tipping

They're passing along fees from their CC processor to the customers.

this. same reason that some convenience stores do it (or avoid it by saying "credit card transactions minimum $5 transaction")

In the US if you deposit too much cash in the banks, they will charge you a fee. Probably not near as much as CC processors but coupled with theft/robbery/grossness of handling bills risk and customer tendency to overspend on a card, there's a lot of incentives to go cashless.

Yes. I have no doubt about this. The most contemptuous customers pay extra if they can treat you like shit. This has happened to me since I started doing this sort of work at 16. Age doesn’t matter either, it still happens. I can smell it. It always starts with asking my name and then repeating it until the sound of my own name makes my stomach turn.
― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Monday, July 17, 2023 8:37 AM

OTM. Disheartening on a "good" day, infuriating otherwise.

Yes. I have no doubt about this. The most contemptuous customers pay extra if they can treat you like shit. This has happened to me since I started doing this sort of work at 16. Age doesn’t matter either, it still happens. I can smell it. It always starts with asking my name and then repeating it until the sound of my own name makes my stomach turn.

The restaurant would be called Serves You Right.

Last time I went to this restaurant, they made us all stand up and played the national anthem.

The first entirely cashless business I encountered was a busy upscale cafe in downtown Chicago that I used to get coffee and lunch from when I worked nearby. This was maybe 5 or 6 years ago. It didn't make a difference to me to pay with a card, though I did feel weird that it necessarily excluded less well-to-do people who don't have cards.

as someone who has worked in retail and hospitality for most of their working life, I think it is wild that we leave the responsibility to make earnings reasonable in the hands of people who show themselves to be completely unreasonable

truth bomb

part of the reason I stopped working in restaurant industry is that I was barely scraping by and so I had to appease a bunch of entitled little shits nightly to ensure I could pay for my car that month.

well that and the fact that they laid me off

Going back to the tweet that started this revival.

Yes, it's crazy that the youngest drinkers are closing out each round. Keep in mind that they were quarantined for 12+ months. Do they know that they can safely leave their credit card in the secure hands of the bartender? It's crazy to assume that they'd think (1.) that's a thing to do and (2.) that the bartender would actually prefer to keep their card for them.

I'm trying hard to remember the first time I was asked if I wanted to "start a tab." I was likely using cash exclusively, so it was more a matter of trust on the bartender's part than me having to leave anything valuable with him/her as collateral. By the time I paid my first tab with a credit card, I was familiar with the process.

Imagine the look I'd get from someone born in the 21st Century if I told them that I used to keep my first bank debit card in good standing by making 10 individual purchases each month with it, sometimes by "catching up" at the end of the month with four separate purchases of gum or Lifesavers. Now tell them that they should leave their credit cards, secret three-pinnned security code on the back and everything, with that complete stranger on the other side of the bar.

the last time I was a restaurant employee, the receipts didn't even X out the full credit card number like 99.9% do today. the entire number sitting there on credit card receipts, copies of which were usually left about the restaurant as the customer didn't always take their copy.

at least one co-worker bragged about 'getting revenge' on a bad customer by keeping a receipt and using guy's credit card to send terrible crap to his house, but the probability that any of the shit that guy said being true is less than 1%.

also...my current company, when I started in 2005, was still having customers use their SSN as user IDs, which included saying it over the phone. and sending forms requiring you to write the whole thing on a form.

let me ask any bartenders in here - do you prefer the "keep your card and give back after closing out" method, or the "scan card and give back" method that many bars are gravitating towards? wasn't sure which was easier for bartenders.

I was gonna say, most bars don't hold on to your card these days.

I usually open a tab but I'm also a lightweight and will often close it out without ordering more. Is that considered bad form?

the number of times that i forgot to close out my tab because i was too drunk, and had to go back to the bar the next afternoon to get my card..,,, well one's too many but reader it happened quite a bit

Many bars these days print a copy of the receipt with what you've ordered up to that moment and put it in an empty glass.

yeah a lot around me do that

Scan and hand back is best for all concerned. And extra points if - upon settling up - you get the pleasant exchange of "leave it on the card?" "Yep!"

Not because I ever have reason to change payment methods. But because it just feels kinda nice that they ask.

Maybe there are people who use one card to open a tab but a different one to pay. Maybe some folks like to use a card to open a tab but then settle in cash. I am not one of the but it's nice of servers to provide options.

I take it like the same thing as a hotel asking you for a card but letting you pay with a different one at checkout - the initial card is to verify the person can pay for the goods, but probably legally have tp verify that they also want to use that card to settle up

the number of times that i forgot to close out my tab because i was too drunk, and had to go back to the bar the next afternoon to get my card..,,, well one's too many but reader it happened quite a bit

― Tracer Hand, Monday, July 17, 2023 11:45 AM (thirty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I did this at least a handful of times in law school and never before or since.

Going into that bar at 10:30 in the morning, not recognizing anyone. Taking that little plastic recipe box and thumbing through the cards for mine. "ah, look. Pete left his behind too!"

I don’t drink much, so (on the rare occasions I’m in a bar) my tendency is to pay for one drink and tip decently without starting a tab.

But this thread has me thinking if I’m ever in a more than one drink situation - or if somehow I’m buying drinks for other people - a tab is kinda the humane way to go.

a lot of the card conveniences or inconveniences depend on the POS system. we use Square at the bar where I work, and the system for getting the card info saved in the system and having a name associated with it and finding it later is, frankly, super time-consuming and irritating.

most of the young people who come to the bar either pay with Apple Pay or CashApp, which i think is fine. these conveniences don’t have anything to do with how much they tip, ime.

I was just at a bar playing music for several hours. I had a hamburger and there were, I think, four glasses of wine (two for me and two for someone else).

The tab was $1.09. I have no idea how they came up with that - typically I don't have detailed conversations about band tabs. I am glad to get anything comped, of course. But I also wouldn't mind paying full price for food/beverages while also getting paid in normal money for music.

It would certainly make tipping way easier. Sometimes I end up tipping nearly random amounts because I simply don't know what the charges should have been. This time I added $10 because it seemed about right (I am assuming it would have been a $50ish check).

the phrase "NO EGG NO TIP" has popped into my mind a few times since reading it and it always makes me feel slightly delirious, thank you LL :)

haha!! you are very welcome. i feel the same way about it. NO EGG NO TIP will be with me for the long haul.

When my sister was waitressing, if she got massively shorted on a tip by stingy diners, she occasionally followed the worst offenders out the door and told them ‘you forgot your change!’

Is the thing about people writing ‘Jesus loves you’ on the check in lieu of a tip a real thing?

no egg no tip

i strictly roots

guy strictly rude, more like

I’m sure someone wrote Jesus Loves You when I was working in NC but it hasn’t happened elsewhere that I can recall.

Then again I’ve also noticed that my brain erases a lot of these experiences bc 1) not helpful to hold onto them and 2) actively hurtful to dwell on how poorly I’ve been treated.

When my sister was waitressing, if she got massively shorted on a tip by stingy diners, she occasionally followed the worst offenders out the door and told them ‘you forgot your change!’

A waitressing friend of mine once received a one-dollar tip from a particularly obnoxious table. One of the diners accidentally forgot an expensive camera* in the booth.

(* = This was in the 80s. I am speaking of a film camera.)

There were a few pictures left on the roll of film, so my friend used them to take pictures of that precisely one-dollar tip being flushed down the toilet.

When I worked at Applebee's, I had a colleague who received a tip of pennies on a $70 meal (2001 money). She followed the diners out to the parking lot and threw the pennies at their car. She was promptly fired, of course, but the TGIFridays down the street scooped her up the next day.

A wise career move

I am not sure whether my sister hurled pennies at stingy customers in retreat (all signs point to yes) but she upbraided bad customers in the knowledge that her job was totally safe. The owners hated people like that and knew she was an excellent server. This was a neighbourhood place where regulars tipped nearer 25 per cent, with the occasional huge tip from someone affiliated with the Minnesota Vikings.

https://viewfromthewing.com/detroit-airport-tells-passengers-to-tip-at-water-refill-stations-is-your-money-just-another-hidden-fee/

i accept this post

Just had a couple of weeks of tipping fun in the states. Had no idea what I was doing so just selected 20% as the option on everything everywhere, probably meant I was over tipping some places and under tipping elsewhere?

One thing I found funny was that we were always asked to tip places like a coffee shop where not only where you were expected to collect your order you were also expected to “bus” it away too. I don‘t mind doing that of course – I help out being in serving jobs as much as I can, but it did make me wonder what I was tipping for, especially as the coffee was usually even more expensive than in the UK as it was… I hope the people behind the counter got all the money, but I guess who knows?

* I help out people working in serving jobs…

You were tippng entirely because with all the Square/etc. POSes enable it either by default or with no effort so shop owners leave it and figure it's one more way they can pay their employees less.

Before my dad died I started leaving the tip line on for his Square construction invoices just to see if anyone ever bit. (no)

OK, so is the usual custom not to leave a tip in a coffee shop?

I would (in America) normally leave my small change in the tip jar, but cashless transactions obviously don’t allow for that. I have zero confidence in tips collected via cashless payment actually getting to the servers on that day. In the UK, people tend not to tip baristas but regulars might give them something at the holidays or donate to a leaving gift. The customers at a cafe where I normally go had a whip-round to replace a barista’s bike when it was stolen from right outside the shop!

Yeah, there’d be a tip jar for change but not a full on 20% situation. I wouldn’t say ‘not a custom’ exactly, but a tip jar feels a lot less obligatory than a screen where you have to hit 0%.

really varies from person to person. I used to leave a dollar in the jar if the counter person was unusually friendly or helpful; now with a POS I'm actually more likely to tip, because of the convenience, but yes less likely it goes directly to the employees. but you'll find Americans that make it a matter of principle not to tip at any eatery/drinkery unless you're getting full service

For a single coffee I leave a dollar, just like tipping at a bar.

OK, it usually worked out around that much per coffee. Glad to know I didn’t offend your quirky local custom, and also was not a total mug :)

I am the same as Kim Kimberly— single coffee gets a buck, same with a beer at a bar. If i order something more complicated at either, price shoots up.

or, tip amount shoots up

Agreed on a buck tip for a beer or coffee

Definintely overtipped on the beers then!

Tbh it does sort of depend on the situation. I will often tip more than a buck for a beer if I am being served at a table on the sidewalk, for example. I go for 20 percent or close to it then. But if I am inside a bar and not receiving table service? One buck.

Totally. I recognise that my dollar tips don't have the same value as 20 years ago and will easily leave more depending on the situation.