Bought a case of wine at a local winery. Because they also sell wine by the glass and do tastings, the software they use has a pre-calculated tip screen. I skipped that screen, but it made me wonder how many folks hit one of the recommended tip options when buying a $50 bottle of wine to go.
What! The worker donāt get the tips! Now Iām very annoyed.
Besides the fact that itās illegal
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This practice of adding a tip line - starting at 18% - when using a CC bugs me to no end. Itās showing up everywhere. I simply click āotherā and add what I feel is the correct %.
Weāve not returned to eating out at our pre-COVID level. Frankly the cost to value ratio is no longer there. We have a few local places we support - and tip in cash.
I recently went out to lunch and when the bill came it had a CC service fee and an additional fee for something or other. I gave the server cash. He asked if I wanted change. Um YES. Iām not leaving you a 25% tip for bringing me a hamburger. Usually, a server would be smart enough to bring back a few $$ bills instead of one big bill (say $5 plus some ones). This one brought back just a $10 bill. Expecting of course for me to leave the whole amount. That behavior resulted in a VERY low tip since I always have small change in my wallet.
Grrrrrā¦
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How many areas still pay the wait staff less than minimum wage? I was a cook in high school and I think the waitresses were only paid $1 or $2 per hour so tips made sense, even though they made way more than I thought reasonable (as the lowly cook sweating over the grill/fryers).
Now with wait staff getting $15+ in some areas is it not time to get rid of tipping?
A friend recently made $1600 in one day (albeit a very busy day) as a waitress at an outdoor festivalā¦on top of a very generous hourly wage. I think it has gotten out of hand in the US.
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Reminds me of a documentary I saw about the the Empire State Building. The kid who brought water to the workers and was paid through tips, made much more than his father who was an actual builder.
I agree, the staff should be paid a living wage, and no tipping.
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The vast majority still pay less, several still paying $2.13. Here in NJ, they finally upped it to $5.13, fortunately the COL here is so lowā¦ I worked for tips, all 5 of my kids did/do (hostess, server, bartender, carrying heavy things to cars), I tip very well.
Thatās the price for drinks pretty much everywhere here (well, beers start at 8 and wine $13), in my little town.
While some states have a higher minimum wage for tipped employees, many states are still at the federal level of $2.13, an amount that has not changed since 1991 (!!)
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I know Iād be highly disappointed if some of our Mexican restaurants starting charging for the first round of salsa/chips that are usually free!!! But honestly, Iād rather pay for that than a slice of lime or lemon in my water!!!
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Some restaurants here now put bread and butter on the menu. No more freebies, but you get an upscale bread basket. At one place, it is $10ā¦ but you get a bread tower of sorts and some artisanal butter that can feed a small army. Annoying because it is way more than the two of us can eat, and even if we take the leftovers home, a day old āfreshly bakedā bread is not that great.
We go out and I often ask for something g on the side. The wait staff will generally let us know if there will be an additional charge which I usually agree to.
We were at one restaurant and I asked for a side of salsa. The waitress said there would be an additional charge and I agreed. She brought me one of those small 1-2 oz containers. I laughed at how small it was. They then brought the bill and they had charged $1.50 for that salsa.
Weāve never been back.
Dining in Europe is a treat:
āVAT is included in the price, so a 20 euro meal costsā¦20 euro, that it!
āservers are paid a good fair wage, so tipping is not expected
āBUT if you think the service was exceptional, you can leave a small tip, which is appreciated.
The barman in a pub in Ireland was embarrassed when we left him a tip.
The flip side is when Europeans come here and dine out for the first time, the check makes their heads explode, with taxes at the bottom of the bill, and the tip line.
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I recently bought lunch in Munich, using my credit card, then gave the waitress a cash tip.
I thought I had bought lunch for my German friend at the same time, but when that turned out not to be the case, I paid for my friendās lunch separately by credit card as well.
When I tried to give the waitress an additional tip, both the waitress and my friend protested and the waitress didnāt take the money.
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I recently saw someone giving a heads up on social media that a local restaurant has started putting a surcharge on any bills being paid by credit card. Others chimed in saying they saw this happening at a few other restaurants in the area. This would piss me off b/c in my mind, this is a cost of doing business. And most people donāt carry much cash anymore so this catches you off guard and you have no choice but to pay. That said, I did eat at a restaurant with my daughter in April while touring colleges that had a big sign on the door saying they only accepted cash. No problem, it was a small neighborhood joint, so I walked around the corner and got cash, but had there not been an ATM, we would have just eaten elsewhere. The local restaurant now charging extra for credit card payments does not mention anything on their website about the surcharge and they are located in an area that would require you to get in your car if you wanted to go get cash before eating (if there is even a sign before entering, Iām not sure as I have not been there since this change). Iām sure they figure most will just pay the surcharge b/c what else can they do at that point?
And though I love love love chips and salsa, it wouldnāt bother me too much if a restaurant started charging for that. I often end up eating too much of it and then donāt have enough room for my dinner! Same with free bread. Just empty calories that I donāt need.
I live in a tourist town. With Covid, the restaurant/tourist industry here was hit hard. Now that people are back to eating in restaurants, like everywhere else, it is difficult to hire enough staff. As a result, the experience of eating out is not as pleasant as there just isnāt enough staff to a) get your food in a timely manner and b) have a waiter who isnāt stretched so thin that service suffers. For that reason, and b/c we are not comfortable eating at most places indoors, we mainly just get carryout. That ends up saving us money as beverages can add quite a bit to the bill when eating out unless drinking water. I do tip any time we get carryout though. The rare occasion where we have eaten out, we are understanding with the staff about wait time for table, for food, etc. especially when they are upfront if there might be some delays due to staff shortages.
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The workers get the tips, but YOUR server doesnāt get the tip you leave.
My daughter works at Starbucks. She gets tips on her paycheck, but they take all the tips for the week divide by all hours worked that week by all workers, and then she gets the tips for the hours she worked without regard to whether they were worked in the car lane, during a peak period, or whether she actually even spoke to a customer. She works about 20 hours per week and often doesnāt get $10. Sheās paid a fair wage, but just doesnāt care about the tips (because they are not worth worrying about).
The exception is holidays. The holiday workers get the holiday tips.
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Many of our restaurants are charging the sur charge for using credit cards.
It wasnāt the price of the drinks the poster was complaining about, but that the fee and tax added 25% before the tip.
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Recently I placed an online order for clothing, when I checked out there was a line for tipping their very dedicated associates. I put 0.
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Interesting. I am pretty sure businesses claim credit card fees as tax deductions so they just double dip by charging customers .
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Good heavensā¦this thread is depressing as h***.
I didnāt realize that credit card surcharging was happening. I will look more carefully at my receipts.
Also, I am finding food delivery services to be a really bad deal these days, at least most of the time. Many of the delivery services have higher menu prices than the restaurants themselves do, and then tack on charges and fees etc. It really adds up. Prior to the pandemic, it was a real time-saver, and I was happy to pay the delivery fee for that benefit. With many of the menu items also being more costly, itās no longer a convenience thing, as it is VERY expensive to get food delivered now.
These days, we usually just order online (if possible and assuming there is no surcharge for that) and pick it up.
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