Tipping Culture Where You Live

mace1229

Gern Blansten said:

It does seem like the tip % should cap out somewhere. If I eat a $200 dinner at Ruth's Chris the waiter didn't do any more work than a $60 dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Yet the tip would be $40 vs $12....doesn't make sense.

I’ve thought of this before. When I was in Italy about 12 years ago, they had a small cover charge at some of the restaurants, and then no tip.
This makes sense because like your example, but even picture the same restaurant. I can order a basic sandwich and water and my tip my might only be $2, where someone else can order a nicer entree and a couple beers and their tip is $8 for essentially the same service.

Gern Blansten

Zod said:

Gern Blansten said:

It does seem like the tip % should cap out somewhere. If I eat a $200 dinner at Ruth's Chris the waiter didn't do any more work than a $60 dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Yet the tip would be $40 vs $12....doesn't make sense.

It's the same when you tip the food delivery guy.   If you ordered a meal for one, meal for two, or meal for four, it's about the same effort, drive to the restaurant, grab it, drop it off at the house, but the tip multiplies.

To be fair I don't think tipping makes sense anymore at all.  It used to be for tipping amazing service at restaurants.  It's rapidly expanded to all sorts of sectors.   In restaurants it's no longer tipping the server, they have to tip out and share with the other staff.  It's subsidizing the whole operation.

Tips kind of went from being tips to being an add on fee for too many things :(

Shared tips don't bother me...busboys/host/hostess/kitchen should share in tips as they help keep service moving as well.

And typically only 10% of a waitress' tip is shared based on what I see

Gern Blansten

F Me In The Brain said:

Wait staff at high end places are typically much better than at bargain chains.  Exceptions to that of course, but my experience has been that is the case.

I get that but they are still just punching your order into a computer and carrying plates.

F Me In The Brain

Gern Blansten said:

F Me In The Brain said:

Wait staff at high end places are typically much better than at bargain chains.  Exceptions to that of course, but my experience has been that is the case.

I get that but they are still just punching your order into a computer and carrying plates.

Perhaps for many.  Mrs FMe has many dietary restrictions and a good server who cares vs an average server makes all of the difference in my experience,  and of course my wife's. 

HughFreakingDillon

Zod said:

Gern Blansten said:

It does seem like the tip % should cap out somewhere. If I eat a $200 dinner at Ruth's Chris the waiter didn't do any more work than a $60 dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Yet the tip would be $40 vs $12....doesn't make sense.

It's the same when you tip the food delivery guy.   If you ordered a meal for one, meal for two, or meal for four, it's about the same effort, drive to the restaurant, grab it, drop it off at the house, but the tip multiplies.

To be fair I don't think tipping makes sense anymore at all.  It used to be for tipping amazing service at restaurants.  It's rapidly expanded to all sorts of sectors.   In restaurants it's no longer tipping the server, they have to tip out and share with the other staff.  It's subsidizing the whole operation.

Tips kind of went from being tips to being an add on fee for too many things :(

if anything, this is how it should be. as a short order cook for many years, it busted my balls that every single tip that a waitress got, given how they'd always freak out with joy when they found out I was working, the 5% they claimed they tipped out should have been 50. easily. half the time they sucked at their job. they were just pretty and talkative and they got tips regardless, but the bigger tips came with the better meals. they ALWAYS got better tips when I worked. they all told me this all the time. and the fucking dishpig got the same 5% share as me. th waitresses had an extra $200 a night to go to the bar with, and if I went, I'd end up buying THEM drinks half the time. fucking backwards. 

tipping it typically the whole package. if the meal is shit, but the server was tops, do you tip as much, or at all? but if the meal was great and the server sucked, do I tip? I would if I knew the kitchen got it. 

F Me In The Brain

In Canada perhaps.  As discussed previously, in most states in the US, servers don't get paid living wages.  

PJ_Soul

Gern Blansten said:

It does seem like the tip % should cap out somewhere. If I eat a $200 dinner at Ruth's Chris the waiter didn't do any more work than a $60 dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Yet the tip would be $40 vs $12....doesn't make sense.

I have to disagree in a general sense. The people who serve at super high-end restaurants have more expertise overall, and really do work harder. They are usually more on top of everything, know the little fine details that raise the experience, they know WAY more about the menus and the wines and stuff like that, and they normally have put much more time and effort into the industry. The majority of them are career servers vs those who are in the industry on their way to other careers.  same goes with the chefs in the kitchen and the bartenders, who all get a piece of the pie.

Zod

HughFreakingDillon said:

Zod said:

Gern Blansten said:

It does seem like the tip % should cap out somewhere. If I eat a $200 dinner at Ruth's Chris the waiter didn't do any more work than a $60 dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Yet the tip would be $40 vs $12....doesn't make sense.

It's the same when you tip the food delivery guy.   If you ordered a meal for one, meal for two, or meal for four, it's about the same effort, drive to the restaurant, grab it, drop it off at the house, but the tip multiplies.

To be fair I don't think tipping makes sense anymore at all.  It used to be for tipping amazing service at restaurants.  It's rapidly expanded to all sorts of sectors.   In restaurants it's no longer tipping the server, they have to tip out and share with the other staff.  It's subsidizing the whole operation.

Tips kind of went from being tips to being an add on fee for too many things :(

if anything, this is how it should be. as a short order cook for many years, it busted my balls that every single tip that a waitress got, given how they'd always freak out with joy when they found out I was working, the 5% they claimed they tipped out should have been 50. easily. half the time they sucked at their job. they were just pretty and talkative and they got tips regardless, but the bigger tips came with the better meals. they ALWAYS got better tips when I worked. they all told me this all the time. and the fucking dishpig got the same 5% share as me. th waitresses had an extra $200 a night to go to the bar with, and if I went, I'd end up buying THEM drinks half the time. fucking backwards. 

tipping it typically the whole package. if the meal is shit, but the server was tops, do you tip as much, or at all? but if the meal was great and the server sucked, do I tip? I would if I knew the kitchen got it. 

To me, how it should be is they price the goods at a price point they can pay the staff fairly, and the price of the good is the price you see advertised.   It feels like tipping went for tipping service, to subsidizing underpaid staff, to now spiraling out of control.    It's just expected, and it's now an expected tack on fee to many things.   I loathe tack on fees.  Just charge and advertise the cost of the thing.