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Why some US restaurants are banning tips

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Re: Why some US restaurants are banning tips

#111

Post by chistev »

rock_artist wrote: post #37
getfacl wrote: post #31

The biggest barrier to ending tipping in the USA is that restaurants are almost always over staffed there. The owner wants the maximum ratio of servers to customers possible. In the typical USA system, being paid primarily in tips means the server is highly incentivized to upsell the customer as much as possible and do everything they can to increase the total bill, and therefor increase their tip. Essentially a comm…

It depends and also is culture based. In Spain you can find some places (eg coffee place) with 1-2 workers. Sometimes it takes a lot of time to get your order at rush hours, but the culture tolerates patience and waiting.

Christopher Ryan said this on a Joe Rogan Experience episode.

Re: Why some US restaurants are banning tips

#112

Post by tdeck »

palata wrote: post #100
tdeck wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If it wasn't, then the owner would also get paid from tips. Actually it's quite common for owners to take some of the tips, even though that's not legal.

I meant "solely from tips", obviously. And yeah, on top of abusing the employees by not paying them (and relying on the customers to pay the employees directly), stealing from the tip is even more abusive. And let's not even talk about those delivery (and similar) apps that also abuse the tips in their algorithms.

I think the ability to steal tips is part of the appeal for some employers unfortunately.

Re: Why some US restaurants are banning tips

#113

Post by kubb »

xyzelement wrote: post #101
ricardobayes wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the biggest cultural differences - for Spain - is that servers are seen as equals, not as a client-provider relationship. This reflects heavily in the language often used - "when you can, bring me X". Just one of the quirks of a low gini coefficient society.

Just yesterday there was a story on HN about Spain's dying villages and a commenter who I assumed was Spanish attributed theow beth rate to income inequality. Which is it - low gini for talking to a waiter, high gini for starting a fam?

You can’t hold two separate people accountable for their contradictory statements.

Re: Why some US restaurants are banning tips

#114

Post by raincole »

catoc wrote: post #64
jamisteven wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LMFAO, have you ever been to a restaurant in Europe? The service is horrific. Sit down and wait 15 minutes for the menus, another 15 to place a drink order, another 10 for the drinks to get there, another 10 to place food order. Now you finish the meal, good luck getting the waiters attention to bring the check. European dining is the worst, every time I am back stateside I feel like im being waited on in the white h…

> European dining is the worst Europe has 40+ countries with what, a million, restaurants… let’s conflate them all! Horrible! The whole continent! 1 star (and not a Michelin one)!

This is literally what the grandparent comment was doing.

> In the typical USA system...

> European restaurants typically...

But the interesting thing is that no one ever complains when people group things by continents like that if the theme is bashing the US and praising Europe. Only when talking bad about Europe it's suddenly an issue.

Re: Why some US restaurants are banning tips

#115

Post by hammock »

rock_artist wrote: post #37
getfacl wrote: post #31

The biggest barrier to ending tipping in the USA is that restaurants are almost always over staffed there. The owner wants the maximum ratio of servers to customers possible. In the typical USA system, being paid primarily in tips means the server is highly incentivized to upsell the customer as much as possible and do everything they can to increase the total bill, and therefor increase their tip. Essentially a comm…

It depends and also is culture based. In Spain you can find some places (eg coffee place) with 1-2 workers. Sometimes it takes a lot of time to get your order at rush hours, but the culture tolerates patience and waiting.

I would rather have to tip, than lower my standard of living like that

Re: Why some US restaurants are banning tips

#116

Post by ohyoutravel »

konart wrote: post #95
jamisteven wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LMFAO, have you ever been to a restaurant in Europe? The service is horrific. Sit down and wait 15 minutes for the menus, another 15 to place a drink order, another 10 for the drinks to get there, another 10 to place food order. Now you finish the meal, good luck getting the waiters attention to bring the check. European dining is the worst, every time I am back stateside I feel like im being waited on in the white h…

People over the Atlantic just have a better concept of social gathering as opposed to neediness of being served and staffed with food. People come to a place to have fun and talk for a few hours or their free time. Drinks and food coming and going is just a small nuance. 10 minutes (often way less of course) for drinks to arrive is mostly okay. Nobody is busy waiting for them.

Different concept, not objectively better.

Re: Why some US restaurants are banning tips

#117

Post by tdeck »

Conan_Kudo wrote: post #90
tdeck wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Japan has a lot of the same things, but no tipping. Although the tradition of "checking in" to see if you need anything seems to not be very prevalent - instead people either press a button or call out for the staff if they need something.

I remember a few American restaurants experimenting with this when I was a kid. I remember the experience being a little inconsistent. I imagine the feedback wasn't particularly good.

In the U.S. you see the buttons quite a lot at Korean restaurants for some reason.

Re: Why some US restaurants are banning tips

#118

Post by malthaus »

it's time for a worldwide reset on tipping culture / assumptions.

america was always weird - the tipping practice leads to over-the-top fake service, is abusive to staff and only benefits restaurant owners. and they turned all that up to 11 over the last few years. how americans can cherish and even defend this, i can't get my mind around it.

meanwhile in europe, american practices are imported by way of POS terminals asking in outrageous use cases for outrageous amounts of tips. no, im not tipping 30% for an item i pick from a shelf in a store. add to that the awkward interaction at a bar or so when you have to select a tip under the watchful eye of the server.

people are shamed into tipping in all manners of ways and let those abusive practices plow over them.

it's a disgrace.

i wish for a world where all prices, including tips & taxes, are on the label / menu when i buy them and asking / giving anything on top is illegal. we would all be better off, even though americans for some reasons can't accept it - i have little trust in the headline of the linked article becoming a bigger phenomena.

Re: Why some US restaurants are banning tips

#119

Post by alexrp »

bilekas wrote: post #79
QuantumNomad_ wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least they don’t demand a bunch of extra tips. I’m European (well, Scandinavian, which some Europeans consider European and some don’t) and my rule of thumb is that if I go out I tip 10%. If the service is extra good I might tip extra. If the service is very bad (unreasonably slow, or staff forget or mix up the order in a significant way, or they are very rude), I tip 0%. Of course everyone can mess up things a li…

I have to ask, why are you tipping 10% before the service is extra good? I'm really against the idea that the company isn't responsible for paying their staff properly. Setting a baseline of 10% just says to me that the restaurant owners can just pay their staff less. And if the server is having an off day or just didn't meet your particular standards then they're losing money.

I think it depends on location.

It would be a bizarre approach in Scandinavia because the consensus here is that companies must pay their employees a decent baseline salary -- which unions negotiate across the whole sector -- so there's no expectation of a tip by default.

But for much of the rest of the world, it's not a given that working conditions are as good.

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