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!
Last edited:
the *.99 during cash paying days was also meant to make the cashier open the cash register and mark the sale. Too many times before random cents on the price, a $10 item would be paid for with a $10 bill and go straight into the employee's pocket.
The wife and I were driving back from Florida yesterday. There is a stretch of interstate in rural Alabama that has gotten really busy over the past few years because a Buc-ee's opened there. It was a zoo because of all the other people driving during spring break. There were also two serious car accidents near Mobile, which had a spillover effect into that area. GPS directed us to a detour through a quiet area that usually hardly sees traffic at all. Everybody else was taking that detour as well. We were passing this isolated little intersection (small houses on both sides, no stop signs, not even a shoulder on the two-lane road). That's when we saw a house cat lying between two lanes, kicking wildly and unable to get up. It probably lived in one of those houses and was used to prowling in a sparsely trafficked neighborhood. Since it was kicking with all its legs I'm thinking a car bumper clipped it in the face. It might have been half-blind or completely blind, and definitely in unendurable pain. I wanted to help but there was nothing I could have done. I couldn't have pulled over anywhere and the houses were fenced off. Plus I couldn't have just stopped in the road because traffic was so heavy. This was a jerkwater town where the chances of finding an open veterinary office on Sunday were next to nil.
I know there was likely nothing I could have done. I still feel extraordinarily shitty.
I know there was likely nothing I could have done. I still feel extraordinarily shitty.
I’m old, I’m tired and I work with one moron. The rest of my team is wonderful.
Dave
Staff member
Working nights right now. But last night I had a terrible headache and so I thought I'd take a nap. I did. Until 5 am. Now I've been awake all day and I have to sleep tomorrow during the day. If I nap now I run the danger of doing it again and really screwing myself tomorrow night. Or I try and just stay up all night.
Either way, nobody gives a damn what I think I'm entitled to.
Either way, nobody gives a damn what I think I'm entitled to.
My voice always breaks by the end of the long "Staying Alive" in "Stayin' Alive" and it bugs the crap out of me. WHAT GOD DID THOSE BEEGEES SACRIFICE TO TO KEEP THAT NOTE LONG ENOUGH?!
GasBandit
Staff member
So, we were helping the 20yo do his taxes today.
So we got to show him exactly how big a dumbass he was.
"See, if you take just the money you made working your actual job, you'd be getting a $98 refund. But because you told your best friend he could impersonate you on your doordash delivery account and make deliveries and collect the payment, and didn't withhold any of the money he made but Doordash reported to the IRS as them paying YOU, you instead owe $600."
I hope this is a lesson that sticks. Jeezus. Sometimes this kid has absolutely NO fucking brain. And his friend is even dumber.
So we got to show him exactly how big a dumbass he was.
"See, if you take just the money you made working your actual job, you'd be getting a $98 refund. But because you told your best friend he could impersonate you on your doordash delivery account and make deliveries and collect the payment, and didn't withhold any of the money he made but Doordash reported to the IRS as them paying YOU, you instead owe $600."
I hope this is a lesson that sticks. Jeezus. Sometimes this kid has absolutely NO fucking brain. And his friend is even dumber.
GasBandit
Staff member
Other events have formed that opinion. This other dumbass routinely does things like stop his car in the middle of the street (as opposed to pulling over) when he wants to make a phone call. He borrowed a tesla his father rented despite not having a driver's license at the time and wrecked it. (His father is also a huge dumbass).
Basically there's enough brain damage to go around on this one, but at least I am halfway confident the dumbass who lives in my house might actually learn his lesson. The friend... not so much.
Also they're both blackballed from Doordash now, obviously. Soon as DD found out, it banned them both.
GasBandit
Staff member
I don't know if he even had his own account, but when DoorDash figured out my idiot was letting some other idiot "work" on his account, it blackballed them both - the other idiot preemptively perhaps.
And bear in mind I don't even have DoorDash's "side" of the story here, this is just the rosiest possible picture that my idiot could paint of the circumstances.
I'm pretty sure over here that would get him time in prison.
GasBandit
Staff member
I would have thought so too, but I am guessing that the fact that this happened in california, and the fact that his dad inherited a lot of money, both play into the fact that this lobotomized nitwit is still free to inflict his obliviousness on us all.
My parents were going to be in Florida for the whole month of March, but last week their trip got cut short when my mom got hit by a door dasher while bike riding, didn't get his info because she thought she was fine, and later realized she had broken her arm and the adrenaline hid the pain. 
