Posted on 11/26/2005 9:50:03 AM PST by smoothsailing
Bad tippers and bitter waitresses
By Jack Kemp (not the politician) Nov. 26, 2005
Once, years ago, I heard a heard a lecture by a rabbi on dating. He advised that if your date treats a waiter/waitress or a busboy in a condescending and mean manner, that is the way they will treat you after a while – if you were to marry them. Today's New York Post had an article about cheap celebrity tippers listed on the website www.bitterwaitress.com.
I went there to see how many well known political "champions of the little guy and gal" rated. I cross referenced the website with liberals from Bernard Goldberg's One Hundred People Screwing Up America.
........
Let's see. First up, Michael Moore, 3% tip.
Tipper's Name: Michael Moore (yes THAT Michael Moore)
Where it happened: Los Angeles
Total bill / Tip amount / Percentage: $452.25 / $17.74 / 3%
What happened:
OK I ran my ass off for this guy and his friends. Funny I didnt know this guy had friends, maybe they were kissups. 2.5 hours they spent shoveling food down their fat faces. Numerous refills. By the way MM is a pompous ass judging from his treatment of the staff.
............
Let's see again. Barbra Streisand, 2% tip.
Tipper's Name: Barbra Streisand
Where it happened: New York
Total bill / Tip amount / Percentage: $457.00 / $10.00 / 2%
What happened:
She demanded the best table, acting rude to everyone and then barely tipped.
..........
Next "champion of the people," Jessie Jackson 9% tip.
Tipper's Name: Jesse Jackson
Restaurant: Sam's
Where it happened: Kansas City
Total bill / Tip amount / Percentage: $228.00 / $22.00 / 9%
What happened: rude,arrogant,demanding and cheap
.........
Next up, Sen. John Kerry, 2% tip.
Tipper's Name: John F. Kerry
Where it happened: St. Louis
Total bill / Tip amount / Percentage: $773.24 / $20.00 / 2%
What happened:
Added $20.00 on the signature line and then scribbled a little note to vote for him. What a load of crap.
......
Kerry's former running mate, Sen. John Edwards, 2% tip.
Tipper's Name: John Edwards
Where it happened: Washington, D.C.
Total bill / Tip amount / Percentage: $746.25 / $13.75 / 1%
What happened:
This is the guy running for Vice President… Sat in our private section for 3 1/2 hours and left less than 2%. Jackass.
.........
Former VP Al Gore. 8% tip.
Tipper's Name: Former VP Al Gore
Where it happened: Alexandria, VA
Total bill / Tip amount / Percentage: $40.00 / $3.50 / 8%
What happened:
Al and Tipper Gore were regulars at the restaurant I used to work at. You'd think this would be cool, waiting on a former Vice President. And it would be, if not for the fact that Al Gore is cheap.
Last time they came in, Tipper actually spilled her beer on me (it's not smart to gesture wildly with a bottle of Corona on your table). She didn't apologize—he apologized for her. Still. Less than 10%. You'd think they'd know that the 'underclass' the Democrats claim to represent are people like waitresses in VA making $2.13 an hour. Guess not.
.........
Lastly, Sean Penn, 0% tip. Nada. Zip. Zero.
Tipper's Name: Sean Penn
Where it happened: New Orleans
Total bill / Tip amount / Percentage: $450.00 / $0.00 / 0%
What happened:
Sean Penn is in New Orleans filming & came into my restaurant with 3 other people. Waited on them hand and foot. The bill $450.00 – the tip: none. Cheapskate.
........
There you have it. The champions of "fairness" and "the little guy." Yes, President Bush and VP Cheney made the website as well. But who is claiming them as champions of the poor and oppressed victims, advocating extra government payments to make up for past suffering, etc.?
.............................
Thomas Lifson adds:
I have followed Bitter Waitress for years. It is well-known in the food and beverage industry, and at least at the upscale restaurants, it has a big following among the wait staff. When one of these bozos comes in, they usually will not treat them overtly rudely. But vengeance of another sort may sometimes occur. Let the diner beware.
Most people realize that watitrons (that's the non-sex-specific term favored theses days, believe it or not) are usually paid less than minimum wage, and that tips provide the margin of survival (to use leftist terminology) for them. To stiff a tip is to relegate someone to below minimum wage. This makes the behavior of these compassionate liberals all the more phony. Judge them by their deeds not their words.
I absolutely agree with Jack's rabbi that the best way to judge someone's character is to observe behavior with those who have no power or standing, and to do so in private in the case of celebrities and politicians. I have used this as a guide to friendships for almost my entire life, and it has proven highly reliable.
I've had friends (and they have friends) who have told me some curling-hair stories too.
To be clear, I have never "stiffed" meaning leaving no tip at all. I don't believe I've ever had service that would even make me think of it and I'm hard pressed to recall leaving even a small one.
Your tone sounded quite confrontational [of course it's difficult to say for sure when merely reading, not hearing]. But I still can't get my head around how leaving a tip that might be smaller than a waitron would want is "stealing" from them. That is rubbish. It reminds me of the old joke that goes: if you walk you save the 75-cent bus fare, but if you run behind a cab you save $10.
the driver a huge tip, $3 -- equal to perhaps $50 today.
In the late fifties and early sixties $3 was a lot of money. It would purchase four loaves of wonder bread, four quarts of milk plus a pound of hamburger.
about what$12 would buy today.
I always tip 20 Percent for Good service. Even is the food is lousy which is not the fault of the waiter. I tip 25 if they go above and beyond.
I walked out of a IHOP without paying let alone leaving a tip. When I was starting to pore to maple syrup I observed a live roach stuck to the can trying to free its self. I then saw,I presume,its mate, standing on my over easy eggs, beseeching me to release her husband.
What attracted me to Conservatism and the Republican Party was the emphasis on faith in all men and women. What turned me off of Leftist politics was the usefullness of the "working class" (read: producers) to gain power and control by unscrupulous "men of the people".
Maybe my tone was a bit confrontational. Having a good meal out with friends, etc. in a nice restaurant is one of the major pleasures in life.
The problem today is that many people don't know how to behave in a restaurant. They see it as an opportunity to exert some measure of pointless power over the wait staff. They scarf down their food as if it's a competition for speed. And table manners have deteriorated to the point of shameful...
Interesting story.
He is nice person for real just like Drew Carey. We should have more people like them. Not only they tipped their servers good but they are being nice and not making trouble. Too bad, we still have to gone through with some customers that always wanted to be treated like royal families. To make thing worst, some will make a big mess on a table, asking too many questions on little things, having too many refills, too impatience.., rude reply.. or non-reply when being asked a question politely.. no tips.. etc.. Man, I am just a server not their personal servant..
That's really funny!
I learned that you started at 10%. Only in recent years have I heard that 15% should be considered norm, and I'm not sure who is the one doing the considering. As I've stated, as food prices have risen, so has the tip, and as someone who has both waited tables (for a short period of time) and sold on commission rates much less than 10% for much less in sales in a day or night than a good waiter will rack up in a shift, 15% should be considered exceptional.
I rarely drink and never at a restaurant, so while my ticket might be a lower one for their night, I am also very low maintenance. Tonight, we left about 15% or so for what we considered very good but not exceptional service (as I stated, we typically round up a bit). But my tea was refilled twice, my wife's drink once, and he made perhaps 4 other trips to our table. I think he got what he deserved.
Dang! He's being pretty obvious about it and the young lady to his right is still star-struck!
That is the post.
Jeepers. Thanks for the ping!
For years it was always 15 per cent...it was drummed into me 15 per cent! Now I'm a cheap skate if I don't pay 20 per cent?...I'm sorry but restaurant prices have also risen over the years thus even though my tips are 15 per cent, my tips have risen in the same ratios as the prices. Now I'm expected to pay 20 per cent? fagettaboud it!
Depends on the local tax rate. Well, with that formula, the waitress will always get less if you calculate it off the tax. The effective tax rates seem to run between 4% and a little over 9%.
A $10 tab at 4% tax would be 2.00 and 1.56; at 9% 2.00 and 1.64.
The one time I'm sure didn't leave a tip was when I found dirt all over my salad and the waiter acted as if he didn't care. Otherwise, I tip twenty percent. Not tipping isn't stealing because it's a add-on benefit and not pay or entitlement. Some people act as if you should tip them for merely doing what their job requires and not beyond what their job requires (like Starbucks baristas!).
How true!
My husband and I frequent a neighborhood eatery (a pizza place with a separate, small restaurant room where you go for the food, not the atmosphere) and the wait staff get to know you as a regular. One evening there was a family with a screaming toddler; he was really laughing, and at the parents' prompting - the mother was actually encouraging him to laugh with screeches, then would look around as if to say "what can I do?" When our waitress came with the bill she asked how everything was, as usual, and I said "well the food and the service were great..." She looked at me and quietly said "I hear ya!" It annoyed her even more than it did us, as we could leave! She got a larger than usual tip that night.
I worked as a waitress for a number of years. Customers usually base the tip on the post-tax total. However, in situations where the restaurant's computer software adds the tip to the check, the computer calculates using the pre-tax total (at least in the places where I worked). So, while tipping based upon the pre-tax total may be technically correct, it rarely happens and normally annoys the waitress.
My stone dead cold lowest tip is 10%, for worst-case scenarios of extraordinary rudeness or long-term disappearances.
Twenty percent rounded up to the next dollar is the decent thing to do and, yes, in bars it can easily go higher.
I prefer tips/service to be included in the price. I think it is a form of begging.
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.