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There’s a famous scene in Quentin Tarantino’s film Reservoir Dogs — and it’s so far out of compliance with Ricochet’s Code of Conduct that I’ll have to just point you
Or does he?
That’s easy for you to say. You have giraffe Ricochet pajamas. They’re cool. Look, if it’s no big deal, do you mind switching with me?
We were just out of college (early 70’s) and several of us would go out for a beer night during the week a couple of times a month. We went to a little place on the outskirts of town that was usually slow mid-week and had the advantage of $1.00 drafts. We made 2 piles of money on the table and each of us would place a ten dollar bill in each pile. We then explained the rules to the bartender.
The first night, he let us run out and we had to signal for another round. When he came with our next beers, pile B was gone. He had a quizzical look. We explained the rules again, he acknowledged, and his pile was put back out.
From that night on, we always had a good time, never had to explain the rules again, and got great service without fail. The bartender got a 100% tip on a pretty slow night. A true win–win. BTW, his pile often came to $80, a much higher value in 1972.
Casey’s “Third Rock” clip reminded me of our beer nights. I had forgotten all about them.
By the time I was thirty, I’d worked in just about every “service industry” job imaginable and the only time I ever expected tips from customers was when I was waitressing – – because that’s the only job in which I agreed up front to take a pay cut, with the understanding that I just might be able to make that money back and then some. The implicit bargain with customers, as I understood it, was:
-I make next to nothing per hour,
-so my employer can hire a LOT of us without having to hike prices,
-thus, by sitting down at my table and asking me to bring you things, you’re signaling your willingness to pay a little premium for that service – – the bare minimum for same and a bit extra, if you’re so inclined, should I really go above and beyond.
Which is why I don’t understand (yes, starting with the awful name) this “Dirt Candy” story. The servers are making $15 an hour – – which is what protestors are currently telling us is a “living wage” – – so if the owner tacks on a 20% “fee” on top of that then they’re not so much eliminating tipping as making it compulsory. And since the additional compensation to staff still comes from the customer, then the “they’re my employees, I should be the one to pay them” statement rings awfully hollow.
Unless, the customer can have that 20% fee waived in the case of egregiously awful service, with the employer making up the difference – which would at least make a little more sense to me.
Oh, and by the way, I don’t care what they make an hour, I do always tip the chambermaid – – because I’ve been the chambermaid – – and “chambermaid” is an awfully genteel descriptive for the kind of crime scenes I was subjected to, that horrible summer.
Yes; my husband and I dine out 5 nights a week because neither of us have the patience to cook but we’re very cognizant of fat and carbs. We frequent 5 restaurants on a regular basis, redesign the menu (no sauce, dressing, grilled not fried, etc.) and tip 25% for the effort.
Even our favorite Chinese take-out knows to steam the green beans.
I agree with the others who have pointed out the flaws in the dirty place’s method. It just made the tip compulsory and at a higher rate than the usual 15% floor. The second guy had a better idea in spreading the cost around (which is what we say will happen if the minimum wage goes up…)
There are just a handful of restaurants that I frequent with either my husband or a couple of friends. As a consequence, we are pretty well known and well treated when we dine out. When the service is exemplary, as it often is where we are known (especially since we have become friendly with the owners), I tip generously. Since we’re known, we mostly have a cycle of good service and generous tips and a nice outing.
One thing that bothers me is that percentage tipping gives an advantage to waitstaff at overpriced venues. The waitress at the falafel joint who brings and refills beverages, dresses the salads, and provides follow-up (and extra napkins) after delivering the meal is getting her tip based on a meal of $10 or $12. She will generally get a tip in the 30% range or higher, just because I can’t imagine leaving less than $3 for her effort and even feel guilty at that. Then there’s the upscale place with wine, etc, and the tab is $80 or $100. The server there will deliver beverages, refill water, dress the salad, and provide follow-up. Did the second server provide service 5 or 8 times more valuable than did the waitress at the first place? I really don’t think so. If the food and ambiance are worth more, they’re paid for with that tab of $80-100. It is very infrequent that I’ll tip more than 15% at those places. Twenty percent is only for very, VERY good service.
An aside: at a steak restaurant with a woman friend, we received what might be the worst service ever. Eventually the waiter vanished and we had to grab another and ask for management. They were quite apologetic and gave my friend (I was out of town) a VIP card for free desserts or something at subsequent visits. When I got the check (I was treating), there was a line saying “service not included,” presumably hinting for a tip. I wrote “No kidding!” and paid only the stated price. I must admit it gave me great pleasure to have the opening and get to step through it!
Impressively bold move! We both agree on the advantages of frequenting the same restaurants. :)
Rico chix rule. That is all.
My preference would be no tipping, but it’s the custom, so I tip in the 15-20% range. I also tip in the upper end of that range locally, where I’m known – As someone once told me, it’s better to be known as a generous tipper than as a skinflint. But I only tip at a sit-down establishment, where I’m being waited upon.
My parents are in their mid-seventies. They think a dollar per person should be about right for the waiter. When I take them out, I usually discretely chuck in some more bills to make up for the decades if I’m not paying for the meal outright. They aren’t quite depression era, but this is a pretty conservative area with loads of tight-fisted Hollanders. Fortunately, the cost of living is relatively low, so it works out.
I suggest you join a country club where the wait staff and the valet parkers are on salary and not tipped, but members certainly pay for this in annual dues.
Back in 1963, I worked for a time at “Hody’s” on the NW corner at Hollywood & Vine Streets, in Hollywood. I just tried to look it up and it doesn’t seem to be there anymore. However, I made nearly $75 a shift in tips, sometimes more. I was going to Santa Monica City College, and paying child care. That was an excellent income in those days. Does anybody remember that restaurant?
I often want to tip the cleaning people at hotels, but the problem for me is I have no idea what amount is appropriate to put down.
I feel somewhat validated that Troy took my Mr. Pink reference from the other thread and ran with it today.
I’d go above 20% for that level of service.
If it’s a budget motel (which is the sort of place in which I once worked and am most likely to stay), believe me, tips are so rare there that a couple/three bucks for one night will be a pleasant surprise for housekeeping.
When I had an extended stay out of town for work, once, in a mid-range hotel, I asked housekeeping to please only come once a week, and tipped them $5 a visit.
And as with all tipping situations, I’d tack on more depending on circumstance – – was I kind of high maintenance ? Did I get memorably exceptional service? Or, as was the case with my poor sister once – did my sick child wake during the night and cause the kind of carnage best handled by a Hazmat team and a professional exorcist? In that case, I would definitely up the ante.
That’s merely false consciousness giving you the illusion of choice against the oppression of the hegemony.
Socialist.
-E
I know the building that was Hody’s. It was beige & brown with a curved front corner when I last saw it. I don’t remember it as Hody’s though. That building has been gone for a few years now. The space is a parking lot for the Pantages I think.
I used to love going west a few blocks from there and eating at Musso & Frank’s when I worked up at 1750 Vine St.
That tip amount in ’63 is about $500-600 a day here. Excellent!
Something that is missing in this analysis is whether or not people should vary their tips when they eat out. Like most things in life, I suspect that most restaurant service is fairly consistent and so most people tip consistently. The point of tipping is not to critique every little thing about the wait staff or kitchen, but to reward (or punish) exceptional service, which by definition happens rarely.
Consider normal distribution. Almost 70% of the curve falls within a single standard deviation, and all but 0.3% falls within 3 standard deviations. Assuming that restaurant service fits a normal distribution curve and that people will tip the same within a standard deviation, then tipping won’t matter for a huge majority of diners and waiters. Indeed, I suspect most market interactions are like this. Nevertheless, it’s nice to have a way of responding to those rare times when it really was extremely good or terribly bad service.
-E
One of the things I did in ’63 was tip my bus boy, which wasn’t common in those days. Between the two of us my tables had superb service, dirty dishes were gone at once, water, coffee, and bread replenished immediately. Most of the other wait staff didn’t make nearly as much as I did. Most of our customers were tourists, but I tried to make their visit to Hody’s in Hollywood a treat. And yes, the building did have a curved side facing the corner.
My dear wife worked as a waitress and bartender in her teens and early 20’s and they always “tipped out” which meant taking care of the bus boys and bar backs too. That was in the late ’70’s/ early ’80’s so I don’t know what the practice is today.
I would go out of my way and pay more to go to a tipless restaurant. I do to tip occasionally on certain services where it is completely voluntary but otherwise it is nothing more than a lie that allows a place to advertise a lower price than they charge.
Tipping is giving from the heart, are closely akin to it. I think it helps create a more charitable society. I would not like a shift to salary. And I’m pretty sure that most people who live on tips make out better than a salary.
The way I tip is figure 20% and back off a tad and round off up if I’m paying cash and to an even dollar amount if it’s on the credit card. Just easy to do that in my head. I have found that the older I have become, the larger my tips.
I like the concept of tipping for someone who has gone above and beyond what is reasonably expected of them. Let’s say for instance that you go to pick up some bulky merchandise and instead of bringing a cargo van or a trailer, you show up in a mini-pickup with no tailgate. You didn’t bring any rope or straps and you wouldn’t know what to do with them anyway. So the guy at the store has to spend 10 minutes tying the load down for you, maybe lying on his back in the snow looking for something to tie onto. This is tip-worthy in my opinion, but drivers of inadequate vehicles unanimously disagree.
Tipping is the great hidden cost to dining. I hardly ever figure that the real cost of a $20 entree is really a 24 dollars. People often say restaurants should pay their servers better and eliminate tipping but it would obviously show up in the costs on the menu. It’s really a brilliant way of deferring costs and is a great psychological ploy restaurants use to make you think you’re not paying as much for your meal until the bill comes due.
Question: Do you tip on the pre-tax or after tax amount?
I always tip about 20%, regardless of the service. I’ve heard enough tip horror stories to know that I don’t ever want to be the object of one. Plus I figure that if the service is bad, maybe the person is just having a bad day: their mother died or their dog is in the hospital, etc.
I keep track of everything in Mint, and I just checked to see how much I spent on dining out over the past 12 months. It was about $1300, and not all of that was sit-down restaurants. So the 20% is not a lot of money in that total. Maybe that’s why I don’t feel strongly about not tipping–I don’t eat out enough to make it a dent in my budget.
Don’t know if it’s been discussed? What do y’all tip on buffets? I’m usually around 10 percent.
I am a generous 20-25% tipper at restaurants (especially at breakfast and/or at cheap places) but I just hate it. I’d gladly pay more for every item on the menu to eliminate the practice.