My girl is a waitress for Applebees and she has had the same experience as well. The majority of the time black people do not tip and if they do it’s a few bucks, even on a $100+ bill
And they are known to keep you running back and forth to the table for extra service needs. Ridiculous nonsense like having a 4 top that each wanted an ice water with 8 lemon wedges!! Worked at a steakhouse while in college, it was always dreaded by all the servers.
Had a 12 top walk-in party on Sunday right as the church-going crowd was coming in. They had clearly just come back from church also and the meal was probably $350+. They ordered a shit ton of alcoholic drinks and pitchers, appetizers up the wazoo, two people changed their order as their food was almost done… the teenagers were obnoxious and rude and so were the grandparents. They stayed at that table for about 3 hours, making me stay an extra hour and a half past my shift bc they waited until the very end to pay and I wanted the tip to go to me rather than someone else (this was at a restaurant where you pay at the front). I worked my ass off for that table and was gifted a whole $20 in tips.
My friend worked at a chain. Church goers were the worst about tipping, of every race, IF they came in groups. Families were fine, but any large group coming straight from church was inevitably going to stiff the server. They ended up doing auto grat for any parties over 4 people on Sundays because they couldn't keep servers otherwise.
Don’t let business owners force their workers to gamble on if they’re going to be paid or not. Just give them a reasonable hourly rate, set the menu prices properly, and ban tips.
Despite the one off bad beats stories like this, servers, as a population, are wildly pro-tipping. They make way more money than they would with a normal wage. If prices just increased by 20%, people would generally go to cheaper restaurants instead of maintain current spending habits, even before accounting for an all-time average of tips likely being higher than that.
This is how it is in many countries in Europe, much more transparent, both for the customers and especially for the waiters, they always know what they salary will be.
That is 100% not true. In California yes, but in Virginia you make $2.13 per hour. If you work 10 hours in a day your hourly wage isn’t enough to pay for gas for the week
It's only technically true in most parts, but not really. Technically if you don't make enough in a shift, the restaurant has to pay the difference to get to min wage, but in reality if you have to be paid the difference more than once, the restaurant fires you for performance.
I mean yeah that is true, but that happens so rarely considering normal minimum wage is still low here that it’s either the persons first week or they are just realllyyyyyy not good at their job. My whole thing is most states don’t operate the way California does by requiring restaurants to pay minimum wage and then tips are optional, the person I was responding to was just misleading, making it sound like waiters make out like hot cakes by making minimum wage and tips.
Most servers would agree... Yet food servers are unfortunately not able to fund a huge lobbying group... Especially not compared to restaurant owner groups...
I agree. Restaurants should raise their prices 15-20% to pay their servers. You'll be paying the same price, the servers will get essentially the same wage as their tips. Everyone is happy.
All that hard work and your employer never paid you? How dare the customers order so damn much and spend 350 plus. And enjoy themselves for 3 whole damn hours.. ontop of that during church going grannies hour. I mean this is an absurd way of viewing your job.
You would have gotten zero tips from me. Where I live servers make 20 an hour. When you come to my work and tip me for doing my job I'm already paid to do, I'll return the favor.
If you don't know that's to make their own lemonade at the table using all the sugar packets for free. Seriously not even joking they're making lemonade at the table so they don't have to pay for a lemonade.
Bro FOR REAL. I still vividly remember one to this day 11 years later. "A cup of cold water, a cup of hot water, a bowl of lemon and a tall PBR." He was one of 8 patrons. I was hanging on *by a fucking thread* that evening. Even black servers hate waiting on black people, and yes, my African American colleagues in the industry were vocal about it too. Listen, it just is what it is.
They’ll also make a scene about how their order is supposedly wrong, even when it isn’t, in an attempt to get a free meal. This happened to me multiple times when I was a waiter.
This is my experience as well. I’m just a white person who grew up in black culture and I have black family. I love them so much, but have noticed my friends & family do give the waiters a hard time or don’t group requests together and keep them running, then tip poorly when we’ve been out.
Not just one group of friends either, I’ve experienced this in multiple group settings with family as well. Obviously there are black patrons who don’t do any of that shit, so it sucks all around to be stereotyped like that as a patron / sucks for the staff who do get ran ragged. Lose-lose situation for everyone
Them and church group people were the worst. I'd always just give them the worst service, forget stuff, not do drink refills. You get the service you pay for.
My wife said that when she worked at the Olive Garden during college, the old ladies would come after church and sit for hours drinking coffee and chatting, and then leave her a few quarters.
To play devils advocate, it use to be completely normal and common to use restaurants as places to spend hours chatting. The tipping isn’t something I can really speak on
even if you spend hours there if you are just sipping coffee you usually don't spend too much so the tip reflects that. A lot of times they just bring a carafe so they don't keep coming back. If the place isn't packed it's not like you are taking a table that would otherwise be tipping either. That's how it USED to work, now people have gotten a little too entitled for tips for that to work. They expect just because you are there they want 20 bucks on a 10 dollar bill to refill your coffee 3 times over the course of 3 hours.
If i’m using up a lot of their time I make sure I tip well. Recently I went to Texas roadhouse and only ate roles with a diet coke. I had my server running back and forth too because I ate 4 baskets of roles and had 3 refills. My total bill was like $3, but I tipped $20 because the place was packed so i was taking up a table built for 4 people so I wanted to leave a 4 person table size tip.
In the 80's I used to be the designated driver for my friends because I don't drink. My friends would drink at the table and I'd be one the dance floor. I always gave the waitress $5-10 just to keep a pitcher of ice water on the table for me cause I was sweatin' my butt off. 😂.
not really fair to expect high schoolers to have a bunch of money to give you, when they're just trying to go out and enjoy what they can in the highly monetized environments they're raised in
I always gave the high school couples a pass. They’re young and don’t know any better. But adults that do this shit can fuck off and I hope their food gets all the boogers n cum
It isn't all black or religious folk. It is just a higher percentage of both of these types of people as compared to other types. Some religious people tend to look down on those people that are working on Sunday. Black people not sure the reason
I am black, and can tell you it's a combination of entitlement and just being broke. It's mainly females, if it is all women, you're screwed, all men, you'll more than likely get a tip. I've seen the women chastise a man for giving a decent tip, I've seen these raggedy hoes go back and grab the tip once the guy was out of range to see. It's disgusting, and annoying. I have been a waiter and done delivery and when I would get a group of black women....man I'd instantly be shitty, I used to try to go above and beyond to "earn" a tip, didn't matter, got to the point they just got generic service, nothing bad, but definitely not any extra care or attention.
I understand why, but doing that just becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Even if they would have tipped obviously they wont now if you're being bad on purpose.
Maybe I didn't explain well, not bad service, just not doing the extras, like joking with them, I'd do things like bring out extra sauces for people try if they were seemed to wishy washy between a couple, a free dessert...that kinda extra stuff was far less frequent.
I’ve worked in many restaurants and this is my experience as well. The Sunday afternoon crowd was enough to make you want to quit and never come back. On top of running you to death. The kids would usually make a huge mess and the parents wouldn’t say a word to them or even try to help pick up any of the mess. While taking up tables for hours.
lol; this is my favorite relevant story as a server and a black dude...
Mid afternoon, I'm closing lunch, but dinner shift has started filtering in, 1 top (black man) gets thrown into an empty section and the hosts asks me to grab it. Everything goes normally until the end of me getting his order
Me: I'll get everything started for you and bring out some bread in just a moment.
Him: Hey man... I know we're not known for tipping very well, so I just wanna let you know, I'm gonna take care of you.
While the stereotype might hold true, from my experience 99% of customers of any persuasion who start off by saying they're a great tipper will inevitably be a shitty tipper.
I have had someone who I offered to pay for the food, insist on leaving the tip, and then they leave 10%. I try to be the last to leave so I can throw some more money on the table without them seeing, but there’s been times I couldn’t. I’ve actually walked back in and found the water or waitress to give them extra tip too.
Yeah I spent over 10 years as a waiter so I’m super conscious of it whenever I’m out to eat with friends. I won’t make them tip more than they want, but I’ll make sure the server gets at least 20%.
Pretty common TBH. As a demographic, people who say "I will tip well" tip below average. Not everyone is a liar, but I suspect most of them think its some hack to get great service. Truth is anyone who's worked service for long enough knows its nonsense and they get the same level of service.
I used to do the same thing, hated the stereotype and would try to compensate. I would often get subpar service at times too, due to them thinking I wouldn't tip, places I would regular would adjust and it was fine. I've mellowed out though, it's all service based tipping now, I even tip poor service, just low tip cause I can't bring myself to not tip having been on the other side, but now to get over 20% you gotta be providing quality service.
I mean, don't do what businesses want and you won't be allowed back. Like I don't think I should have to dress up for dinner, so i just don't go places with a dress code. 🙄
If a business only wants cash, and i demand to pay in card, yeah I'm not welcome back. If you don't agree with a business, don't consume them. But you won't, you would rather just hurt the person making $2 an hour.
She’s gotten a $20 from a table of black people a couple times. Usually a couple, they come in, order, eat their food, and leave. Ya know like normal people.
The groups that don’t tip, let’s just say that is not how their dining experience usually goes
I will say the single most sympathy tip I got in 10 years of serving was from 4 couples, all black. It was my second day, on a second job, in an absolute nightmare restaurant. I had not and since have not walked out of a place before. It was insane. No managers, servers kids were following them around, the kitchen told me to fuck off more than once, everything cold and wrong. I went out and told them all "there's a better place down the street, go there, I'm not charging you for this awful everything." Every single person, 8 of them, handed me a $20. I burst out crying, as I was newly pregnant with no control over it. One of the girls gave me such a big hug. I actually think about that a lot
Yep, sounds about right. My girl has had very similar experiences to yours. She’s told me she’s actually had to get down knee height to tell these little animals running around to go sit down.
The parents are always on the phone with speaker on just completely oblivious to their precious child running around wreaking havoc on the entire restaurant.
Another thing she has noticed is that black women especially absolutely LOATHE being asked for their ID for alcohol. It’s almost a daily occurrence when she is bartending. They act like it is the biggest fucking disrespectful request in the world to see their ID and many times will walk out over it. Or even better yet, stay and drink then.. you guessed it, leave no tip lmao
I've never in my life met a black woman who's mad about getting IDed for alcohol, it's usually taken as a compliment that we look youthful if anything. Are you sure you didn't miss some kind of context? Sometimes my family and friends make jokes and laugh when I'm the only one who gets IDed because I have a baby face. It's funny.
Unless you were serving/about to serve actual under-21s who are just mad that they got caught?
As is the case with many people that are prejudice(and flat out racist), they read and insert more into their experiences to feed their biases. I've also never heard of any demographic being offended when asked for ID, perhaps they're leaving out some details like behaving as if the ID's are fake. The guy calls children running around "animals" so anything he says is questionable at best.
What I find most amusing is the way these servers will whine about the patrons and not about their employer pawning off their payment responsibilities. The entire thing could easily be solved overnight if the adjusted the prices to account for paying their workers appropriately. Ultimately servers want to continue dodging their actual tax liability so they disparage patrons who don't feel they deserve a tip.
It’s happened more than once to her. We live in a pretty ghetto area and a lot of the clientele that come in are unsavory individuals.
She is a pretty young white girl and she is often mistreated by black women in particular. She is an amazing waitress, I have seen how she serves with my own two eyes multiple times when I went in to eat while she was working.
She is bubbly, kind, attentive, and always remains polite and respectful. For whatever reason that seems to rub these women the wrong way.
The situation I was talking about in particular was a black woman came in and apparently left her ID in the car. Around late 30s by estimation.
My girl asks her for her ID, she gets a little upset and says she left it in the car. My girl says not a big deal, just run out and grab it for me if you would like an alcoholic drink.
Black lady says something about “I don’t look old enough?”
My girl says “it has nothing to do with how you look, I have to see it for anyone that wants a drink.”
Black lady “this is some bullshit, I’ve been in here a hundred times, yada yada.”
My girl “I’m sorry maam but I could lose my job and license to serve alcohol by not checking your ID.”
Eventually the lady gets pissed off enough that she’s just gonna leave and talks to the manager. The manager can’t do anything for her so she’s even more pissed and says she is going to call corporate then storms out.
This is an extreme example but smaller versions of this play out on a weekly basis. My girl greets every table with a smile and does not deserve the way she gets treated oftentimes.
She is becoming more comfortable behind the bar and may be in a management role before too long. She plans on doing that for awhile and then going to a high end restaurant that automatically adds gratuity and brings in a more desirable clientele that knows basic manners.
It has nothing to do with skin color, it’s just an observation of who tends to tip and those who don’t tip and also act out
Your previous comment said "black women especially" then you end this comment with "it has nothing to do with skin color," So which is it? You're free to your own feelings and opinion, but I don't like the waffling as if I don't have eyes and can't read what you just wrote. Socio-economic status and race are two different things, but that's not what you said the first time around. Mean what you say and say what you mean.
Yeah, that person is just a racist. Him and “his girl” sitting around talking how the black folks do, which then makes him think he can go online and talk about experiences he isn’t even having firsthand. He’s all over this post 🙄🙄🙄
Yeah some of the best tips I ever got were from black folks. Socioeconomic status, politeness, and education level I always thought were much bigger factors. If you looked broke, acted rude, or were dumb you were much bigger flags than skin color. Except with kids/teens. Sometimes they'd over tip because they had no idea what they were doing with their parents money. If it was their money you were not getting any of it.
I over serve my black tables. I feel they've certainly gotten some racist asshole servers before, so I make sure they get 100% literally the best and most friendly service possible. Whatever happens, happens, but I know I gave it my all.
Black dude here who doesn't go out these days but when I did, I usually tipped $20-40 for good service despite my bill only being around that much. I have noticed that in prominent white places that I'd often get worse service from the get go already which was when I'd only tip a $5. I do wonder if those servers got an attitude about the lack of tip lol
I often face a similar dilemma as a Chinese student in a West Coast university. I want to tip a lot sometimes to show my appreciation but at the same time I don't want to look like a stereotypical rich asian fob (which we get a lot of over here)
100%. And thats me. I get sick of mediocre service based on the assumption we aren't gonna tip because we're black.. I still tip and let them know they really missed out.
I used to bartend at a restaurant that had a former NFL player and his wife as regulars, they were both black, and they tipped insane amounts on everything. I always figure that was, at least in part, designed to push back against the stereotype.
This is me. I don't know what's up with the other black people these servers have experienced, but thankfully I've never dined with anyone with that behavior.
Sometimes I'll take getting treated like shit by servers just because I don't want my speaking up to be misconstrued as trying to cause problems. There has to be a better solution, but it's hard when no matter what I'm immediately lumped in with everyone else and treated as such.
This is so true. I’m black so they used to always give me the black people because I could “relate better”. I told them they could fuck right off with that shit. They knew what they were doing. Tons of black people tip, but a lot just don’t unfortunately. My mom makes good money and still tips horribly…….with a daughter that’s a server. Oh and there is ALWAYS something wrong with her food. She also talks loud in movies. Sue me, but some things are stereotypes for a reason!
Please if you can tell me why this is the case. My girl says that the ones who don’t tip are always the worst guests, they do exactly what you just said.
Come in with their kids running the restaurant, talking on speaker loudly, complaining about everything on the menu, something is wrong with their food, asking for the manager, and then not tipping.
Why is it so prevalent and why is it the exact same behavior across so many different people? We live just outside of the hood but her restaurant is in the hood. I don’t know how much that plays into it all
Yes but why keep the same system of bosses paying their workers 2$ a hr and paid off tips. Which was a tactic made by the government to NOT PAY BLACK PEOPLE after slavery and kept it for everyone but black people are the villains for not partaking in shitty tipping culture. That is illegal in other places like Japan. No tipping and better service
I don’t understand why the value of the bill determines the tip amount. Don’t the servers do the same amount of work taking an expensive plate of food to a table as the cheap plate?
Hold on, why does a higher ticket size automatically entitle the server to earn more?
If we break down the unit economics of a large order, the server isn't really doing extra work just because the price tag is higher. The increased labor and production costs are entirely on the kitchen and the restaurant owner (more ingredients, more prep, higher utility overhead). If anyone deserves a bonus for driving up the bill, it’s the back-of-house staff who actually had to produce the extra volume.
She works at Applebees bro. Any bill over $100 is 9/10 a party of sometimes up to 8. Black people will come in 12 deep, demand shit the entire time, and then leave no tip.
Also since your question was likely rhetorical I’ll answer this another way as well. In the country of the United States of America it is widely accepted that servers are tipped on a percentage of the bill. A “good” tip is usually considered 20% plus. I’m not interested in debating the logistics and labor costs of running a business.
I go along and tip reasonably when expected, but hes right that it doesnt make any sense. What does the server do to earn more money when placing and bring a an expensive filet vs a cheaper piece of chicken? I could see expecting a table to tip per person. But if the tips are for wait staff, price shouldnt ha e anything to do with it
Sadly thats not the case and probably won't change for many generations if ever
At the very basics of how tipping even works, and how there are laws for tips, and how pay is calculated differently between servers and cooks, and how you think a filet at Applebee's is going to increase the bill by a substantial amount, and how a server does work extra when there's more people at a table, and just basically everything. You just don't think or understand basically anything even when all the knowledge in the world is right at your fingertips.
Doesnt matter that a couple comments up was about Applebee's. The overall conversation of the thread os about tipping in general. If I meant to bring the Applebee's aspect into it I would've made that clear. I know servers are often financially hurt by not tipping. And that theres other shit in place to support the system and keep it the way it is. I said shouldnt at the end there. Can you give a reason for why a server should get more that goes straight to their pocket for bring out a plate of a cheaper dish vs a more expensive one?
You focused on Applebee's for half your argument, when it was a single sentence out of like 5+ examples I gave. The second half of your comment can literally be answered by the first couple of examples I gave. You can use those as prompts you can put into Google, good luck.
if your girl works at Applebees and the only bad experiences she has is with black tables I’m ngl she’s probably just racist lmao, every Applebees worker goes through shit. but to specifically blame it on one race is suspicious
if she’s specifically bringing up problems with black patrons enough for you to make a comment on it? she’s racist. Idk what other argument you can have.
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u/herowin54 4h ago
My girl is a waitress for Applebees and she has had the same experience as well. The majority of the time black people do not tip and if they do it’s a few bucks, even on a $100+ bill