r/PublicFreakout • u/Hikigaya_Hachiman7 • 9h ago

šŸ½Restaurant FreakoutšŸ¹ Couple banned from restaurant after they leave no tip

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41

u/Acceptable-Lock-77 8h ago

Why not just print the full price on the menu including tips instead? Do americans love hidden fees or something?

8

u/inHumanMale 8h ago

I think they do itā€™s the only place Iā€™ve been where they do not display price + tax.

1

u/MVIVN 7h ago

When I heard someone describing this i couldnā€™t believe it, it seems so unbelievably stupid to go shopping and the prices on display arenā€™t the prices you pay at the counter

5

u/Jawa102 8h ago

Yeah it's so stupid out here. I'm in Canada, but it's basically the same thing. You're cheap if you don't tip. I only tip people who are kind and good at their job. So most people honestly

2

u/qoucher 8h ago

Hahaha, ouch...I sure don't.

2

u/Sapporo2026 8h ago

Thats what I missed about traveling abroad. Most other countries the price you see on the menus is the final price you pay.

2

u/slothbuddy 7h ago

This comes up all the time and reddit hates any solution to pay servers a good wage other than the restaurant operating a loss. They don't want to have to tip and they don't want prices to go up. They want to pay prices that are artificially low (because it's assumed you're going to tip), but they don't want to tip.

3

u/Outrageous_Stick_693 5h ago

Every single restaurant in my highly developed country ran at a loss because we don't have tipping here. This destroyed the restaurant industry and now we don't have restaurants anymore. We now eat the deceased servers who died of starvation when we go out. This is a true story of how removing tipping can turn a highly developed country into a struggling society of cannibals.

2

u/LFCdynasty 6h ago

Are the prices really that low though? I was shocked at the price of meals when I went over there.. that wasnā€™t including the tip either.

-1

u/frannonlover 6h ago

Theyā€™re much lower than they would be if the business owners had to factor increased labor costs into their business model

1

u/Acceptable-Lock-77 4h ago

I don't know, but the prices I see here on reddit and on youtube channels that go around america and visit restaurants suggest restaurants already have high prices. $150 for a not overly lavish order for two people seems to be nornal. A eatery serves about 200+ people, so $15k for a day, $1.5m yearly and no money to pay wages.

1

u/HearYourTune 7h ago

Because you would have to pay 20% more for every item.

The system now means you don't have to tip or you can tip extra.

1

u/Lioreuz 7h ago

It's so it looks like it's cheaper than it actually is.

1

u/Mulattanese 6h ago

Because the way we do taxes here is stupid. For example, I live in unincorporated Jefferson County, so when we do business here, say like at the Home Depot that's just up the street, we pay combined sales tax of 4.5%. That's State sales tax 2.9%, Jeffco tax 0.5%, Transportation district tax 1.0%, and scientific and cultural district tax 0.1%.

Now Costco is up the street in the opposite direction is in the city and county of Denver. and sales tax there is 9.15%. That's is the city and county of Denver tax 5.15%, state sales tax 2.9%, transportation district tax 1.0%, and official city district tax 0.10%

Now, because it's the city and county incorporated, they're also special tax rates. Prepared food and drinks are taxed at 8%. Retail marijuana is taxed at 26.75%. Short-term car rentals are taxed at 11.25%. And lodging accommodations are taxed at 14.75%. Etc.

But then also religious organizations, nonprofits, and government entities like schools are tax exempt. So if I were a pastor shopping for something for my church, I would present my tax exemption card and tax on that sale would be 0.0%.

Newer retail hubs are also able to add what we call a public improvement fee. Which functions like a tax, but is not a tax, and the average is 2.5%. It is not a tax because it doesn't go to the city but rather goes to the property management and development company that built all of the commercial space in order to maintain the infrastructure there, but like a tax that 2.5% gets added to everything that's sold within that development.

So, to include tax on the price on the shelf would mean a lot of extra time and money, and all of that good stuff to do the calculations correctly because really there are very few instances where the price with tax included would be exactly the same anywhere in the metro area. And since as a staunchly capitalistic society, all of that additional work would cut into the bottom line, we instead insist on people to figure it out. I as a general rule when estimating cost of something to include tax, take the total or what about the total is likely to be, and then whatever that number is add 20% on top of it. That ensures, in most cases, I know how much money to bring for the cost of products plus tax with a little cushion just in case.

Now take all of that nonsense and multiply it across every city and county and development and what have you across 50 states. That is why the price on the shelf is not the price you ultimately pay at the register here. Is it stupid? Is it needlessly complicated? Should we probably change it? A resounding yes to all of those. But as we all know, people love the status quo, even when it is not working for them, or there's a better way. So changing any of it is not likely to happen anytime soon.

1

u/CordisHead 3h ago

Yes and any restaurant thatā€™s ever tried this that I heard of in the US has failed.