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No tipping means better business

tastefulventures.com

531–540 of 550 posts

Re: No tipping means better business

#531
post #333
post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worse still, tipping is merely a way of keeping class hierarchies, and it's disgusting. When a person walks into a restaurant in the USA they can waive a $20 bill at a waitperson and say if you do what I want, and if I like you, and if I'm feeling generous, I might give you some of this. Of course, they might not too. Labor laws, minimum wage, etc are all there to make this illegal in a work contract, and it should b…

Tipping is supposed to be for exceptional service. For example, if the wait person takes your order and brings your food and nothing more I wouldn't tip. If they do the above and keep your water glass filled constantly without need to ask, if your meal, drink orders and dessert come out promptly and correctly, if they ask if everything is ok throuought the meal at appropriate times, etc I would tip. Getting good serv…

> if your meal, drink orders and dessert come out promptly and correctly, if they ask if everything is ok throuought the meal at appropriate times, etc I would tip.

And yet fully half of those things are beyond the control of the person you're tipping for it.

Re: No tipping means better business

#532
post #529
post #526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find large interest free loans useful.

You will have to pay penalties if you underpaid over the course of the year. This makes it not interest free.

There are plenty of games you can play with withholdings. EX: As long as you witholdings are enough to pay last years taxes or 90% of this years you are good.

Or if your bonus is in January you can have a higher witholdings from salary and the default 25% from the bonus. Just balance it by the end of the year.

But that's just simple stuff, there are also other benefits to the company.

Re: No tipping means better business

#533
post #313

Mexico all inclusive vs Thailand. Anyone that has been to these two places would have to agree that tipping directly correlates to the quality of service. This is why I'm going back to Mexico for the 9th time in 4 years.

Can you elaborate on this? What is the tipping culture like in Thailand? I presume you mean in Mexico that since everything is all-inclusive, the only real payment is tips so it strongly affects service quality.

Tipping in Thailand is not much of a thing. The service greatly suffers from this. If you do go into a 5-star hotel in the city they tend to attract a crowd that expects tips. This is where you can find really good service. The people were always pleasant, just not very motivated to serve you.

Everywhere I've been in Mexico the service has been top notch. In all inclusives you are still expected to tip the people.

Re: No tipping means better business

#534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...Have you never cooked a meal for yourself or something? No? I try to cook most of my meals. In fact, I prefer it over eating out. I'm not convinced it is fiscally optimal though, but I'm okay with paying the premium for my preference. > which are amortized over time Like I pointed out in my other comment, simply having a small kitchen in San Francisco will cost you $2 per meal (assuming you eat three meals per d…

My point is that if you compare like meals with like meals home cooking is going to be far cheaper just about every time. If you compare cooking a steak to eating eggs and potatoes at a diner maybe not. Restaurants sell just about everything at at least 4 times the cost of the ingredients. The energy and so on aren't exactly free but they're not running a charity either.

> My point is that if you compare like meals with like meals home cooking is going to be far cheaper just about every time.

Is that meant to be a tangent to the original discussion?

This discussion was about restaurants not seeing the benefits of economies of scale. I'm suggesting that they have, it's just not particularly obvious because people are quick to ignore most of the costs of cooking at home.

If all you are saying once you have already invested in the means of production, and don't value your time, that a home cooked meal is cheaper... then sure. I'm sure just about everything you could possibly buy is cheaper than retail if you are only including the raw materials you need to get the job done.

If you already have a garden and your time is free you can grow the food for far less than the grocery store charges. Heck, if you already own a silicon fab and don't value your time designing chips, you can likely build a computer for a fraction of the cost of one in the store. But that's a pretty silly way to look at it. There are real costs to having the production capability that should not be ignored.

Re: No tipping means better business

#535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point is that if you compare like meals with like meals home cooking is going to be far cheaper just about every time. If you compare cooking a steak to eating eggs and potatoes at a diner maybe not. Restaurants sell just about everything at at least 4 times the cost of the ingredients. The energy and so on aren't exactly free but they're not running a charity either.

And further, it's not like there are all these no-kitchen apartments for rent so you almost certainly have a stove anyway. Your average refrigerator apparently costs you less than $12 a month in CA ( http://homeguides.sfgate.com/calculate-cost-run-refrigerator... ) so it's a pittance too.

[deleted]

Re: No tipping means better business

#536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point is that if you compare like meals with like meals home cooking is going to be far cheaper just about every time. If you compare cooking a steak to eating eggs and potatoes at a diner maybe not. Restaurants sell just about everything at at least 4 times the cost of the ingredients. The energy and so on aren't exactly free but they're not running a charity either.

> My point is that if you compare like meals with like meals home cooking is going to be far cheaper just about every time. Is that meant to be a tangent to the original discussion? This discussion was about restaurants not seeing the benefits of economies of scale. I'm suggesting that they have, it's just not particularly obvious because people are quick to ignore most of the costs of cooking at home. If all you are…

Well, I'd argue that we should talk about the world we actually live in and not one where people have homes without stoves and with silicon fabrication devices.

Re: No tipping means better business

#537
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are bizarre laws. I'm not sure if Netherland has any laws on tipping and sharing them, but I think some places share their tips with the entire staff. If you can tip the waiter for excellent service, then you should also be able to tip the kitchen staff if the food is particularly excellent.

The labor laws in the USA are extremely bizarre. Wait staff have a different, much lower, minimum wage than other workers. The restaurant is required to pay them the regular minimum wage if their tips do not make up the difference, and this is a source of many labor complaints. For most wait staff this is not an issue. Their tips put them well above minimum wage status, but that is one of the big drivers of the tippi…

How can laws on tipping have an impact on restaurants' ability to keep kitchen staff? They can still choose to pay them more, can't they?

Re: No tipping means better business

#538
post #526
post #514

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This only affects the withholding of bonuses (the amount the IRS has you pre-pay as an estimate of taxes.) It does not affect the actual income tax on bonuses. (It's mostly a disadvantage. I get about 60-70% of my income in bonus and stock which is treated the same; it just means that, if I don't plan ahead for it, I end up with a surprise tax bill on April 15th. I do plan ahead, but the whole process is obnoxious.)

I find large interest free loans useful.

I don't hate this (and it's why I don't pay quarterlies--also, I tend to generate enough deductions to be okay.)

But it's absolutely not correct that paying people with bonuses lowers their effective tax rate.

Re: No tipping means better business

#540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My point is that if you compare like meals with like meals home cooking is going to be far cheaper just about every time. Is that meant to be a tangent to the original discussion? This discussion was about restaurants not seeing the benefits of economies of scale. I'm suggesting that they have, it's just not particularly obvious because people are quick to ignore most of the costs of cooking at home. If all you are…

Well, I'd argue that we should talk about the world we actually live in and not one where people have homes without stoves and with silicon fabrication devices.

Well, that's certainly an interesting topic of its own, but I don't see how it applies to the context of this discussion.
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