Zenimus said:
I should think that they would try to work hard to keep their job. If they give bad service to restaurant patrons, you can bet that they'll be receiving some complaints. It shouldn't have to fall upon the customer to "buy" good service at a diner, which is pretty much what tipping is.
Suppose the concept of tipping didn't exist... If a restaurant wanted to maintain a good reputation, you can bet they would pay higher wages and make certain that their employees would behave properly.
There really is no logical reason why a restaurant patron should tip a foodserver. Do you tip a surgeon for successfully removing your brain tumor? Do you tip a bus driver for driving you downtown? Do you tip a teacher for going that extra mile for your kids? No, because it's their job, and they don't expect a tip for doing it.
I kind of see your point, and it's valid within it's own right. But the opening of "Reservoir Dogs" is indeed the whole point. For some it's paying their way through college, and more to the point something a woman can do and make enough to do so without having to be a stripper (heck I guess this could be for a guy too now that I think about it.) So should I have to pay a $6.00 cover charge AKA: "entrance fee" to a strip club, even though I'm going to be shelling out $4.50 a beer and then have to turn around and have to tip a stripper? It stands to reason that a patron could drink beers alnight while watching from a far, but the whole point of going to that scene (well it was for me when I was younger, haven't been to one since 2000) is about "The Experience". If you don't go up to the stage, you don't get personal with the girls that provide the voyeuristic fantasy. Or if you do go up and don't tip, you're an asshole and no one wants to dance for you. Thus you may not pay a $20.00 for a lap dance, but if you want a little something YOU PAY the $1.00 dance floor fee.
...thus it's the same thing with food service. Just like Strippers don't get paid hourly it's dependent on horny guys that like a girl and keep tipping her, well the establishments get to charge their outrageous $7.50 for a Caesar Salad which should be no more than $4.50 tops, because their staff is made up of $2.50 an hour workers. Thus you come in and want something to eat. If you're not doing FAST FOOD, then you've got time for a "Dine In" experience no? Thus you're paying for good service precisely because the establishment exists due to crappy wages paid. You like the service you tip, you don't you don't have to. If you don't ever even for stellar service then ppl know not to serve you.
You can't imagine what it's like to have 8 tables with 4 ppl @ a high volume Japanese Restaurant can you? You've got all these rich snobs in their Audiis and BMWs and more, they want their SUSHI now. But you've got to cover another waiter's table while they're in the bathroom and know what the ppl are drinking. Then you've got some bitch who's mad because her main course was ready before the sushi arrived, but the sushi bar and main kitchen are on two different timetables. At that same time, you're refilling tea on 2 different tables, helping train a new person, and then a party of 8 Japanese business men who speak little to no English walk in. These dudes eat slower than most. You've got to remember Mr. Takamini wanted the Eddamame and Mr. Nemuri wanted the Osunimono Salad, while the other three have 8 large servings of hot sake and a $60.00 order of Sashimi... while someone else is getting mad because the Kitchen's not ready yet, but all these ppl came in immediately after the SPURS won a game and there's a wrap around line outside the building. THEN Actor Tommy Lee Jones comes in and wants special service.
I'm sorry but having to deal with all that, I'd like to think that I and the others who had to POOL our tips at the end of the night... well we deserved the $88 bucks in tips after it was all equally distributed. The establishment paid $2.50 so they can charge ridiculous prices and I've got to deal with assholes like this beefcake rich boy who kept trying to mess us up, and trip someone else as they walked by and make a scene. If you've never worked food service you really cannot understand it all.
AND BTW.
You don't tip a brain surgeon because he does get good pay, benefits worth a damn and more. Ppl working food service are usually either paying their way through school or it's all they can get depending on whatever their circumstances and it pays shit. Thus if you don't want to tip do fastfood then. But if you go into a place realize those ppl have families to feed as well. It's what they have, not everyone is going to drive an SUV they don't need and make mad bling, then be a cheap skate. A shitty server is a shitty server. But a good one is worth a $5.00 tip easily. I mean seriously for what I elaborated on, which was one night in 1999 @ Koi Kawa Japanese Restaurant if they were paying us $6.75 to $7.00 an hour it wouldn't be worth the abuse we have to take. Of course I ended up leaving because I finally lost it with a few ppl.
GK
