This is one of the HN's best thread ever. Thanks, thanks, thanks to everyone for sharing.
As Gabriele D'Annunzio used to say: "I own what I've given away."
Bribing maitre d' to skip the line
131–140 of 183 posts
Re: Bribing maitre d' to skip the line
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
The incentives of the waiters and the restaurant owners are almost never perfectly aligned. Most profit comes from simple items: drinks, salads, the most basic pasta dishes, coffee. It's all stuff where the ingredients cost next to nothing and the prep time is negligible. They don't cost much either, but have huge margins. The waiter's incentive is not to push you to get the $9.95 ziti marinara, but to get the $22 lo…
But this is a problem you'll never really fix. Actually it's a fairly easy fix. Pay waiters a decent wage (so they aren't reliant on tips to pay the rent), plus an annual bonus for everybody who's worked the entire year (so they have an incentive to do their job right and not get fired), and combine this with actively discouraging/forbidding accepting tips and you're basically there. That's how most industries work.
I love your reply. This is what hacking means: you've found a bug in the system, you go fix it. Hacking is not limited to software.
Re: Bribing maitre d' to skip the line
#133Link to previous discussion
Re: Bribing maitre d' to skip the line
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
If there's a "single page" option, I prefer that to "printable". I don't mind ads, but I hate to click through three pages just to read an article.
It's surprising the divide that exists within the HN community. You have a lot of entrepreneurs who try to make successful companies based on free content and another side that can't stand those people. Or at least it seems that way based on the way this article is submitted, downvoted comments and general comments posted on the site. Someone creates good content and we're almost punishing them for it. Yes, paging is…
I usually leave a site whenever I'm forced to click through pages, unless the content is really compelling (which usually isn't). Moreover, my reading is interrupted by having to wait for the next page to load. The option for a single page is what I look for beforehand. I don't mind all the ads being there. I think the solution would be showing a preview of the article.
Re: Bribing maitre d' to skip the line
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you think about it, it is economically rational behavior for a barista/bartender to do this for regular customers. After all, she gives you a drink that is free to her and gets back real money as a tip. The only loser is the coffee shop or bar, who has trouble tracking the number of drinks served. My friend runs a bar and this is a huge problem for him that he calls a "bribe back". The only solution he found is hi…
I hope your friend also understands how much this will get people like me to come back. There is a bar in Phoenix that I used to go to all the time (when the weather calms down, I'll start going again [because I bike there]). One of the major reasons that I went back so often, is because I felt like a regular there. It was a very common occurrence for the bartenders to offer me a free drink. A lot of these free drink…
"I think it's important for business owners to remember this type of thing: you're absolutely not selling coffee, or beer, or dell computers, you're selling me a little temporary friend that makes me feel like they really and truly care about whatever problem I am coming to them to solve."
This is only true in non-commodity markets. Yeah, the coffee shop is selling you the 'coffee experience' - the service, more than they are selling you the coffee. But if you follow that chain backwards, you can bet that someone along the line is selling actual coffee.
to take the example I actually know something about, yeah, dell wants to be my buddy. But micron? micron wants to sell me some fucking ram. Because cheap reliable servers are central to my business, I find my friends elsewhere, and I bypass dell and go to suppliers that don't want to be my friend, and I pocket the difference.
On the other hand, when I buy things like accounting services or coffee, I expect something that is more 'full service' - I know jack about accounting, so you've gotta put me at ease, and be willing to pretty much just handle it for me. If I didn't know what I know about hardware, and if my servers needed to be reliable but cheap wasn't as big of a deal, I'd think about buying my servers from dell, too, with the silly expensive support plans. (dell, on the minimum support plan, in my experience is worse than building yourself. On the other hand, the gold plated support, I hear, is damn good.)
So, uh, yeah. Sometimes you are selling your product, and sometimes you are selling "the experience" of the product. Most of the time, you are selling a little bit of both.
But, you are right that it's very important to remember what you are selling... If you try to sell me 'the experience' when I try to get ram, I'm probably going to walk. and if dell tried to just sell the servers when they went to sell to $BIGCORP, without the, uh, "tips" and gladhanding, they'd loose out just as badly.
Re: Bribing maitre d' to skip the line
#136> Increasingly, I was struck by how much impact the experience was having on me. Surmounting this challenge night after night was actually giving me a certain self-assurance, a feeling of having grown up. Some might find this disillusioning: “You mean life is not first-come, first-served?” I found I had a different reaction: “You mean all it takes to crack one of New York’s most daunting thresholds is fifty bucks?” E…
Came here to say just that.
Re: Bribing maitre d' to skip the line
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think a very common tip increasing strategy used by people serving food is to give discounts. If I'm selling you something for $10 and you'd normally tip $1 and I give it to you for $8, you are much more inclined to tip me $2-3, because you'd still pay the same or less and received "special" service. This of course may be unethical for the employee, depending on store policy. My best friend falls for it every time,…
The danger with tactics like this is that the customers don't overthink tipping as much as the service staff, particularly if they are from a different country/culture. I tried to tip about $1/drink in New York, but when I got a free drink ("for being stuck" - volcano) I didn't know whether I was expected to tip the value, tip a little extra, or just take it as a favour. I would guess that on a bill, rather than a fr…
You should always tip the free drink. When you are in a bar or restaurant, you're receiving two things: the product and the service. When the product is free, you should still pay for the service.
Re: Bribing maitre d' to skip the line
#138> Increasingly, I was struck by how much impact the experience was having on me. Surmounting this challenge night after night was actually giving me a certain self-assurance, a feeling of having grown up. Some might find this disillusioning: “You mean life is not first-come, first-served?” I found I had a different reaction: “You mean all it takes to crack one of New York’s most daunting thresholds is fifty bucks?” E…
An excellent point. Besides the inherent scale, what makes this author's experience different from a senator or representative who takes money in exchange for preferential treatment? Both screw over a number of people who are playing by the rules.
Actually, I think this article made me realize that in any situation it is important to ask "what are the rules?". It's not like there is a sign posted above the door saying "do not tip for better seating". Who says it's wrong to tip for priority seating?
Re: Bribing maitre d' to skip the line
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is an insightful line. Partners in crime is the concept, though, I think. In this a very trivial "crime".
The only "crime" that is broken is split between ethical and social. Socially, if there is a line to get into a place or to receive something and you skip ahead of a hundred other people, then you're a jerk. Another point I can see is if by this article being published, more people start trying to bribe their way into restaurants, the people that already try to follow the standard rules get pushed further back in lin…
>Bribing your way into some place shouldn't be the protocol for getting a seat.
Why not? Doesn't microeconomics 101 say "if you have more demand than supply, your prices are too low"? Clarendon Ballroom fills to capacity every weekend, so I have to pay a $5 cover if I go this Saturday (and even at that price, they still have a line at 11pm, which is why I'll get there early). When I drive out to see friends tonight, I'll pay $5 to drive on the Dulles Toll Road rather than sit in more traffic on Route 7 during rush hour. I mean, ideally the system should be formalized so that it's not off-the-books, but I don't see what's socially wrong with for-pay seating at exclusive restaurants.
Re: Bribing maitre d' to skip the line
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was recently at a conference reception where each person was given two drink tickets. My friend and I went up for our first drink and my friend tipped the bar tender well. The rest of the night that same guy just kept handing him his tickets back...
What is considered a good tip for a drink?
As the previous poster said, a $1 per drink is good if you're going back and fourth to the bar.
However, if you're sitting there awhile at the bar with the same bartender and running a tab, it is acceptable to tip less when you settle up.
Example: If I had 6 drinks at $5 a pint, thats $30. For that I would give a $5 instead of a $6.
Since the amount in question is so minor, its better to stick with $1 a drink. Easier.
However, I would point out that if you get a buy-back then you should tip more. A basic guide is if the bartender 'buys' you a $5 drink then you should be giving $2 towards the final tip.
Thats just a simple guide for a simple use-case. Use your discretions. I don't tip if the bartender is rude or gives me a sloppily poured drink (I say that as a former bartender/bar-back/bar-manager).