how to be a good customer.
- Tipping is not optional when you're getting table service. It may be more so in a cafe, but if your barista is friendly and your drink tastes good, not tipping is stingy -- at best.
- Jokes about how your barista is raking in the dough because the little jar is full of singles aren't really funny. Chances are they're walking home with 20 bucks and trying to figure out how to buy groceries with that.
- Anyone who's ever had a 'service' job thinks you're a jerk if you don't tip, including your favorite cute barista/waiter/bartender.
- Throwing money on the counter / slamming down your credit card is rude. Just hand the girl/dude your money, alright?
- no you can't cut in line because you're "just" getting soda or coffee.
- making the amount of your 'total' credit card transaction an even dollar amount by tipping like 26 cents is unhelpful. sorry. i know you're trying.
- it's never, ever okay to not have enough money for what you're ordering, even if it's a coffee refill. your server does not want to 'loan' you a quarter. we're trying to get four so we can have a dollar more for our gas bill. it's your responsibility to pay for your stuff. c
- talking on your cell phone during your transaction is the rudest, crappiest, most disrespectful thing that you could possibly do to your server.
- walking up to a counter and saying a single word: "latte." "beer." "bagel." makes you sound like an asshole and is just going to lead to blank stares and half a dozen follow up questions. Try saying hello and asking for what you want in question form. You'll probably find a much friendlier face that way.
to be continued in illustrated children's fable form on some later date.
- Jokes about how your barista is raking in the dough because the little jar is full of singles aren't really funny. Chances are they're walking home with 20 bucks and trying to figure out how to buy groceries with that.
- Anyone who's ever had a 'service' job thinks you're a jerk if you don't tip, including your favorite cute barista/waiter/bartender.
- Throwing money on the counter / slamming down your credit card is rude. Just hand the girl/dude your money, alright?
- no you can't cut in line because you're "just" getting soda or coffee.
- making the amount of your 'total' credit card transaction an even dollar amount by tipping like 26 cents is unhelpful. sorry. i know you're trying.
- it's never, ever okay to not have enough money for what you're ordering, even if it's a coffee refill. your server does not want to 'loan' you a quarter. we're trying to get four so we can have a dollar more for our gas bill. it's your responsibility to pay for your stuff. c
- talking on your cell phone during your transaction is the rudest, crappiest, most disrespectful thing that you could possibly do to your server.
- walking up to a counter and saying a single word: "latte." "beer." "bagel." makes you sound like an asshole and is just going to lead to blank stares and half a dozen follow up questions. Try saying hello and asking for what you want in question form. You'll probably find a much friendlier face that way.
to be continued in illustrated children's fable form on some later date.
posted by summer anne burton at
1:49 PM
4 Comments:
I worked at a cafe. I didn't feel that people were obligated to tip me. I think the ubiquity of tip jars is an unfortunate American trend. As you say, tipping is obligatory in American restaurants with table service because the wages are below minimum wage; that doesn't apply in cafes. The restaurant situation has artificially conditioned Americans to feel that there's something inherently "right" about tipping and "wrong" about not tipping, but this attitude is specific to American restaurants. It's not some kind of fundamental moral principle, and certainly not one that would be recognized by, say, Europeans.
I imagine the answer will be that cafe workers' wages are still low, even if they're above minimum wage. That's true. But: (1) cafe work isn't very hard, and again, I say this as someone who's done it. Even in a very busy cafe, it wasn't that hard, and the people who do it are typically very young and doing it as a temporary thing. (2) Even if the wages should be higher, the custom of dropping tips in tip jars encourages the low wages: the more the customers shoulder the burden to pay the workers, the less burden the employer feels to do so.
I see your points, but I disagree...
If there's a tip jar somewhere -- anywhere -- and I can afford to put a dollar in it without breaking my bank, I do. The reason I do is simply because I can. I don't think about the level of service or how hard the job. I feel like if a place has a tip jar out, they probably are really counting on the extra money from tips. There's a tip jar at Vulcan Video -- I tip them when I rent movies because I know they make minimum wage. Minimum wage is not a working income in Austin, and I know that from experience.
I'm not sure that saying 'cafe work isn't hard' is really a fair judgment call, even if you have done it. You don't really know how hard it is for the person behind the counter. The work itself might not be all that difficult, but dealing with people who are taking out their bad day on you, one after another, can wear thin. I've had office jobs where I didn't have to deal with "customers" all day every day and those jobs were way, way "easier" for me even if they required a more advanced set of skills.
And I disagree that the 'people are generally young and doing it as a temporary thing.' That's a stereotype and there are a lot of college kids who work in cafes, but I know dozens of people who are in their late 20s -> early 30s who have worked in cafes for years as their primary source of income. Two of my coworkers are 30-something single moms.
Whether tipping encourages low wages is hard to tell. A lot of businesses (who would argue they can't afford to do otherwise) simply pay people as little as they have to whether there are tips involved or not. The tip jar serves as a way for people who can afford to do so to reward good service themselves, which I think is a nice system for everyone involved.
Fair points. I'd just add one thing: of course I have no problem with people who do tip in all sorts of situations. If you're tipping video-rental clerks, you're going way beyond what most people do. I think that's commendable, but it doesn't necessarily show that everyone is obligated to do it. I would never even think of tipping someone working in retail or rentals. It's not that I don't want to help them. It's that I already am helping them. Their job wouldn't exist if not for people like me going into their stores and buying lots of stuff. I'm giving them their jobs, and thus already giving them money. If I thought the price of a book or a DVD rental was the listed price plus a few dollars (the way I think when I look at a restaurant menu), I'd be less likely to go to a bookstore or DVD rental store in the first place.
Yes, yes, yes to everything you listed. We need to make a huge, all-encompassing guidebook. Here's one for the first chapter:
If your server says hi to you, and you respond by telling them what you want (i.e.: "Hi," "Large coffee") then you do not deserve to be waited on ever again, by anyone.
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