Posted on 06/23/2021 5:25:01 AM PDT by Enlightened1
“Where should we eat tomorrow?” my wife asked me excitedly as we sat on our deck Friday evening.
She had locked down a babysitter for Saturday night, and we were both eager for our first dinner date alone together in months.
“Broders’,” I answered without hesitation.
Located in southwest Minneapolis, Broders Pasta Bar is a local gem. It has a great outdoor patio and the best Italian cuisine in the Twin Cities. We had not eaten there since the pandemic began.
My wife nodded and started to make a reservation on her phone. Then her jaw dropped.
“You’re not going to like this,” she said.
On its website, Broders’ has a notice to customers notifying them of a new 15 percent “benefits and equity” charge they’ve instituted. They justify the charge, first, by explaining that “many states have allowed reduced minimum wages for service staff in the form of a tip credit.” (More on this in a minute.)
The restaurant’s second justification is that many tippers are racist and sexist, according to uncited research.
“Studies have also shown that there is inequity and built-in bias in the way consumers give tips,” the statement reads. “In general, Black or Brown servers receive less tips than Caucasian servers. There is gender bias as well.”
The final part of the statement says the new policy stems from wider racial injustice and is not a substitute for gratuity.
“In the wake of racial injustice protests and the closures due to Covid, now is the time for Broders’ to reimagine its economics and provide fair pay across the company,” the statement reads. “Our Benefits & Equity Charge is applied entirely to employee compensation. This supplement helps us to set a $16 minimum hourly wage for customer facing employees, $18 minimum hourly wage for kitchen employees… Altogether this allows everyone in our company to earn a real living wage. The 15% Benefits & Equity Charge is not a gratuity.”
Rule #1: Don’t live in Minneapolis.
15% pay for my 40’ Sea Ray payment charge.
Well.
I think their rhetoric is inflammatory and stupid.
But, I think raising prices to pay staff a wage that you, the employer, believe they deserve and/or need to keep working in your place is good, it should happen more, and the limit should not be what you or I think about the owner’s politics but rather what the market will do.
If the place is really great (as the author suggests) and if you like going there, a 15% price rise is a test of HOW good and HOW MUCH you like it.
The one lesson everyone should have learned during the shutdowns is that is easy to do without. Be highly selective. Make it special. Support mom and pop restaurants that will give you service, good food and really care about repeat business. Screw the the big chains, with their faux cuisine-oriented atmosphere contrived by some desk jockey, factor made food, and poorly trained and managed servers.
Well, that will certainly bring in the traffic.
If I saw this line item on my bill I would leave no tip.
Going out to eat shouldn’t have to be where we go pay for someone else’s political propaganda. It should be about relaxing and having some time with loved ones and friends. 80% of the costs of eating out go towards this entertainment vs the costs of just staying home instead. And that extra cost comes on after tax income which is oftentimes less than 50% of the gross income.
“...you’d think they’d shy away from branding their own customers “racist” and charging them extra for the privilege of being so branded.”
You are using reason and logic, and that is a stark reveal of your systemic racism and white privilege. You must now pay 30%.
Well, that will certainly bring in the traffic.
—
Me, “I’ll have the tuna salad on white toast with a side order of onion rings.”
Server, “You f’ng, white supremacist!”
I came here to write this. It’s not middle class whites that don’t tip. It’s blacks and Asians.
A 15% surcharge means no tip. I bet the waitstaff will love that.
These people are going to drive themselves out of business.
Well at least they are presenting warning up front, rather than bait and switch after the fact when you look at your bill.
Since I typically tip 15-20%, I guess I reduce it to 0-5% if I encounter this elsewhere.
Wasn’t there also an Algore phone tax to give people internet as well?
If I saw this line item on my bill I would leave no tip.
this takes a lot of chutzpah to call your customers racist and raise the prices. Somehow I don’t think it will work out well for them. Why would anyone live in Minneapolis?
Social Justice meme to justify them not raising their pay rates.
Kinda like how all the stores/restaurants now have an “add a tip” step on their Square or other pad based payment software even though you’re paying at the counter. I routinely gleefully select “NO” and smile cheerfully. Unless of course the counter girl is cute, blonde and perky, in which case she always gets an extra 10%. Or if it’s a nice suburban white kid working his butt off trying to do the right thing, and getting no luv from his employer.
I’m sure the SJW businesses will take that as a justification for their act, but then...they won’t see me in their little political indoctrination camps masquerading as restaurants!
“ Not sure how well this will work out…”
I’ll tell you how, they will either go out of business or will quietly drop this insanity when they eat up their cash reserves.
NOBODY unless they are mental will go there.
“Studies have shown” that companies that try this kind of political crap go out of business.
This place is in a very old upscale affluent neighborhood.
The white guilt runs deep there, they feel bad about their wealth and influence.
Let them wallow in their wokeness, I’ll never go there.
To wit “y’all aren’t tipping enough, so here’s an automatic 15% tip added to your bill, and it’s not a tip so be sure to tip. Ya racist.”
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