I don't understand tipping.

[Pizzly]

When you go to a restaurant there is a contract created where you pay for food and services. You pay the restaurant owner, the owner in turn pays his employees. Why on earth are you expected to tip? I have no problem giving a little bit of money to a person for service beyond what is expected, here I consider it out of their good will and not part of the trade, but there is no implicit contract here. The trade is between you and the owner, not between you and the servers.

I understand the basic social norm as reason enough to tip, but there surely is no ethical reason to do so? You pay the restaurant owner for the meal and such, not the server. There is no contractual agreement between you and the server, they are simply a median of exchange on part of the owners. Thoughts?

[Turd Ferguson]

Tipping for good service is preferable to the owner of the establishment paying their waitresses more on the base pay.

Heres why......

Lets say that you, Pizzly, work at a restaurant and your job is to serve food to people. The customer expects a somewhat good attitude from you, fairly quick service and as few fuck-ups on your part as possible. Lets say that you, just for the sake of argument, were a complete fuck up that couldn't get anything right. Screwing up orders all the time, greeting customers with a scowl on your face, generally shitty attitude. How much do you think you deserve? Do you think that you are worth as much as someone who has a memory like a steel trap, getting all orders right without even having to write it down, in addition to greeting the customer with a smile, maybe telling a witty joke or two to brighten their day a little? 

NO, you are not worth as much as someone like that. Everyone knows this. Problem is, how does the boss keep track of who's who when it comes to delivering good service? He cant possibly follow each and every waiter/waitress around all day to find out himself who delivers good service to his customers and who doesn't. Instead, he relies on the tipping system to fix this stuff for him. With this system, the shitty waiter makes less than the good one and most likely, the shitty one wont stay at that job for long if he/she isnt getting any tips. If, on the other hand, you do away with tipping, the boss pays the shit waiter the same as he pays the good one, the shit waiter is more likely to stick around longer and make the customers life hell for a much longer period of time because he figures "Hey, I dont have to do DICK around here since I make as much as the good waiters...... this is a sweet job!!". Its not the bosses fault. Hes got more important shit to worry about than babysitting his waiters/waitresses and making sure they do a good job.

The tipping system takes care of all this, without any kind of feedback from anyone but the customer.

Its a perfect system.

[Riddler]

simply put,
the owners don't pay living wages, or anything close to that.
min. wage laws don't apply to servers & bartenders........server min wage is , like, $3-4/hr
they rely on tips for the dif.
if they WERE payed a normal  wage, your fucking burger & fries would be $15, instead of $8

[Turd Ferguson]

simply put,
the owners don't pay living wages, or anything close to that.
min. wage laws don't apply to servers & bartenders........server min wage is , like, $3-4/hr
they rely on tips for the dif.
if they WERE payed a normal  wage, your fucking burger & fries would be $15, instead of $8

yeah, and the shitty waitresses would be making exactly what the good ones were, which would suck for the good ones.

[Lindsey]

I think we've already had this discussion.  You're an asshole if you don't tip.  Try it...and see how good your food is when the establishment realizes you're the douche that doesn't tip. 

[One two three]

If you are European, I understand.  If you are jewish, that's OK too

[Turd Ferguson]

If you are European, I understand.  If you are jewish, that's OK too

I agree, if you have a Jewish or European waiter/waitress, fuck em, no tip. 

[Turd Ferguson]

I think we've already had this discussion.  You're an asshole if you don't tip.  Try it...and see how good your food is when the establishment realizes you're the douche that doesn't tip. 

I have a pretty simple tip scale I try to go by.

Waiter or waitress that is just, blah, 10%

Average waitress, 15%

Above average, 20%

Shitty attitude with the customer? Havin' a bad day cuz your bf/gf dumped you? Fine, dont bring that shit to work with you. 1 cent (penny for your thoughts)


That last one, I think ive only done 3 times in my life.

[Andy]

I'm not prepared to defend the existence of tipping as a custom.

However, if that is the custom, then yes, of course there is an ethical obligation to tip. And hell, if you know about the custom then yeah, there's probably an implicit contract too.

[Riddler]

i can't stand the tip jar for take-out
fuck you, i stood at the counter.....you handed it to me, after lou-out-back made it, and you made change.

[BonerJoe]

i can't stand the tip jar for take-out
fuck you, i stood at the counter.....you handed it to me, after lou-out-back made it, and you made change.

This especially annoys me when you know the owner is serving you, or it's a family member.

[Turd Ferguson]

i can't stand the tip jar for take-out
fuck you, i stood at the counter.....you handed it to me, after lou-out-back made it, and you made change.

Yeah, thats pretty fuckin dumb.

You just know the few "tips" in the jar were put there by the owner to make it look like people actually do it. Who does that shit?

[blackie]

I hardly ever go to eat, and when I do, it is mostly take out. I tip about 20% even when I get take out at one place, and it is the owner. She always gives me extra stuff to try. It's a vegan place that looks like it is about to shut down, not one of the fancy ones. They don't have a tip jar.

But mostly I hate tipping.

[Turd Ferguson]

I hardly ever go to eat, and when I do, it is mostly take out. I tip about 20% even when I get take out at one place, and it is the owner. She always gives me extra stuff to try. It's a vegan place that looks like it is about to shut down, not one of the fancy ones. They don't have a tip jar.

But mostly I hate tipping.

Yeah, I can understand doing that. I mean, theyre almost going out of business and if you want them to stick around, its understandable to want to help if you can. Different situation entirely.

The place I see one of these jars at, they dont even have servers. Carry out only and they're busy as FUCK, all the time.

So you walk in the place, lots of commotion going on all the time, always someone in there ordering something. Business is good.... and thats good. But then you see this big ass tip jar sitting all prominent right up next to the register askinf for tips. Like, WTF????? You people are already making cash, hand over fist and now you whores want some tips too????

Thats just fucked hard. Whatever though, tip em if they want I guess.

[mauiguy]

How 'bout the pizza delivery guy?

He's doing a little more than walking your grub from the kitchen to your table and then cleaning up after your little ankle biters.

I mean he could get T-boned by a semi, FFS, just so you can stuff your gullet with cheesy goodness.