The digital tip jar
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@Aqua-Letifer I think you are channeling @Larry LOL
He would always answer my queries with something like, "Just go find out."
If I were in 5th year of school and you were the teacher, and we were talking about tips. And I asked, "Why do we have tipping in the US for some jobs but not for others? How is their job different?" What would you say?
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@taiwan_girl said in The digital tip jar:
@Aqua-Letifer I think you are channeling @Larry LOL
He would always answer my queries with something like, "Just go find out."
If I were in 5th year of school and you were the teacher, and we were talking about tips. And I asked, "Why do we have tipping in the US for some jobs but not for others? How is their job different?" What would you say?
I've had service jobs working for tips, service jobs with a flat rate, and service jobs with a commission. I've explained my position, both in general, and with very specific examples. I outlined specifically how tipping can at times benefit everyone far better than a higher wage ever could.
But you still think you have a better solution. So okay, fine. But at least try it out before deciding you know better than others who've had that experience.
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It's just an industry that developed differently here than other places. Servers are not generally shortchanged if they are any good, and they can make very good money once they have developed the skills. My daughter was making $25 an hour and up during summers and holidays. Nothing is broken and it doesn't need to be fixed.
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@Mik said in The digital tip jar:
It's just an industry that developed differently here than other places. Servers are not generally shortchanged if they are any good, and they can make very good money once they have developed the skills. My daughter was making $25 an hour and up during summers and holidays. Nothing is broken and it doesn't need to be fixed.
Went through college with a Greek fellow who paid his way working tables. He was good at what he did, he knew what type of restaurant to work and when the rest of us were tickled to find $4/hr part-time jobs, he was knocking down almost $20/hr. In 1980.
Always remember, Operation Valkyrie was an act of sedition.
Warning: I post things that interest me. Read and comment at your own discretion. -
@Jolly said in The digital tip jar:
@Mik said in The digital tip jar:
It's just an industry that developed differently here than other places. Servers are not generally shortchanged if they are any good, and they can make very good money once they have developed the skills. My daughter was making $25 an hour and up during summers and holidays. Nothing is broken and it doesn't need to be fixed.
Went through college with a Greek fellow who paid his way working tables. He was good at what he did, he knew what type of restaurant to work and when the rest of us were tickled to find $4/hr part-time jobs, he was knocking down almost $20/hr. In 1980.
I started dishwashing. I got the job because a letter to the editor was published in the local paper about a particular kind of juvenile shenanigans. My dad found sand on my shoes, read the letter, put two and two together and that day, drove my ass to the stank-ass restaurant my uncle managed and told him I'd need a uniform. I never had another summer off.
I sucked ass at working. But I washed dishes for about three years, a new place every summer, until I was at least mediocre and another restaurant was hiring. I started dishwashing there, then covered for the delivery guy because word had gotten out the restaurant was willing to go to places others weren't, and everyone was taking us up on it.
The next summer, I did the delivering full-time along with the other guy. He taught me how to take 8-10 orders at a time and immediately balance out the most efficient loop to take vs. the order in which the orders actually came in vs. who was most and least likely to tip based on a lot of inside baseball.
It was a popular spot in a tourist area, so we were slammed basically from Memorial Day to Labor Day. One night, we were terribly under-staffed, so the BOH manager gave me a crash course in line work: he showed me how to properly parm something once, very fast ("wet-hand-dry-hand motherfucker or so help me God I will stab you!"), in the middle of a rush, and he expected me to do it exactly the same way for the rest of the night. I was able to do that, so it stuck. When I wasn't delivering, I was doing line work. And also filling in washing dishes because half our dishwashers just sucked and we couldn't wait for them.
A couple weeks into that, I noticed my paycheck changed. I asked if there was a mistake because they rang me up as a line cook, which was a substantial increase in the $2.18 I was making delivering.
Our BOH manager just stared at me. "What the fuck's the problem? You're doing the work, aren't you? You rotated the stock yet today?" (The latter of which was code for "don't piss me off with stupid questions or I'll give you stupid work to do.")
The restaurant owner then opened a newer, nicer place catty-corner to ours, and when the BOH manager finished his CIA (culinary) training, he ran the kitchen over there. My new routine was to line cook there, then deliver for the other place if they were overrun and we weren't underwater ourselves.
Between the line work (1.5 OT past 40 hours, too, and I never , ever worked under 55) and the deliveries, it would be quite a handful of years post-college before I made the hourly equivalent.
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@Rainman said in The digital tip jar:
Taiwan Girl, make sure you don't take things personally. If we did not disagree on things, this would be a very boring place! And, I suspect everyone here gets justifiably peeved. In the end, we are all friends, except me. I hate everybody. See ya!!
I dont. That is why I love this place.
We can pretty much have a "civil" discussion on just about any topic and disagree but still like and admire the person.
For example, you may say something I disagree with and I may say so. But you generally follow it up with an explanation. Sometimes it will change my mind, sometimes not. But it will always make me think, and that is the most important thing.
With todays technology, a lot of people only read things that they already agree with and do not see any other sides to it. That is a problem I think.
(BTW, I have worked in two pubs before - the Dew Drop Inn pub and Footloose Disco Pub in Kaohsiung. But both were on a salary and we received no tips. For me, I dont think I would have worked harder if there were tips.)
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@Mik said in The digital tip jar:
… Nothing is broken and it doesn't need to be fixed.
What do you mean by “nothing is broken”?
Have you not read the examples posted in this thread about inflated tipping percentages presented by credit card point-of-sale terminals? -
@Aqua-Letifer said in The digital tip jar:
@Jolly said in The digital tip jar:
@Mik said in The digital tip jar:
It's just an industry that developed differently here than other places. Servers are not generally shortchanged if they are any good, and they can make very good money once they have developed the skills. My daughter was making $25 an hour and up during summers and holidays. Nothing is broken and it doesn't need to be fixed.
Went through college with a Greek fellow who paid his way working tables. He was good at what he did, he knew what type of restaurant to work and when the rest of us were tickled to find $4/hr part-time jobs, he was knocking down almost $20/hr. In 1980.
I started dishwashing. I got the job because a letter to the editor was published in the local paper about a particular kind of juvenile shenanigans. My dad found sand on my shoes, read the letter, put two and two together and that day, drove my ass to the stank-ass restaurant my uncle managed and told him I'd need a uniform. I never had another summer off.
I sucked ass at working. But I washed dishes for about three years, a new place every summer, until I was at least mediocre and another restaurant was hiring. I started dishwashing there, then covered for the delivery guy because word had gotten out the restaurant was willing to go to places others weren't, and everyone was taking us up on it.
The next summer, I did the delivering full-time along with the other guy. He taught me how to take 8-10 orders at a time and immediately balance out the most efficient loop to take vs. the order in which the orders actually came in vs. who was most and least likely to tip based on a lot of inside baseball.
It was a popular spot in a tourist area, so we were slammed basically from Memorial Day to Labor Day. One night, we were terribly under-staffed, so the BOH manager gave me a crash course in line work: he showed me how to properly parm something once, very fast ("wet-hand-dry-hand motherfucker or so help me God I will stab you!"), in the middle of a rush, and he expected me to do it exactly the same way for the rest of the night. I was able to do that, so it stuck. When I wasn't delivering, I was doing line work. And also filling in washing dishes because half our dishwashers just sucked and we couldn't wait for them.
A couple weeks into that, I noticed my paycheck changed. I asked if there was a mistake because they rang me up as a line cook, which was a substantial increase in the $2.18 I was making delivering.
Our BOH manager just stared at me. "What the fuck's the problem? You're doing the work, aren't you? You rotated the stock yet today?" (The latter of which was code for "don't piss me off with stupid questions or I'll give you stupid work to do.")
The restaurant owner then opened a newer, nicer place catty-corner to ours, and when the BOH manager finished his CIA (culinary) training, he ran the kitchen over there. My new routine was to line cook there, then deliver for the other place if they were overrun and we weren't underwater ourselves.
Between the line work (1.5 OT past 40 hours, too, and I never , ever worked under 55) and the deliveries, it would be quite a handful of years post-college before I made the hourly equivalent.
Deep Creek?
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@Axtremus said in The digital tip jar:
@Mik said in The digital tip jar:
… Nothing is broken and it doesn't need to be fixed.
What do you mean by “nothing is broken”?
Have you not read the examples posted in this thread about inflated tipping percentages presented by credit card point-of-sale terminals?Strictly voluntary. Behave as you see fit and the market will decide.
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@LuFins-Dad said in The digital tip jar:
@Aqua-Letifer said in The digital tip jar:
@Jolly said in The digital tip jar:
@Mik said in The digital tip jar:
It's just an industry that developed differently here than other places. Servers are not generally shortchanged if they are any good, and they can make very good money once they have developed the skills. My daughter was making $25 an hour and up during summers and holidays. Nothing is broken and it doesn't need to be fixed.
Went through college with a Greek fellow who paid his way working tables. He was good at what he did, he knew what type of restaurant to work and when the rest of us were tickled to find $4/hr part-time jobs, he was knocking down almost $20/hr. In 1980.
I started dishwashing. I got the job because a letter to the editor was published in the local paper about a particular kind of juvenile shenanigans. My dad found sand on my shoes, read the letter, put two and two together and that day, drove my ass to the stank-ass restaurant my uncle managed and told him I'd need a uniform. I never had another summer off.
I sucked ass at working. But I washed dishes for about three years, a new place every summer, until I was at least mediocre and another restaurant was hiring. I started dishwashing there, then covered for the delivery guy because word had gotten out the restaurant was willing to go to places others weren't, and everyone was taking us up on it.
The next summer, I did the delivering full-time along with the other guy. He taught me how to take 8-10 orders at a time and immediately balance out the most efficient loop to take vs. the order in which the orders actually came in vs. who was most and least likely to tip based on a lot of inside baseball.
It was a popular spot in a tourist area, so we were slammed basically from Memorial Day to Labor Day. One night, we were terribly under-staffed, so the BOH manager gave me a crash course in line work: he showed me how to properly parm something once, very fast ("wet-hand-dry-hand motherfucker or so help me God I will stab you!"), in the middle of a rush, and he expected me to do it exactly the same way for the rest of the night. I was able to do that, so it stuck. When I wasn't delivering, I was doing line work. And also filling in washing dishes because half our dishwashers just sucked and we couldn't wait for them.
A couple weeks into that, I noticed my paycheck changed. I asked if there was a mistake because they rang me up as a line cook, which was a substantial increase in the $2.18 I was making delivering.
Our BOH manager just stared at me. "What the fuck's the problem? You're doing the work, aren't you? You rotated the stock yet today?" (The latter of which was code for "don't piss me off with stupid questions or I'll give you stupid work to do.")
The restaurant owner then opened a newer, nicer place catty-corner to ours, and when the BOH manager finished his CIA (culinary) training, he ran the kitchen over there. My new routine was to line cook there, then deliver for the other place if they were overrun and we weren't underwater ourselves.
Between the line work (1.5 OT past 40 hours, too, and I never , ever worked under 55) and the deliveries, it would be quite a handful of years post-college before I made the hourly equivalent.
Deep Creek?
Ayep.
Please love yourself.
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@Aqua-Letifer said in The digital tip jar:
@LuFins-Dad said in The digital tip jar:
@Aqua-Letifer said in The digital tip jar:
@Jolly said in The digital tip jar:
@Mik said in The digital tip jar:
It's just an industry that developed differently here than other places. Servers are not generally shortchanged if they are any good, and they can make very good money once they have developed the skills. My daughter was making $25 an hour and up during summers and holidays. Nothing is broken and it doesn't need to be fixed.
Went through college with a Greek fellow who paid his way working tables. He was good at what he did, he knew what type of restaurant to work and when the rest of us were tickled to find $4/hr part-time jobs, he was knocking down almost $20/hr. In 1980.
I started dishwashing. I got the job because a letter to the editor was published in the local paper about a particular kind of juvenile shenanigans. My dad found sand on my shoes, read the letter, put two and two together and that day, drove my ass to the stank-ass restaurant my uncle managed and told him I'd need a uniform. I never had another summer off.
I sucked ass at working. But I washed dishes for about three years, a new place every summer, until I was at least mediocre and another restaurant was hiring. I started dishwashing there, then covered for the delivery guy because word had gotten out the restaurant was willing to go to places others weren't, and everyone was taking us up on it.
The next summer, I did the delivering full-time along with the other guy. He taught me how to take 8-10 orders at a time and immediately balance out the most efficient loop to take vs. the order in which the orders actually came in vs. who was most and least likely to tip based on a lot of inside baseball.
It was a popular spot in a tourist area, so we were slammed basically from Memorial Day to Labor Day. One night, we were terribly under-staffed, so the BOH manager gave me a crash course in line work: he showed me how to properly parm something once, very fast ("wet-hand-dry-hand motherfucker or so help me God I will stab you!"), in the middle of a rush, and he expected me to do it exactly the same way for the rest of the night. I was able to do that, so it stuck. When I wasn't delivering, I was doing line work. And also filling in washing dishes because half our dishwashers just sucked and we couldn't wait for them.
A couple weeks into that, I noticed my paycheck changed. I asked if there was a mistake because they rang me up as a line cook, which was a substantial increase in the $2.18 I was making delivering.
Our BOH manager just stared at me. "What the fuck's the problem? You're doing the work, aren't you? You rotated the stock yet today?" (The latter of which was code for "don't piss me off with stupid questions or I'll give you stupid work to do.")
The restaurant owner then opened a newer, nicer place catty-corner to ours, and when the BOH manager finished his CIA (culinary) training, he ran the kitchen over there. My new routine was to line cook there, then deliver for the other place if they were overrun and we weren't underwater ourselves.
Between the line work (1.5 OT past 40 hours, too, and I never , ever worked under 55) and the deliveries, it would be quite a handful of years post-college before I made the hourly equivalent.
Deep Creek?
Ayep.
Have you seen the prices over the last 3 years? Insane.
Me/rry/Christmas
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@LuFins-Dad said in The digital tip jar:
@Aqua-Letifer said in The digital tip jar:
@LuFins-Dad said in The digital tip jar:
@Aqua-Letifer said in The digital tip jar:
@Jolly said in The digital tip jar:
@Mik said in The digital tip jar:
It's just an industry that developed differently here than other places. Servers are not generally shortchanged if they are any good, and they can make very good money once they have developed the skills. My daughter was making $25 an hour and up during summers and holidays. Nothing is broken and it doesn't need to be fixed.
Went through college with a Greek fellow who paid his way working tables. He was good at what he did, he knew what type of restaurant to work and when the rest of us were tickled to find $4/hr part-time jobs, he was knocking down almost $20/hr. In 1980.
I started dishwashing. I got the job because a letter to the editor was published in the local paper about a particular kind of juvenile shenanigans. My dad found sand on my shoes, read the letter, put two and two together and that day, drove my ass to the stank-ass restaurant my uncle managed and told him I'd need a uniform. I never had another summer off.
I sucked ass at working. But I washed dishes for about three years, a new place every summer, until I was at least mediocre and another restaurant was hiring. I started dishwashing there, then covered for the delivery guy because word had gotten out the restaurant was willing to go to places others weren't, and everyone was taking us up on it.
The next summer, I did the delivering full-time along with the other guy. He taught me how to take 8-10 orders at a time and immediately balance out the most efficient loop to take vs. the order in which the orders actually came in vs. who was most and least likely to tip based on a lot of inside baseball.
It was a popular spot in a tourist area, so we were slammed basically from Memorial Day to Labor Day. One night, we were terribly under-staffed, so the BOH manager gave me a crash course in line work: he showed me how to properly parm something once, very fast ("wet-hand-dry-hand motherfucker or so help me God I will stab you!"), in the middle of a rush, and he expected me to do it exactly the same way for the rest of the night. I was able to do that, so it stuck. When I wasn't delivering, I was doing line work. And also filling in washing dishes because half our dishwashers just sucked and we couldn't wait for them.
A couple weeks into that, I noticed my paycheck changed. I asked if there was a mistake because they rang me up as a line cook, which was a substantial increase in the $2.18 I was making delivering.
Our BOH manager just stared at me. "What the fuck's the problem? You're doing the work, aren't you? You rotated the stock yet today?" (The latter of which was code for "don't piss me off with stupid questions or I'll give you stupid work to do.")
The restaurant owner then opened a newer, nicer place catty-corner to ours, and when the BOH manager finished his CIA (culinary) training, he ran the kitchen over there. My new routine was to line cook there, then deliver for the other place if they were overrun and we weren't underwater ourselves.
Between the line work (1.5 OT past 40 hours, too, and I never , ever worked under 55) and the deliveries, it would be quite a handful of years post-college before I made the hourly equivalent.
Deep Creek?
Ayep.
Have you seen the prices over the last 3 years? Insane.
Well, people in your area continue to pay 'em. Blame your neighbors.
(But yeah, it's far past ridiculous at this point.)
Please love yourself.
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@Aqua-Letifer said in The digital tip jar:
@LuFins-Dad said in The digital tip jar:
@Aqua-Letifer said in The digital tip jar:
@LuFins-Dad said in The digital tip jar:
@Aqua-Letifer said in The digital tip jar:
@Jolly said in The digital tip jar:
@Mik said in The digital tip jar:
It's just an industry that developed differently here than other places. Servers are not generally shortchanged if they are any good, and they can make very good money once they have developed the skills. My daughter was making $25 an hour and up during summers and holidays. Nothing is broken and it doesn't need to be fixed.
Went through college with a Greek fellow who paid his way working tables. He was good at what he did, he knew what type of restaurant to work and when the rest of us were tickled to find $4/hr part-time jobs, he was knocking down almost $20/hr. In 1980.
I started dishwashing. I got the job because a letter to the editor was published in the local paper about a particular kind of juvenile shenanigans. My dad found sand on my shoes, read the letter, put two and two together and that day, drove my ass to the stank-ass restaurant my uncle managed and told him I'd need a uniform. I never had another summer off.
I sucked ass at working. But I washed dishes for about three years, a new place every summer, until I was at least mediocre and another restaurant was hiring. I started dishwashing there, then covered for the delivery guy because word had gotten out the restaurant was willing to go to places others weren't, and everyone was taking us up on it.
The next summer, I did the delivering full-time along with the other guy. He taught me how to take 8-10 orders at a time and immediately balance out the most efficient loop to take vs. the order in which the orders actually came in vs. who was most and least likely to tip based on a lot of inside baseball.
It was a popular spot in a tourist area, so we were slammed basically from Memorial Day to Labor Day. One night, we were terribly under-staffed, so the BOH manager gave me a crash course in line work: he showed me how to properly parm something once, very fast ("wet-hand-dry-hand motherfucker or so help me God I will stab you!"), in the middle of a rush, and he expected me to do it exactly the same way for the rest of the night. I was able to do that, so it stuck. When I wasn't delivering, I was doing line work. And also filling in washing dishes because half our dishwashers just sucked and we couldn't wait for them.
A couple weeks into that, I noticed my paycheck changed. I asked if there was a mistake because they rang me up as a line cook, which was a substantial increase in the $2.18 I was making delivering.
Our BOH manager just stared at me. "What the fuck's the problem? You're doing the work, aren't you? You rotated the stock yet today?" (The latter of which was code for "don't piss me off with stupid questions or I'll give you stupid work to do.")
The restaurant owner then opened a newer, nicer place catty-corner to ours, and when the BOH manager finished his CIA (culinary) training, he ran the kitchen over there. My new routine was to line cook there, then deliver for the other place if they were overrun and we weren't underwater ourselves.
Between the line work (1.5 OT past 40 hours, too, and I never , ever worked under 55) and the deliveries, it would be quite a handful of years post-college before I made the hourly equivalent.
Deep Creek?
Ayep.
Have you seen the prices over the last 3 years? Insane.
Well, people in your area continue to pay 'em. Blame your neighbors.
(But yeah, it's far past ridiculous at this point.)
Seriously, 2019 I was going to rent a place for 2 weeks but postponed. By 2021 I couldn’t afford 1 week and my income was up quite a bit…
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@Aqua-Letifer said in The digital tip jar:
@taiwan_girl said in The digital tip jar:
I do not believe that tipping makes the service better.
Because you've never been a waitress in the U.S. So you don't know.
Say you are and you have 2 tables. Table A you've had before. They never tip well. Absolutely never. No matter what you do for them. Table B tips variably between good and excellently, depending on the service.
If you're in any way a decent waitress, what you're going to do is provide bare minimum coverage for Table A and put all your effort in Table B. Table A still gets their food, no one's getting scammed. But both parties get exactly what they pay for. And in the end, you make a shitload more money for an hour's worth if work. You win, Table B wins, and Table A doesn't have to pay extra for services it clearly doesn't value.
If you "just pay the poor servers the same decent wage" then everybody gets the same mediocre service. You don't go above and beyond for great customers, you have to put up with assholes, and there's no incentive to go the extra mile with anyone.
By that rationale, you should also tip your lawyer if he gives good legal advice, or your professor if he gives a good lecture, or your dentist, if he fixes the tooth without pain.
All these professions can do a decent job without tipping.
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@Klaus said in The digital tip jar:
@Aqua-Letifer said in The digital tip jar:
@taiwan_girl said in The digital tip jar:
I do not believe that tipping makes the service better.
Because you've never been a waitress in the U.S. So you don't know.
Say you are and you have 2 tables. Table A you've had before. They never tip well. Absolutely never. No matter what you do for them. Table B tips variably between good and excellently, depending on the service.
If you're in any way a decent waitress, what you're going to do is provide bare minimum coverage for Table A and put all your effort in Table B. Table A still gets their food, no one's getting scammed. But both parties get exactly what they pay for. And in the end, you make a shitload more money for an hour's worth if work. You win, Table B wins, and Table A doesn't have to pay extra for services it clearly doesn't value.
If you "just pay the poor servers the same decent wage" then everybody gets the same mediocre service. You don't go above and beyond for great customers, you have to put up with assholes, and there's no incentive to go the extra mile with anyone.
By that rationale, you should also tip your lawyer if he gives good legal advice, or your professor if he gives a good lecture, or your dentist, if he fixes the tooth without pain.
All these professions can do a decent job without tipping.
I've done both and can compare. You have not.
Please love yourself.
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@Aqua-Letifer said in The digital tip jar:
@Klaus said in The digital tip jar:
@Aqua-Letifer said in The digital tip jar:
@taiwan_girl said in The digital tip jar:
I do not believe that tipping makes the service better.
Because you've never been a waitress in the U.S. So you don't know.
Say you are and you have 2 tables. Table A you've had before. They never tip well. Absolutely never. No matter what you do for them. Table B tips variably between good and excellently, depending on the service.
If you're in any way a decent waitress, what you're going to do is provide bare minimum coverage for Table A and put all your effort in Table B. Table A still gets their food, no one's getting scammed. But both parties get exactly what they pay for. And in the end, you make a shitload more money for an hour's worth if work. You win, Table B wins, and Table A doesn't have to pay extra for services it clearly doesn't value.
If you "just pay the poor servers the same decent wage" then everybody gets the same mediocre service. You don't go above and beyond for great customers, you have to put up with assholes, and there's no incentive to go the extra mile with anyone.
By that rationale, you should also tip your lawyer if he gives good legal advice, or your professor if he gives a good lecture, or your dentist, if he fixes the tooth without pain.
All these professions can do a decent job without tipping.
I've done both and can compare. You have not.
Is that really the best argument you have?
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Just finishing up a 2-3 week trip to Ireland. (pics to follow LOL)
Among many, one of the refreshing things about Ireland is that there is NO TIPPING!!!!! That, and the tax is already included in the price. So, for example, if you go to a pub and the meal and drink = 20 Euro, that is the price you pay. You dont have to worry about X% tax and Y% tip. :happydance Because of this, i would say that meals are probably a bit cheaper than in the US. I think all countries should adopt this policy. The tax thing should be easy to do. Tipping, maybe a bit more difficult but doable.
Service was as good as restaurants in the US. There was no decrease in service from the staff because they were not receiving tips.
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@taiwan_girl said in The digital tip jar:
Just finishing up a 2-3 week trip to Ireland. (pics to follow LOL)
Among many, one of the refreshing things about Ireland is that there is NO TIPPING!!!!! That, and the tax is already included in the price. So, for example, if you go to a pub and the meal and drink = 20 Euro, that is the price you pay. You dont have to worry about X% tax and Y% tip. :happydance Because of this, i would say that meals are probably a bit cheaper than in the US. I think all countries should adopt this policy. The tax thing should be easy to do. Tipping, maybe a bit more difficult but doable.
Service was as good as restaurants in the US. There was no decrease in service from the staff because they were not receiving tips.
I've never understood why advertised prices don't include the sales tax. It's unbelievably stupid.
Proud supporter of Plan 2525. Everything you think, do and say will be in the pill you took today.
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@Klaus said in The digital tip jar:
@Aqua-Letifer said in The digital tip jar:
@Klaus said in The digital tip jar:
@Aqua-Letifer said in The digital tip jar:
@taiwan_girl said in The digital tip jar:
I do not believe that tipping makes the service better.
Because you've never been a waitress in the U.S. So you don't know.
Say you are and you have 2 tables. Table A you've had before. They never tip well. Absolutely never. No matter what you do for them. Table B tips variably between good and excellently, depending on the service.
If you're in any way a decent waitress, what you're going to do is provide bare minimum coverage for Table A and put all your effort in Table B. Table A still gets their food, no one's getting scammed. But both parties get exactly what they pay for. And in the end, you make a shitload more money for an hour's worth if work. You win, Table B wins, and Table A doesn't have to pay extra for services it clearly doesn't value.
If you "just pay the poor servers the same decent wage" then everybody gets the same mediocre service. You don't go above and beyond for great customers, you have to put up with assholes, and there's no incentive to go the extra mile with anyone.
By that rationale, you should also tip your lawyer if he gives good legal advice, or your professor if he gives a good lecture, or your dentist, if he fixes the tooth without pain.
All these professions can do a decent job without tipping.
I've done both and can compare. You have not.
Is that really the best argument you have?
No, but my point is that I have more than those who haven't had those experiences. Which makes me not really want to get into it all that much. You don't know what you don't know, and arguing against something you've only heard or read about is pretty weak. I'd rather discuss it with people who actually understand the pros and cons of both systems, from both a consumer and worker perspective.
