Tips are the bugbear of our lives. Should we tip? Shouldn't we? If you don’t you risk the ire of the waitperson.
How much should you tip? It's complicated. Whatever you do, the person providing the service expects a tip. Even if it's self-service and you do everything yourself, there's a tip jar waiting for you.
Restaurants are the worst perpetrators. Their staff are geared up for tips, all based on the principle of reciprocity.
Scenario, you're at a restaurant finishing your meal when the waiter brings the bill, along with it he places a small candy on the table it's a nice gesture but nothing extraordinary-wrong. Kneels down and asks what your plans are for the rest of the evening. Only time the waitperson has been nice all evening. Studies have shown that with this tiny reciprocity in action humans have a deep-seated need to repay debts to reciprocate kindness. It thrives when someone does something for us we feel compelled to do something in return but here's where it gets interesting the reciprocated favor doesn't have to be of equal value that's why that small candy can lead to significant larger tips the key is in the gesture itself not its magnitude
Think about it, the bill comes on a plate, with a couple of pieces of candy. Then you are hooked. Most people don't even look at the bill let alone check it. The card is pulled out, a couple of buttons are pressed and then we are confronted by rows of numbered and % signs. Most of us take a heavy breath as we realise the tip numbers start at 18, remember when 10 per cent was the accepted tip.
Not only has the minimum suggested tip gone up by eighty percent, but the cost of food, wine, beer, and more has also risen substantially. You're now paying at least double compared to two or three years ago.
What's next in gouging the customer? Tipping the person as they show you to your table, well some restaurants are now charging extra for napkins
How do you decide on your tips? Do you mindlessly press the 18%, 20%, or even 25% button? Think about it: a three-hundred-dollar bill comes, and you give the minimum tip on the machine—fifty-four bucks. That bill included tax, so we tip on that as well, are we nuts?
The whole system is flawed. The waiter delivers a bottle of wine, opens it, pours a bit in your glass, ask you to taste it, and then pours it. You will be tipping based on the bottle's price. Think about it— it takes the same amount of work, time, and effort, whether you order a fifty-dollar or two-hundred-dollar bottle. Why then does the customer tip ten dollars on a fifty-dollar bottle and fourty dollars on a two-hundred-dollar bottle? Are we nuts?
The same goes for food. There's no difference in the effort required to deliver a twelve-dollar plate of pasta or a thirty-dollar steak. The effort, smile, and service involved are the same.
With the minimum 18% tip on rising food and beverage prices and the increase in minimum wage, are times that tough in a restaurant?
It makes you want to cry in your napkin, however it will cost you extra!
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