Race and Tips

[brunswickite]

I consider my self a good tipper, depending on how the service is.

But I feel the tipping system should not be stressed as much, and feel that the restuarant industry is just getting away with paying their workers nothing, and leaving the customers responsible...

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: brunswickite
I consider my self a good tipper, depending on how the service is.

But I feel the tipping system should not be stressed as much, and feel that the restuarant industry is just getting away with paying their workers nothing, and leaving the customers responsible...

WRONG.

Tipping ensures good service. It makes you, the customer, the boss of the waiter. The waiter is entirely beholden to you, and only you, for their pay. Their pay requires that they do everything to please YOU, not the management of the restaurant.

If you want to reduce or do away with tipping, be prepared for service much like your local McDonalds, Walmart and Best Buy. A bunch of hourly boobs who do the bare minimum to keep their jobs. Who know they will be paid so long as they supply the most minimum service to their customers.

People who oppose the tipping system have NOT thought it through enough to realize the tipping system is the best thing to happen for customer service in the history of resaurants.

 

[Analog]

Interesting, I haven't noticed.

 

[Ornery]

Originally posted by: Toasthead
I think the best tippers are people who once ( or still) work jobs that are tip based. I was a pizza delivery driver when i was in college, now I hardly ever tip less than 20%.

You probably nailed it, but I've never waited tables or delivered food, and I still tip a solid 15%.

We don't go to restaurants a lot, but in the last 30 years, I can't remember being waited on by a black waiter or waitress at all . Best waitress we ever had, and always asked for at one restaurant, was hispanic.

Edit: Quick question. Should hispanic be capitalized? How about blacks? Or whites?

 

[Shooters]

When I waited tables a few years ago, my experience was the same as yours; the majority of the black patrons left crappy tips. After a while, my coworkers and I started referring to tips left by black patrons as the STD (standard two dollars) because they always seemed to leave $2 no matter how large the bill was or how many people were in their party, and this was at a restaurant where the average price for a meal was $15-$20 per person.

One time a black man and his girlfriend came in and ran up a $212 bill, which included a $175 bottle of Dom Perignon. He handed me a stack of twenties and told me to keep the change. I figured it was probably $240, which would have been nice for me, but when I counted it, it turned out to be only $220...a freakin' $8 tip on a $212 check. What a lot of people don't know is that waiters usually have to pay a certain percentage of their total food and drink sales to a pool for busboys, hostesses, etc. At the restaurant I worked at, it was 3.5%. Since 3.5% of $212 is roughly $8, I essentially made no money for serving him. Any less than $8, and I would have actually lost money.

I found that Europeans didn't tip well either. In fact, sometimes they didn't tip at all. I asked my friend who has family in Europe and she said it was probably because over there people don't tip, either because waiters actually get paid decent wages or maybe just because of the culture difference, so when they come to the U.S., they're just not accustomed to it.

Edit:
Hey CT2TXtech, I just noticed that you work at Pappadeaux. That's where I worked (in Houston).

 

[kami333]

Yeah, no tipping required in Europe, though I've seen it done in larger cities (maybe they were Americans?). I've been a waiter in Japan where they don't tip either and the pay was decent, pretty similar to what everyone else I knew made at their part time jobs.

 

[txxxx]

I can say that in europe, wages for waiters are paid pretty well, so people dont feel so inclinded to leave 15-20% as a tip.

 

[hjo3]

Originally posted by: Ornery
Edit: Quick question. Should hispanic be capitalized? How about blacks? Or whites?

No. Those aren't proper nouns. Now, "Spanish," "African," and "European"; those should be capitalized.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: Toasthead
I think the best tippers are people who once ( or still) work jobs that are tip based. I was a pizza delivery driver when i was in college, now I hardly ever tip less than 20%.

My wife used to work as a waitress and she is always getting on my case about leaving to large a tip. I always leave 15% or more unless the service was really bad. If service is good though I will always error on the side of the server (rounding up). I had an $86 restuarant bill a couple weeks ago (just the wife and I) at a nice Italian place in Encinitas, CA and just left an even $100.

 

[flot]

I left somebody a $200 tip once.. (on a $800 meal) it was probably the best service I've ever gotten, and while it was still an obscene amount of money, it was appropriate, relatively speaking. I usually tip about 15%, which gets me the occasional glare from my girlfriend (who seems to think that even medicore service deserves 20%) but I usually vary tips between 12-20% based on performance.

Edit: there are definitely times when *I* feel like I should leave a tip of 10% or less, but in a sense I get blackmailed into it, because I tend to eat at the same ~10 restaurants pretty often, and I'm smart enough not to screw somebody on their tip because they're having a bad day, and have them remember it next time I'm eating there....

 

[iamwiz82]

my tipping varies between 0-50%, depending on service. I believe tipping is something you earn, so if you are bad, you get no tip. I once had a waiter sit down and talk to his friends behind me while our food was waiting at the window. No tip for him.

 

[Shooters]

Originally posted by: flot
I left somebody a $200 tip once.. (on a $800 meal) it was probably the best service I've ever gotten, and while it was still an obscene amount of money, it was appropriate, relatively speaking. I usually tip about 15%, which gets me the occasional glare from my girlfriend (who seems to think that even medicore service deserves 20%) but I definitely vary tips between 12-20% based on performance.

An $800 meal?!!! :Q

Were there a lot of people in the party, or was the food really that expensive?

 

[amcdonald]

My waiter friends have mentioned black people and old people are the worst tippers.
One time a black woman told one of my friends before ordering that she wasn't going to tip him because he was white...
seriously.
obviously she got horrible service.

 

[Spamela]

the only thing i've noticed is that some people have a habit of leaving 2 or 3
dollars & that's all they leave, regardless of the bill, because they don't know
any better, not because of cheapness.

i leave 10-20%, depending on the service, btw.

 

[oLLie]

Originally posted by: kami333
Took me 5 secs with google

From that page:

12 ways servers can increase tips:

...
3. Kneel down next to tables
...

Ok... just what the fvck is that all about? Yes, kowtow for $. :| seriously, WTF is up with that suggestion?

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: brunswickite
I consider my self a good tipper, depending on how the service is.

But I feel the tipping system should not be stressed as much, and feel that the restuarant industry is just getting away with paying their workers nothing, and leaving the customers responsible...

WRONG.

Tipping ensures good service. It makes you, the customer, the boss of the waiter. The waiter is entirely beholden to you, and only you, for their pay. Their pay requires that they do everything to please YOU, not the management of the restaurant.

If you want to reduce or do away with tipping, be prepared for service much like your local McDonalds, Walmart and Best Buy. A bunch of hourly boobs who do the bare minimum to keep their jobs. Who know they will be paid so long as they supply the most minimum service to their customers.

People who oppose the tipping system have NOT thought it through enough to realize the tipping system is the best thing to happen for customer service in the history of resaurants.

I think this is true in states where servers are paid below minimum wage but are expected to make it up through tips.
Out here in SoCal, tipping doesn't ensure good service. You know what tipping has ensured, it's ensured an attitude of entitlement from all the servers who think their job is Oh So Hard, and they have to put up with So Much Crap. Get real, there are a million jobs harder than yours Mr. or Mrs. Restaurant Server, where there is no tip. To reiterate my opinion: In places where people are paid less than minimum wage, the patron should always tip (15% I suppose). In places where servers are paid minimum wage, there shouldn't be this obligation to tip that there currently is. FWIW, I always tip but I hate the notions of obligation on my part and entitlement on the part of the server.


Shooters, I think you are correct about tipping in Europe. The attitude when I was in Germany is much different than it is over here.

 

[CT2TXtech]

Originally posted by: Shooters
When I waited tables a few years ago, my experience was the same as yours; the majority of the black patrons left crappy tips. After a while, my coworkers and I started referring to tips left by black patrons as the STD (standard two dollars) because they always seemed to leave $2 no matter how large the bill was or how many people were in their party, and this was at a restaurant where the average price for a meal was $15-$20 per person.

One time a black man and his girlfriend came in and ran up a $212 bill, which included a $175 bottle of Dom Perignon. He handed me a stack of twenties and told me to keep the change. I figured it was probably $240, which would have been nice for me, but when I counted it, it turned out to be only $220...a freakin' $8 tip on a $212 check. What a lot of people don't know is that waiters usually have to pay a certain percentage of their total food and drink sales to a pool for busboys, hostesses, etc. At the restaurant I worked at, it was 3.5%. Since 3.5% of $212 is roughly $8, I essentially made no money for serving him. Any less than $8, and I would have actually lost money.

I found that Europeans didn't tip well either. In fact, sometimes they didn't tip at all. I asked my friend who has family in Europe and she said it was probably because over there people don't tip, either because waiters actually get paid decent wages or maybe just because of the culture difference, so when they come to the U.S., they're just not accustomed to it.

Edit:
Hey CT2TXtech, I just noticed that you work at Pappadeaux. That's where I worked (in Houston).

Yeah thats rite, im a waiter at Pappadeaux. Was there last night, had a few guests that looked like me. Didnt get stiffed last nite. Im doing it again at 6-lets hope i get the same. I did have a 10 top last nite with a final bill of 439.00. They tipped exactly 10%, I had to split that with another waiter then 5 dollars to this broad who helped refil the drinks. SO i only made 20 bucks off a 10 top

:disgust:

O well

 

[PowerMacG5]

Recently I just started going out for dinner at restaurant's with my friends. We always double the tax, which here in NY turns the tip into around 17%. For instance, last night 5 of us ate at The Cheesecake Factory. The bill came out to $84.86, and we left $100. Considering the service was very good, we felt the $15 was well deserved. Does anyone disagree with this? Since I have started going out, I never had bad service (knock on wood), and have never tipped below double the tax in NY.

 

[gistech1978]

i had a friend that delivered pizzas for years
he delivered a pizza to two girls, one white one black.
the black girl answered and paid, the white girl asked if she had tipped him
she says, "tipping is for white people".

some restaraunt in NYC a few years ago got some flak for automatically adding gratuity on black's tables.

 

[Schadenfroh]

the fine folks from the fatherland tip with my life :Q

 

[flot]

Originally posted by: Shooters


An $800 meal?!!! :Q

Were there a lot of people in the party, or was the food really that expensive?

There were a lot of us in the party (I think about 11-12?) - in retrospect, it might have been more than that because ~$70-80 a person seems a little low. But it was just before Christmas, we were in the place for about 2 hours, the waitress was unbelievably fast and courteous and helpful - making suggestions on what things people might like, etc. I have been in other more expensive (per person) establishments, and pretty rarely recall being so impressed with the service.