Farley
johnjheifner
“Next time ask yourself, is this 2 or 3 bucks really worth my jewing the waiter over?”
Did you really type “jewing the waiter over”? Dumbass.
Ya doogie, I cringed when I saw that too.
Having worked pretty much every service job out there, I think this topic could easily be expanded from shitty restaurant patrons to shitty people in general. It’s all the same root issue - asinine, selfish, “Me Me Me” fucktards.
When at a clothing shop:
If you are searching through racks of clothes and pulling items out to look at them better - put them back, with their hangers roughly aligned with the those on the rest of the rack.
If you are rifling through the racks/tables and an item falls on the floor - pick it up, fold or hang it, and put it back where it belongs.
If you do not easily see where the item belongs, take it to the service counter so it can be put away properly. Or, at the very least, make it presentable in it’s current location.
When trying clothes on - put them back on the hangers, and return unwanted items to the rack outside the stalls or to the clerk.
When staying at a hotel:
Do not rumple both beds if you are only going to sleep in one.
Place wet/dirty towels inside the tub, not strewn all over the room.
If it is a “No Smoking” room - don’t fucking smoke!
When at a Fast Food/Take Out restaurant:
If you’re ordering for your office/family reunion/Mighty Mite hockey team - call ahead. Don’t fuck everyone else in line that just wants one meal by making them wait for your 10+ person order.
When at a supermarket/discount retailer:
If you have 15+ items - STAY THE FUCK OUT OF THE “10 ITEM OR LESS” LANE. I don’t care if they’re “small items” or not.
If there’s 2 cashiers open and 25 people in line, let the person behind you with only a few items go first. Let the little old lady with the “5 for a dollar” cat food go next. Then, you go.
Don’t send someone for a price check if the difference is less than a few dollars and there’s more than one person behind you.
And there’s soooo many more…
I have a grocery store gripe. Don’t fucking write checks when you have a debit card. It’s not hard to keep track of - actually easier than checks. And it’s always women, generally older women. In most grocery stores, this is without a doubt the absolute slowest means of payment. This century is calling, please come over and stay awhile.
That’s the beauty of a two bed room in a hotel. You don’t have to sleep on the wet spot. Sorry about that. I usually do leave a tip for the maid though.
The thing about kids and restaurants is a dicey one. If you are a good parent and respect the other people around you most of the time taking a kid, even a baby, with you is no big deal.
Babies are easy to keep quiet and if you can’t do that definitely leave until they are quiet. I’ve had a few of my meals made less than enjoyable by people who seemed to think their right to be there with a screaming baby or kids that run around the restaurant exceeeded everyone else’s right to enjoy a meal out in peace. They were dead wrong.
In a clothes shop I always TRY and refold the thing I’ve picked up but I think I missed out on the gene for the ability to refold clothes the way they do in shops!
Pet peev has to be people who get to the checkout and then remeber that they have forgotten something and go running off into the store to grab it/them, whlst you have to stand there smiling politely to the checkout girl.
Jared NFS,
I still use checks when I go through the grocery store! I would use my ATM card, but I actually get charged EXTRA for using it. Sure it might only be a $1.00 or $1.50, but that adds up after awhile! Why pay the extra when I can use a check for free?
antilib –
I jsut saw your comment about the Amway thing. I couldnt believe it either.
the worst part about the whole experience, worse than the feeling of being duped. Worse than the feeling of looking like a total tool trying to hook up with this woman while she totes her husband along. the absolute worst part of the experience was how they presented the sales pitch.
The boss woman would ask rhetorical questions like ‘how much money do you want to make?’ and the husband would answer for me. or when she would make punchline comments, he would answer with a cheese shit line.
for instance, bosswoman: My father would come home and put $100,000 checks in the bank.
husband(in an elated voice that was on the verge of laughter): I sure want a couple of those. How bout you?
If anyone ever saw the episode of south park where they went skiing and got rooked into the timeshare thing, this was EXACTLY like that.
Apparently there is some major cultural issues going on here.
It seems the situation in Denmark is much like it is in NZ and Germany as have both been mentioned. It is fairly common to round up to the nearest ten (10 DKK amounts to around 1.5 USD). I always do this at restaurants.
I have a real hard time with people expecting to get a tip. If the service was bad they get nothing (I will wait for them to fetch a nickle if they don’t have one on them) If it is good I might tip 10 - 15%, but please remember that this is both alot, and fairly uncommon, in Denmark. Minimum wage here is around eleven or twelve dollars I guess.
The point? If tourists from Europe don’t tip you, don’t hold a grudge, tipping isn’t normal here, and most likely they think you are rude as hell to expect a tip.
In my opinion a tip should be earned, if your job is not satisfactory don’t expect to get a reward that is not required.
Also, don’t bitch about the kind of food people order, it’s their money, if they want it well done, ruining the meat, who the hell are you to disagree with that? They pay the restaurant to give them the meal they like, and they tip you to serve it to them, the least you could do was not care about it.
Breastfeeding in public? What the hell is the problem? I REALLY can’t see that at all. Again I think cultural differences are at play. In Denmark probably 40% of young women on the beach tan topless. It is my understanding that it is not so in the US at all.
The one thing I can certainly relate to is people who assume you are stupid because of your education. I work at Burger King while I attend the university, and most of the staff is there in a similar situation. Yet people will treat you like you’re a fucking retard.
/Jacob
TonyG
Is cash really such an unthinkable option? I like to pay cash for stuff whenever possible. (Which is basically always)
/Jacob
Rep9210,
I almost wanted to be another 0 in your name for 90210…haha. Get it? Beverly Hills 90210?? Oh, shut up…;O)
To answer your question, no… cash is not that unthinkable of an option, but I just dont like carrying cash around. My grocery bill is not the same every single week anyways. Besides, its not like I am using my check book for a carton of milk and a few other items. My cart is FULL. I can understand someone getting irate over someone using check book for something that comes to like $10, but that is not that case for me.
TonyG, as long as you aren’t one of them slow pokes who doesn’t start writing out the check until the cashier is fully done with your order and you bagged it all…
Those are the really annoying ones. I have to ask them why is it so hard to start writing out the check while the cashier does her thing?
I like karma’s list. Most times at grocery stores now I’m doing the less than 15 thing and it truly bugs me when people walk into that line with 30 things or more. You just want to slap them
If you’re in a restaurant late at night and theres one waitress, give her a good tip. She’s gotta be there late at night and has to run around for somestimes up to 8 tables at once if a surge of people come in at once.
Also, when you call the pizza place to order your pizza, subs, wings and whatnot don’t ask for a total. You have the menu in front of your face, calculate it yourself. I’ve had people call to order and there have been occasions where I have to get 3 totals for one order ( 1. get the total, 2. tell them the total, 3. they say its too high, something must be wrong, 4. you read them their order, 5. they say “ohhhh, I didn’t want that one thing, can I have the total now?”, 6. you calculate total again, 7. get back on the phone and they decide that since they only have a 50, they’re gonna get an extra sub, and ask for the total). My boss told me to tell these people off when they ask me to calc totals like 2-3 times but I think I’d end up going insane and end up smashing the receiver on the wall or something.
Neil: If restaurants had to pay a “decent” wage, most restaurants would go under. As it is 1 in 10 go under, and most of those do not even give benefits let alone a decent wage.You say that your would be willing to pay higher pricees, but I really doubt you want to pay 40 bucks a plate for somthing that you get for 20 now.
Oregon recently raised it’s minimum wage, and it is killing smaller restaurants. If you did not like you meal or the service, let somone know, do not simply withhold the tip. In many cases, you will have your drink, meal, or dessert comped for your dissatisfaction.
I concur with ko.
It’s that way in a lot of business’s to be honest. You can’t just change something that drastically in a short time span, would require a more gradual change.
Tough part about that is as you gradually increase base pay, would tips gradually drop? I think not…
This of course isn’t nearly the same discussion as health insurance and other bennies, but it’s a similar beast of burden for owners. I myself am a small business owner and with the current rules I will not take on any employees. Just the potential liability incurred is nasty enough not to even mention the reprecussions of changes to benefit laws and worker’s comp. I may be able to afford paying someone $15/hour, but I sure as hell can’t afford to pay $15 + bennies/extra’s… And with a small business one bad employee can literally sink you.
Rambling again…dangit
Back to topic, I would be willing to entertain plans on how to change tip based workers from tips to wages, although I still have serious doubts if the worker’s themselves would be for it since it very likely would mean lower pay potential.
So self-righteous. I’m disappointed Rumbach, your post reads like an addendum to ‘Nickel and Dimed,’ a popular book about the service industry. The author can’t seem to understand that the jobs of turning mattresses and waiting tables do not exist solely for her personal satisfaction.
My opinion is identical to Burt128’s. Exception to Waffle House and similar places with inexpensive fare.
DI
I have to take exception to the idea that you can’t run a restaurant at a profit with all the money coming from the prices on the menu. It’s done all over the world, the wages are decent, and the prices aren’t all that terribly high.
I’ve eaten in restaurants in Germany where the prices aren’t that much more than they would be here and the only thing close to a tip is to round up the price to the closest Euro to avoid getting coins for change. My daughter worked in a cafe there for about 8 months and made pretty decent money. Her wages were a percentage of the food and drinks she sold, rather than a fixed hourly wage. Obviously on busy days she made a lot more money, but on slow days the overhead for the owner was lower.
I ate in some pretty nice places in Perth when I was there. We tried to leave a tip after A)being allowed in a 5 star place in denim pants B)being seated near the piano player and C) having a really fine meal with wine for well under $40 (Aussie, about 85% of US at the time)
It’s not impossible to do it otherwise, it’s just different than the way we do it here.
Some random thoughts:
Ko’s right about the margins restaurant run under, I think the failure/ turnover rate here in Wellington is higher than 1 in 10.
Thing with those setting up restaurants, especially in an area where there is lots of competition is clearly defining your target market and the area of differention between your restaurant and others.
Such a set up should obviously include running costs such as wages etc and as such I oft times wonder how many retaurant owners actually bother with a proper business plan before they set up.
Thing with Wellington, andf NZ in general is that a “service industry” per se has only really existed in the last 15 years so there is not really a service culture in existence, what that essentially means is that the jobs are done by any old person and as a consequence service suffers.
Sure there are people who are good service staff, but they inevitably go where the jobs are better.