HERE’S A TIP: NOT LEAVING ONE IS LEGAL

ABAJournal ^ | September 24, 2004 | Stephanie Francis Ward

[JanetteS]

PS - if I order 'to go' food from a restaurant, is a tip expected? I mean, no one waited on me.

I usually tip 10% for "curbside service" from a restaurant like Carrabbas, Chilis or Outback. The person who gets your order together in the kitchen and bags it up is usually a server. They've taken time away from his/her other tables to make sure your order is correct and bagged properly.

Of course, that brings up the question of what do you do when you get home and find out your order is screwed up?

[jpsb]

I have offered to do that, put up a not tipping allowed sign raise the drink prices to include a 10% tip. The girls (the girls run the bar, I just own it) won't hear of it. I still think it is a good idea, but it is a hard sell to girls that know how to work a bar.

One problem they have, we are a small neigborhood bar, is that after a while all the regulars get to know all the girls and think of them as friends not bartenders and tips slow down. But on the bright side new poeple come in all the time and they tend to tip good.

[JanetteS]

I have offered to do that, put up a not tipping allowed sign raise the drink prices to include a 10% tip. The girls (the girls run the bar, I just own it) won't hear of it. I still think it is a good idea, but it is a hard sell to girls that know how to work a bar.

Those girls aren't stupid! Any night I would have gone home with only 10% in my pocket would have been the last time I waitressed.

Don't let anyone fool you, it's very hard work but if you're good you make very good money!

[jpsb]

I think you are right and I think tips are not as bad as some of them say they are. Oh sure there is a bad day every now and then but in general they do make enough to pay their bills. But like I'd said, the bar pays way over scale 6-8/hr not the 2.25 min for wait staff.

Well Marines get a free drink at my bar today and I am a Marine so I think it is time for my free drink. By the way the bars web site is

here check it out. Connection is dailup so loading a page kinda slow.

[JoJo Gunn]

Most of my working life has been in dealing with Joe Public, so I understand the Scrooges, and have seen more than enough of them. But what are you gonna do if they drop a lot of money down? After all, they don't tip, or tip very little, but they pay your lights or water or business tax for the year, whatever.

I'm not saying anything new here. It's not easy, but you have to balance out the fact that if you run enough of the tightfists away, you'll have to get rid of one of your girls to make up that difference.

Keep walking that wire....

[jpsb]

You are right of course, I just felt like blowing steam. The staff is much better then I am at dealing with the public. I have a day job, so I don't mind telling a serious butthead to go someplace else. I must have a father complex since I am alot older then the girls that run the bar. I just want them to be able to pay their bills so they don't have to resort to other means to stay alive. Lot's of temptations out their for attractive but poor young females.

[Hibernius Druid]

A "mandatory tip" is an oxymoron akin to the "mandatory voluntary community service" the so-called progressive educational establishment wants to foist upon high schoolers as a graduation requirement. It's double-talk.

[JoJo Gunn]

Hey, we all gotta vent sometimes. Lord knows how many times I have around here. I'm the kind to say it and go on, so if I don't remember you somewhere down the road, don't be offended.

I'm 48, so can appreciate the point of view with your workers. I was always one who viewed the people I worked with as family, whether some of them liked it or not. But that's how it is - you're with them at least a third of every day, and it's y'all against the world, business wise, (and sometimes customer wise).

Hang in there....

[pkp1184]

Ok, take a pay cut to 2 bucks an hour and I will tip you.

[k2blader]

I never got that "required tip" thing.

Tipping is inherently voluntary!

[BJungNan]

I remember my days working in gas stations (full serve). The amount would be $19.90, the person would give a $20.00 bill and wait while the attended returned the $0.10.

When I became a gasoline customer instead of working there, I would split the amount I tipped. The waitress would get less and the gas attendant would get a tip.

[billorites]

You know in Europe service, around 10-15%, is automatically added to all the restaurant bills.

If you want to leave more, you leave maybe 5%, il resto, plus or minus, when you leave the restaurant.

I can live with that.

[demsux]

Seems to me that they are basically working "on commission"...as I did for many years.

There has to be some minimum, otherwise your large party MAY impact the server's ability to service other tables.

I don't have a problem with it, as long as they mention it when delivering the bill.

[billorites]

"The amount would be $19.90, the person would give a $20.00 bill and wait while the attended returned the $0.10."

Ahh! So you've waited on me! ;->

[RS]

"Tell that to the single moms in my restaurant who barely make ends meet."

Maybe you should raise your prices and their paychecks by 20% ?

[HungarianGypsy]

I like your point. My husband delivers packages to your businesses and your homes. He runs until his shoes are worn through. Tip? He's happy when he gets a soda or an ice cream for a tip. Where's the Fed Ex guy's tip? One summer day a Fed Ex guy (not my husband) dropped off a package and looked amazed that I gave him a bottle of water.

[k2blader]

Maybe I'm being too picky, but if folks are going to charge a service fee, they should call it that--a "service fee"--rather than a "tip"!

For the record, I usually tip 15 - 30% depending on the server(s). :-)

[billorites]

if folks are going to charge a service fee, they should call it that--a "service fee"--rather than a "tip"!

That's the deal in Europe. It's a line on the bill called service and is typically 10-15%.

If you're a happy camper, you leave some change on the table in addition.

[treadstone71]

Since when is six people a large party? I'm the oldest of four children, so a simple family night out would constitute a large party?