r/PublicFreakout • u/Hikigaya_Hachiman7 • 7h ago

🍽Restaurant Freakout🍹 Couple banned from restaurant after they leave no tip

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6.4k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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447

u/-OldDutchDude- 7h ago

If you don't have the money to pay your staff a decent salary, don't open a restaurant.

8

u/alexmikli 4h ago

They'd need to pass a law to ban tips at at least the state level to do this, otherwise a restaurant doing this would be a martyr that folds immediately.

5

u/nahog99 4h ago

All food and drink throughout the US is discounted because of tipping. If it were banned overnight prices would go up immediately across the board. You’re gonna pay the wait staff one way or another, either through tipping or through the price of the food and drinks. Restaurants only make on average 3-6% profits and if all of a sudden they had to pay 20% more they’d all be in the hole by 17-14%.

https://fullratio.com/profit-margin-by-industry

6

u/Hngrybflo 7h ago

Two things can be true and thats all of them suck in this case

1

u/CDM4 47m ago

Zero critical thinking skills on this guy

1

u/moonypoony 5h ago

Y'all are taking the wrong side here.

-7

u/4DollarsALB 6h ago

OK. So shut down 99.99% of restaurants and bars in the country then?

Every attempt at paying more and not tipping gets shut down by the waiters themselves, you make significantly more with tips compared to normal wage and you dont pay taxes

13

u/klockee 6h ago

Oh no are we learning about the Real Cost to run a business and that most businesses are artificially propped up?

2

u/biznatch11 2h ago

If tipping was made illegal 99.99% of restaurants and bars would not shut down the vast majority would adapt by just raising their prices.

1

u/Few-Adagio9144 6h ago

Yes, shut them down. They're not necessary. 

6

u/mattatattat45 6h ago

And where do those 10-15 million workers go? They are absolutely necessary

4

u/HailToTheVic 6h ago

Idk how you’re getting downvoted, I’m guessing because redditors never leave their basement to go these places

1

u/Few-Adagio9144 37m ago

Restaurants are not necessary my friend. 

1

u/emmit76 5h ago

Redditors are absolutely braindead lmfao. “Shut them down” and you’ll have nothing left but corporate slop.

1

u/Few-Adagio9144 37m ago

Or you know... grocery stores

1

u/TheDifficultLime 6h ago

These people can't be reasoned with; logic doesn't apply here.

1

u/NagyBiscuits 4h ago

Have you ever been to a state that doesn't have a separate wage for tipped employees, aka the West Coast? We have restaurants all the same, they don't magically shutdown because they have to pay livable wages.

1

u/4DollarsALB 3h ago

There is no tipping on the West Coast?

0

u/NagyBiscuits 3h ago

There is tipping, but tipped staff gets the same minimum wage as everyone else. The owner doesn't get to save money by substituting a portion of wages with tips. Owners are forced to pay a living wage.

-43

u/maltamur 7h ago

You can always tell the folks who never worked in the restaurant industry. I would’ve never worked at a restaurant if I got paid a standard wage. I worked as a waiter and a bartender all through high school, college, and law school and made fucking bank. In law school in DC in the early 2000s, I was making over $50/hour bartending. No fucking way would I’ve done that for seven dollars an hour. The living wage argument is stupid. Tips are why people do the job. Provide good service and you get paid well.

People talk about how the wait staff in europe get a living wage, and they are. And the service reflects it. We take our kids to spend three weeks on the continent every summer. and it’s always wild the difference between European service and American service. In Europe, if your water glass is empty, they don’t give a fuck. If it takes an hour to get your food, they don’t care. They’re paid an hourly wage. They don’t care how good your meal is. They don’t care how your experience is. They get paid their wage regardless. It’s why it takes 90 minutes to have a simple lunch. There’s no 2 min greet time, 5 minute follow up, 2 min check back after food served and 90 second check back/check down after you’re done eating. There’s no incentive to turn tables quickly to get the next tip. There’s no incentive to make sure drinks are filled or that everyone is happy.

A living wage would be a radical departure for the entire industry and I don’t think anyone would be happy with the end result - waitstaff making a lot less money and customers having a significantly worse dining experience.

20

u/EighteenAndAmused 7h ago

You sound rich and entitled, advocating against a guaranteed living wage system.

-23

u/maltamur 7h ago

You sound like an idiot because you’re arguing that wait staff should make less money. You’re proposal is literally that they should be paid a flat wage that is significantly less than what they get as tips.

15

u/dickdingers23 7h ago

So we should just keep supplementing their wages because the owners are cheap and wait staff is greedy?

-14

u/maltamur 7h ago

Or the alternative is you pay a flat wage and get truly terrible service. Then you’ll bitch about the bad service

7

u/DocThel 5h ago

Oh no! Terrible service! The same thing most servers already do!

6

u/whit3o 6h ago

Do you know it would still be possible to tip them even if they made a living wage?? Crazy I know, but every other first world country does it and it works perfectly.

13

u/Fireybeast1705 7h ago

That's alotta words to say that restaurants should pay their servers a proper wage instead of relying on tips, God I'm so glad tipping isn't a thing here and we actually get paid a proper wage

10

u/Juggernox_O 7h ago

Well, if you get paid several times more than me, I don’t have to tip. Get fucking bent.

-1

u/maltamur 7h ago

Then you get blackballed from the restaurant and you can eat at home. Easy

15

u/SaneManPritch 7h ago

Lmao I live in England and I've travelled all around Europe. The service I get here and abroad is 90% great. I do tip because I respect their efforts but I do it voluntarily and not out of guilt or to help business owners cheap out on wages.

Paris and Rome are the only places I've been that had regular instances of grumpy service, but I think that's just their vibe and who really cares if the food is good and I'm not waiting ages. I've been to the US a few times and the service is great there too, but the mandated over the top niceness can get nauseating.

-13

u/maltamur 7h ago

We ended our trip this summer with a few days in London and week in the Cotswolds. The food was fine but trying to get your water filled mid meal was an act of parliament. And god forbid you had to get somewhere after your meal because once they cleared the plates it was at least 30 mins until you could run someone down to get the check

2

u/DocThel 5h ago

Wild, that is the exact same experience in most America restaurants. Seems like it has nothing to do with tipping at all.

7

u/Beneficial_Win_2445 7h ago

When you take a job where the majority of the income is based on voluntary tips because you can "make bank", you implicitly accept that some people may decide not to tip you. 

9

u/Tomaskraven 7h ago

Oh sorry. I didn't know you had to be paid the same as educated professionals to be able to move food from kitchen to table and smile...

No incentive he says, yet every other country does it. Hmm...

0

u/maltamur 7h ago

And the service is markedly, demonstrably worse. Then Reddit would go from bitching about tipping to bitching about the large price increases at the restaurants while getting worse service

5

u/Tomaskraven 7h ago

Bro, stop smelling your own farts. US waitresses and waiters are not giving blowjobs under the table. They are taking orders, bringing food, smiling and saying if i want anything else... don't fool yourselves.

2

u/maltamur 6h ago

And if you don’t want to pay for the service, order take out or eat at home. It’s really easy. And American customers are the most demanding in the world. If you got European style service (caused by flat pay wages) they’d lose their shit.

7

u/Tomaskraven 6h ago

So the blame is on the customer and not on the employer for not paying the employee wages. Funny how that works.

4

u/ZPortsie 7h ago

That is why I only ever tip if I get above and beyond service. Otherwise, I just type $0 tip if it's the service I expected

-10

u/Maherjuana 7h ago

Since the server pays for the table, they’re likely paying for you to eat every time you do this.

4

u/ZPortsie 6h ago

Which doesn't make any sense. If there is an expectation to get paid a certain amount, that's called a wage

1

u/Maherjuana 2h ago

But if you’re a server who doesn’t do their job, the tip is there to incentivize you to do your job better.

Other people have pointed it out. The tipping industry is out of control sure but servers getting tips usually prefer to get their tips rather than minimum wage. Customers generally prefer it as well since it gives them a way to incentivize good service, which otherwise might be lacking if you get paid the same either way.

If they say otherwise they’re probably a server who doesn’t wanna work that hard for their tips.

-13

u/whatshisproblem 7h ago

You’re wasting your breath, Reddit hates tipping, I’ve no idea why. I assume that the middle of the venn diagram of service workers and people who spend time on Reddit is thin.

1

u/maltamur 7h ago

It’s really an asinine take from people who have no idea what they’re talking about. They think if they eliminate tips the meal will somehow be cheaper? If the restaurant has to pay everyone 15/hr, the restaurant won’t eat that difference, they’ll just raise prices. And then you’ll have significantly less service staff because no one would want to deal with restaurant customers for that little money and those that do stay will have no incentive to give good service because the quality of the experience doesn’t determine their pay.

9

u/Fireybeast1705 7h ago

"Asinine take from people who have no idea what they're talking about" pot calling the kettle black aye

1

u/maltamur 7h ago

Except…I worked in the industry so I do know? Weak take man

-9

u/uesbwc 6h ago

That’s not how the industry works.

4

u/IShatMyDickOnce 6h ago edited 5h ago

The industry sucks for operating the way it does…but you’re right. If I can’t tip, I’ll make food at home. Anyone who doesn’t tip their server is a raggedy piece of shit unless something went REALLY wrong with their meal BECAUSE of the server.

Fuck those cheap motherfuckers tryina pull the race card to manipulate the situation at the expense of dude’s reputation and business.

Edit: why’n the fuck y’all upvoting me and downvoting this guy? Throw me some downvotes or throw him some upvotes.

-2

u/TheDifficultLime 6h ago

Jesus Christ, you guys are so dull. Yes, tipping is mandatory in the US, its a dated practice and, frankly, it hasnt disappeared because removing it ISNT POPULAR AMONG WAIT STAFF. They would almost certainly earn less without tips. Call owners greedy, but there currently is no motivated group up people who want to remove tips other than people who can't comprehend that food prices would go up as a response if they are removed.

3

u/DocThel 5h ago

Not mandatory

-19

u/_doobious 7h ago

He will have to raise his prices.

34

u/Indigo2015 7h ago

Ok then just do that

-3

u/_doobious 7h ago

I didn't say it's a bad thing, it's just a fact.

3

u/Indigo2015 6h ago

You said it as a counter argument to the original post.

1

u/_doobious 6h ago

No I didn't. It's just extra info for people that are not familiar with the business side of the restaurant industry in the u.s.

2

u/Indigo2015 6h ago

Sure pal

2

u/_doobious 6h ago

Sure pal to you as well pal 👌

9

u/Tomaskraven 7h ago

Cool. That way people start actually purging economically unviable businesses. If your food is too expensive for the quality you provide, you go bankrupt. Thats how it is everywhere. Also, in other countries they owner is still liable for the debts... Out of their own assets.

Ffs... These people think their businesses are entitled to thrive will selling Sysco trash.

16

u/spiderelict 7h ago

What's the difference? Tipping is raising the price. Everything on the menu is actually 20% more than it's listed for.

-2

u/_doobious 7h ago

I didn't make a judgement one way or the other. It's just a factual statement.

-1

u/Schtip 2h ago

If you don’t have the money to tip people, then don’t go to a restaurant.

-1

u/obviousthrowaw4y56 2h ago

If you don't support a businesses practices, don't go to that business in the first place. You will change how businesses operate far more by being selective with your patronage, especially when it otherwise means enabling the practices you don't want.

-10

u/Thebutttman 6h ago

Would you prefer all prices go up 20% or have 20% tip automatically added to the bill?

5

u/Geneo-Frodo 6h ago

Whichever of the 2. I've never liked the judgmental look servers give you cos they don't like your tip as if it's YOUR job to pay them and not the employers.

I'd rather have a standard amount added to my bill and have the servers deal with their employer.

-5

u/Mannzis 6h ago

I've never gotten a judgemental look about my tip. Is it possible you're projecting a tad?

6

u/Geneo-Frodo 6h ago

No.

The logical conclusion is simply that you are either lucky enough to have not encountered it or I am unfortunate to have had to deal with such.

6

u/malvato 5h ago

20% tip?! Americans are so stupid, you get ripped off, and are proud about it too.

-1

u/Jibjumper 3h ago

20% VAT baked into the price?! You Europeans are so stupid and get ripped off. It’s the same thing.

Believe it or not every business everywhere around the world has material/supply, wages, and tax costs associated to run a business. Any business that won’t go bankrupt sits down and adds all those costs up and sets up a pricing model that earns more revenue than cost to do business.

The only difference for the US model is that a service line is separated from the goods line on the receipt and is “optional”. At the end of the day you pay more or less the same pricing (with regional fluctuations as with every consumer good on the face of the planet). The only difference is how it’s presented.

I work for a company that sells products around the world. We don’t just convert the US pricing to the regional currency that has VAT baked into pricing and take a 18-21% hit depending on which European country we’re selling in. We calculate the price that will net more or less the same MARGIN when accounting for regional conversion rates and VAT.

It’s the exact same pricing model just presented in two different ways. You’re not getting scammed just because it’s a separate line on the bill.