People Who Refuse to Tip at Restaurants are Embarrassing! (page 4)

White Dove

As a rule in the U.S., tipping is not necessary at places where you clear your own table.

At places that wait on you hand and foot, tipping is necessary and tips are portioned out to most people working after the day is done.

I also get so embarrassed when people take me out to eat and I realize they're tipping inappropriately. Sometimes I say "Thank you so much for buying this meal - the least I can do is the tipping." But that's not always possible or polite.

For people who think tipping is unnecessary, I agree with the advice to damn well cook at home or go to McDonalds. The beauty of tipping for service is that's it's discretionary - which means you decide how much to tip.

If a plate of food costs $10, let's say, the this is made up (approximately) as follows:

$3 - actual ingredients.

$2 - electricity, water, chefs' salaries, admin salaries, servers' basic wages - for getting the raw ingredients from the supplier and onto your plate in the form of a delicious meal which you didn't have to lift a finger to produce.

$2 - the real estate you're sitting in - rent for your piece of the restaurant, perhaps your view, the soap in the bathroom, upholstery on the chair, salary for the person who took your booking and showed you to your table, the person who set your table, lights and music.....

$1 - the cost of washing your plates, cutlery, glasses - water, electricity, staff, machinery, breakages.

$2 - profit for the investors/owners who bothered to make your meal possible.

The $10 meal would cost $12 or so if the business had to add in an extra charge for personalizing your experience, making your meal pleasant, describing your options, bringing it to your table, and everything else that goes along with service. But they don't. They beauty of the system is that you get to decide how much the experience is worth to you.

ZeusRocks

I'm with Oz on this. Since tipping is rare here in Australia we do find tipping jars in some establishments.
I shouted my mum, stepadad and sister to chinese the other week, bill came to $120, they had a tipping jar so I just put in a $20 as I left. It actually makes me happy to show appreciation for good service. I tend to treat restaurant staff with the same appreciation I would show to a friend who had invited me over for a meal.

Tipping may cost a little bit, but courtesy costs nothing.

tec

perhaps our wages are higher and reflected in the lack of tiping needed?

I don't know what the cost of living difference is, but minimum wage in Alberta is 8.80 and its not cheap to live in this province, that is for sure. Definitely can't live off minimum wage here. 20/hr, yes... but even then, with just the basics.

And I also waitress. If there's no tip, its only rarely about the service/food. Some people just don't think they should have to tip. Truthfully, I'm always wary of the really nice tables. They leave the least tips, and I think they know it and make up for it by being a great table. I don't mind this, but I might if it was every table.

On the other hand, the impatient, demanding tables - the ones I think I'm getting nothing off of - they leave awesome tips.

Tammy

EmergedAsMe

Having not been brought up in a tipping country... I find it scandalous that people have a "job" where they are not paid enough to live on if they do not get tips. To me the whole "have to tip" concept rubs me up the wrong way. Like Aussie OZ said a display of appreciation often goes a long way, I also find the percentage of an obligation tip staggering!!

Tipping (IMO) is a way people are forced to give a "gift of money" whether the recipient earned it or not. I much prefer the down under system of fair wages for wait staff and the ability to tip for great service ... if you choose to. Also wait staff are more appreciative when they get a tip down here (it is a nice bonus for them), rather than OK now I just need X more tonight and I can pay my rent.

I do not get "obligation tipping" culture! We are not cheap and often tip, or give persons who help us out a gift or something to show appreciation. But having to do something kind of detracts from it being a nice thing to do. With this said – when in a tipping country I follow the standard way of doing things because I can appreciate that wait staff are paid utter crap and tips is how they make their living. And the old... "when in Rome"

But should a "guest" (meaning to the restaurant) really have to directly pay the staffs wages... shouldn't the boss be doing that??? To me being some form of wait staff in a tip obligation country and your wage being a few bucks (if your lucky!) an hour is not a proper job. It is a day to day gamble (surely over the reccession wait staff got less tips therefore their "wage" was reduced automatically for example). Hopefully this doesn't offend anyone, I just think the system is unfair to both the wait staff and the diner.

As you can see – I really don't get obligation tipping!! (Please do not confuse this with tipping for a job well done.) Another small point – doesn't having to do the math to figure out the tip percentage kind of kill a nice evening out. I like to go out relax, pay and leave not figure out the percentage of my bill that is appropriate to leave as a tip?!

EmergedAsMe

BTW I posted my comment after Aussie Oz's and didn't see the rest of the comments until after posting.

MrFreeze

How could you not tip? Those people who wait on you only make a few bucks an hour usually. It's their livelihood. I notice that anybody who has worked in the food industry always leaves a good tip. I never have worked in that industry but I always leave at least 20%.

Quillsky

I agree with Emerged that I'd prefer to live in a tip-free culture, and pay higher prices instead. But I don't, so for now people who I dine with who tip poorly embarrass me.

Let's not even start discussing whether you should tip the person who washes your hair at the salon, or your stylist, or both!!

Paralipomenon

I usually tip 15%

5% food, 10% service.

If I get lousy food and service I don't leave anything but that is an extreme rarity.

There was one witness I used to know that when we all went out together would insist on putting the whole amount on his credit card and we'd either reimurse him the cash amount either there or later.

He did this for months before someone went back to check the bill and we found out he was just putting the meal on his card and pocketing our tips. He lost alot of friends that day.

tec

Oh, I should point out that your server (at least in Canada) has to tip out the kitchen in accordance to her sales, and not the tips she made off them. So if she didn't get a tip, (even if it was a problem with the food on the kitchen's end) the tipout comes out of her pocket.

None of this should be the responsibility of the guest, but that's the way it is right now.

Tammy

People Who Refuse to Tip at Restaurants are Embarrassing!

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