Buddy of mine brought up an interesting topic of conversation after we both finished a meal at a local restaurant. We both typically tip 20% of a bill, both willing to go higher for great service, or lower for bad service (we don’t ding the waitress for problems outside their control…but if I see she/he just BSing and clowning around with her workmates and not refilling a soda after it’s empty for over ten minutes, the tip gets lowered).
So, let’s analyze the issue before I ask a question…
My meal: Burger, fries, soda. Total bill for me: $11.75
His meal: Ribeye steak with couple of sides, a beer and a soda (drinks ordered together, delivered together). His total bill: $36.40
Waitress came to our table six times (menus already on table): Take our drink order, bring our drinks (I noticed all of our drinks came from the same area) and take our food order, bring our food, take our plates and leave checks, take checks, bring back change/receipts. Neither of us received a drink refill...and our water was never refilled even though mine was almost gone at the end of the meal. Most of these waitress visits were less than 10 seconds each to our table.
We each paid a 20% tip for our meal/drink(s)…service was standard, nothing special, waitress wasn’t interested in chatting and moved on each time. Food was good, no issues. So, my total with tip was $14.10. His total was $46.68.
My question: At what point did the “standard” tipping of a waitress (or waiter) come from what WE eat/drink, and not the service?
Had we sat visited solo on our own, it would have been the same # of trips to our respective tables…yet due to the “standard” tipping protocol, she earned $10.22 from my buddy’s table, and from me, $2.35. The only difference is what we ate…the service and number of trips to our tables would have been the same. So, due to the normal 20% tip, she made $7.87 more because my buddy wanted to eat steak instead of hamburger.
Just thought this was interesting once we started discussing and analyzing it. I told my buddy he gets to pay more for his steak to make up for all the morons that don’t tip. He responded he pays more because we’re all sheep and follow the protocols that others have established for us all to live by.
So, let’s analyze the issue before I ask a question…
My meal: Burger, fries, soda. Total bill for me: $11.75
His meal: Ribeye steak with couple of sides, a beer and a soda (drinks ordered together, delivered together). His total bill: $36.40
Waitress came to our table six times (menus already on table): Take our drink order, bring our drinks (I noticed all of our drinks came from the same area) and take our food order, bring our food, take our plates and leave checks, take checks, bring back change/receipts. Neither of us received a drink refill...and our water was never refilled even though mine was almost gone at the end of the meal. Most of these waitress visits were less than 10 seconds each to our table.
We each paid a 20% tip for our meal/drink(s)…service was standard, nothing special, waitress wasn’t interested in chatting and moved on each time. Food was good, no issues. So, my total with tip was $14.10. His total was $46.68.
My question: At what point did the “standard” tipping of a waitress (or waiter) come from what WE eat/drink, and not the service?
Had we sat visited solo on our own, it would have been the same # of trips to our respective tables…yet due to the “standard” tipping protocol, she earned $10.22 from my buddy’s table, and from me, $2.35. The only difference is what we ate…the service and number of trips to our tables would have been the same. So, due to the normal 20% tip, she made $7.87 more because my buddy wanted to eat steak instead of hamburger.
Just thought this was interesting once we started discussing and analyzing it. I told my buddy he gets to pay more for his steak to make up for all the morons that don’t tip. He responded he pays more because we’re all sheep and follow the protocols that others have established for us all to live by.