figmentPez
Staff member
No, I just need to stop reading Reddit discussions about anything to do with politics, money, relationships...
It's about a reddit post about a restaurant that said "we're a no tipping establishment" but had a 16% fee. AKA a mandatory gratuity but instead of going to the waitstaff it goes to the owner of the restaraunt.
This:
And yeah my take is that you should factor in all costs into prices. If your restaurant can’t exist without a 16% fee, then you should have to raise your prices 16%.
Y’all are welcome to be annoyed by this, but there are numerous studies that show consumers prefer this overall. People consistently, overwhelmingly say that restaurants with higher prices per dish are less desirable than ones with a fee added at the end. Does it make sense to me? No. But it’s still true.
You're not wrong. But when stuck in Australia for 18 months, I did not miss tipping. I, at least, will always advocate up front pricing and liveable wages for restaurant staff.
figmentPez
Staff member
Yes, and people prefer to see lower advertised prices for cable bills, only to be charged hidden fees. Same for concert tickets, rentals, etc.
People are bad at math and will preferentially choose to be deceived.
That doesn't mean it's a good thing, or that it should even be legal. We have laws against a whole host of predatory business practices that were, once upon a time, accepted as the norm because people willingly chose them. That's how scams work. They're appealing to people. People choose them even when they should know better, but they get made illegal because we don't want to have people getting scammed on a regular basis because of common flaws in reasoning.
People consistently think $9.99 is significantly less than $10.00, which is why every supermarket ever everywhere prices things like that.
People are idiots when it comes to numbers, even the smart ones who are well aware of how it works. Our brains aren't set up to handle such things.
I'm European and yadayada different culture, but tipping as part of making a wage livable is just filthy.
In some European countries you just round up, in others you're expected to give a little depending on service (nothing in McDonald's, maybe 10% if the waiter was really helpful in translating stuff, helping you choose a good wine, have off menu suggestions, whatever).
I don't mind tipping "more" when visiting a much poorer country. Giving a $2 tip in Kenya on a $10 meal is practically nothing for me and four hours of wages there. But even there the waiter would still be making minimum wage or more (frankly, more of they're working in hospitality and this speak English and are expected to have clean clothes etc), and tipping is extra.
Then there's cultures where tipping is considered insulting (DO NOT TIP IN RURAL JAPAN) or near-mandatory (expect terrible service if you don't tip in Morocco). But literally no other country allows "less than minimum wage and let the customers make up the difference". Because that's what a minimum is for.
Hidden fees are also vile, and sadly more commonly accepted... Though it's another one of those things the EU handles... Reasonably well.
People are idiots when it comes to numbers, even the smart ones who are well aware of how it works. Our brains aren't set up to handle such things.
I'm European and yadayada different culture, but tipping as part of making a wage livable is just filthy.
In some European countries you just round up, in others you're expected to give a little depending on service (nothing in McDonald's, maybe 10% if the waiter was really helpful in translating stuff, helping you choose a good wine, have off menu suggestions, whatever).
I don't mind tipping "more" when visiting a much poorer country. Giving a $2 tip in Kenya on a $10 meal is practically nothing for me and four hours of wages there. But even there the waiter would still be making minimum wage or more (frankly, more of they're working in hospitality and this speak English and are expected to have clean clothes etc), and tipping is extra.
Then there's cultures where tipping is considered insulting (DO NOT TIP IN RURAL JAPAN) or near-mandatory (expect terrible service if you don't tip in Morocco). But literally no other country allows "less than minimum wage and let the customers make up the difference". Because that's what a minimum is for.
Hidden fees are also vile, and sadly more commonly accepted... Though it's another one of those things the EU handles... Reasonably well.
I'm sure RFK jr is working on just that. Make breakfast great again!