Posted on 07/06/2014 2:10:26 PM PDT by Ben Mugged
OK, here is my rant about tipping. Not the kind where folks in Frisco are standing little cars on end or the practice of pushing sleeping cows over but the kind that takes place in restaurants.
I worked in food service and as a bartender for many years while in the Air Force. When I started out the business would pay me to serve the customers. If my service was good, the customers would reward me with a gratuity. Over time the businesses noticed their servers were making a lot of money in tips so they reduced their pay to minimum wage. The difference between that and what you should have been paid was made up by tipping. In other words the burden of paying the server moved from the business to the customer. Instead of working for the business, servers were now working for the customer.
It is still that way today with some businesses adding the "gratuity" to the bill automatically. Folks it is no longer a "gratuity" if it is mandatory and the only way the server gets paid. Let's call it what it is, a service fee.
I refuse to let the liberals own the language.
It is a “service charge” and is included in the overall price of the meal and is how the business pays the server.
It must remain voluntary.
Exceptional servers do exceptionally well.
Good servers do alright.
Poor servers look for a job more appropriate to their skill set.
The customer wins.
If everyone gets the same “tip” via a service charge on the bill, there’s no added incentive for “exceptional service.” Service will be “acceptable,” in other words somewhere between “ok” and “mediocre.”
The customer suffers and the business suffers.
There was a post on FR a couple weeks back about a restaurant that abolished tipping. Servers could opt for a $10/hr flat wage or 20% of the gross take from their tables during their shift. All opted for the 20%. Everybody wins! Servers push desserts, wines, appetizers and move people along to turn the table over to a new group. The owner is happy. He’s making more money and has a stable and experienced work force. The servers are very happy.
First time? Pretty much a regular occurrence for me. I do like to argue though, and it comes with the territory.
It may be getting worse, or not. I wish people could express contrary positions in arguments, because doing so can really strengthen the arguments we need to make for conservative principles. If everybody agrees with everything said, you don’t learn how to respond to challenge.
And with that, I’m back on the road to my vacation.
Automatic gratuity of 18+% became popular when the economy was good during the late 90s and the early 2000s (not the Obama years, of course). I am not sure when this became an expected thing in the service industry.
Home on leave for my mothers last birthday...
The family took her out to her “favorite restaurant.” The service SUCKED! The establishment charged each of us “automatic gratuity” of 18% because we were a “large party (about ten people).”
A lot of servers won’t put forth the extra effort without extra incentive.
you’ve shown me no evidence of reading comprehension, proportionality, or any understanding of the free enterprise system. Oh for three.
Now, go to the cafeteria and leave us alone….
you cannot compare Japan to us in this regard. You are really staggeringly ignornat if you think everything that works in Japan will work here. You could not possibly be more wrong about that.
And no, tipping is not universal, but it is very widespread and it works very well. Why do you advocate changing something that IS WORKING VERY WELL now here.
you are advocating for liberal economics, and you don’t realize it, because you don’t know enough about how it works. Anyone who prefers a system of set salaries over commissions or other merit based scales is simply an economic liberals.
So where is your cubicle? What massive agency do you work for?
Hubby currently works full time in a casino steakhouse after being laid off from his sales job last year. He makes just under 5 bucks an hour but he makes great tips. He gets to keep the cash but credit card tips are received on his biweekly check. He has to tip the bar and bus boys though. He’s been waiting tables for over 40 years so he’s really good at it. He has usually worked only part time for extra money for our family, but with this economy, who knows if he will ever get a “normal” job again. It’s depressing, but then again....we really can’t complain.
And the restaurant makes you feel bad if you don’t tip, by a policy that expects you to randomly be paying their wait staff.
No, I’m responsible for my own feelings. Nobody can “make me feel” good or bad.
I tip servers based on their performance because I believe in free market capitalism.
You seem to be guided by ...feelings, whoa whoa whoa, feelings.
Well said!
tx, what is so unnerving is how many (so called) conservatives don’t understand how the wait staff/bartender pay situation is one of the best functioning and most merit based parts of our entire economy. It is working just great.
I know some wait-staff who’ve refused to be promoted because they would lose money even if paid as management.
That's udder nonsense!
LOL!!! Good one!
Then the need to hone their waiting and service skills.
My daughter upon graduating from college worked as a hostess, waitress and bartender. She saw how the system works, learned from it, and moved to better and better restaurants. She was making $500 a night in tips. She took what she learned and is using it today as an employee at the DOD, managing the operations of our nuclear submarines.
Very good post.
There is a reason people go into the service industry. And it doesn’t have anything to do with standing/walking for hours, handling food and waiting on gripey butt people.
It has to do with how much money can be made by a motivated person.
I did it back in the day and made great money. I couldn’t do it anymore as my back won’t hold up...and my temperament has aged along with me. I’d probably assault some of the people I waited on back then and end up in the hoosegow.
My rule of thumb...if I can’t afford to tip, I go to a “self-serve” establishment. I might get crappy service...but still tip even if only a smaller amount. I don’t know what is going on in the establishment that might cause a problem.
I now am returning my soapbox to the closet. :)
You really think this is working great. Do you think it is great that two waiters both work their butts off, do great service, and one makes $15 an hour, the other makes $2.50 because the second one served a table of minorities?
When my friends and I frequented an establishment in Heidelberg, Germany, we had our favored staff and ensured we sat in their sections (large crowd, we overlapped).
They took great care of us (including running a tab which the est never did with anyone else). We took great care of them. With a group of 15 -20 we each dropped an average of an extra $20 on top of our tabs.
We went there nearly every Friday and they knew we chose them as our servers. That’s because we knew their service was great. That’s what happens when a server is exceptional.
If you don’t like exceptionalism and performance based awards it’s your business. Just don’t screw it up for the rest of us.
That’s why they call the US a free country. You are free not to go to restaurants where the gratuity is automatically added. You can stay home or go to Mickey Dee’s.
Of course it could work here.
I had a friend that came back from Japan recently. A beer was $16 and eating out a meal was thru the roof.
I agree with you: Tips now are not what they were.
This concept intrigues me
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3165539/posts
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.