WHAT is the deal with people who work at coffee shops and/or cash registers and the obnoxiously present tip jars? This trend seems to be just as ubiquitous at upscale cafes with baristas (Dude, you pour coffee) as at plain old Dunkin Donuts shops. Asking for a tip for something my dog could do is one trend that has gone too far.
I am fully prepared to offer the appropriate 15-20% tip to a waitperson for good service – I am not known to be a cheapskate. But pressing a color picture of a large coffee on a register does NOT warrant a reward, like a parrot that punches in the right sequence on a computer to get a cracker.
Today, I experienced the ultimate in audaciously ill-mannered behavior. I went to the local bagel shop to grab lunch – a place I frequent just about every day and with whose staff I am well acquainted. I ordered a BLT on a bagel. No coffee, no tea, nothing else. The guy who cut my bagel in half and placed on it 2 slices of bacon also was working the register. He graciously took my money, did so with a smile, but when he reached back to hand me my change, he gave me back 4 cents, and tossed the rest into the tip jar. Granted it was only 20 cents, and I wasn’t going to make a big deal about it. But I did notice that the tip jar was unusually full today. And this guy does not usually work the register. I guess his rent is due or his car is about to be repo’d. Doesn’t matter. The point is if your job is to cut bagels, then that’s what you get paid to do. If you pour coffee, steam milk into foam, or stir in a teaspoon of sugar, that’s what you get paid to do. If you’re a waitperson, you get paid significantly less than minimum wage, and are expected to make up the difference with tips – which are earned for good service. Pouring coffee does not = good service. I’m sorry. It just doesn’t. As Robyn pointed out, the owners of the establishment perpetuate this nonsense by allowing it to continue.
Everybody has to have their grubby paws extended in a “gimme” mentality these days. It’s annoying, and uncalled for. I refuse to give over another cent to these people. Hey if you want a tip, I got one for you right here.
I'm thinking of installing a tip cup next to my new cappuccino machine once I got more proficient at frothing.
Posted by: Robyn on October 21, 2002 07:41 PMBe nice, it's probably the only job these idiots can get. Go to a Dunkin Donuts and see if you can find someone who speaks ENGLISH. I'm tired of ordering my coffee with MILK ONLY and getting cream and sugar or to have them stand there and stare at you. Go to Starbucks and you need 4 people to get a cup of coffee. See now you got me started.
Posted by: MIki on October 22, 2002 07:20 AMSee, all my mom's attempts to make me into a Southern lady failed, so I would have reached into the tip jar and gotten my 20 cents back. If he'd given you your change and you decided to toss it in there, that's different. But not to give it back to you at all, and decide for you that you're going to tip? Not.
Posted by: Eyre ni Rhuth on October 22, 2002 10:50 AMOh my god, I'm married to the poster girl for the NRA.
Posted by: Robyn on October 22, 2002 03:33 PMMy local bagel shop put a tip jar up at the register. I told the manager to pay his employees more because I did not feel at liberty to subsidize their income. The tip jar disappeared shortly thereafter and now is merely a little cup "not bearing the word TIPS" that people use on the same principal as "need a penny, got a penny" theory. Much better!
Posted by: LORI on October 22, 2002 03:55 PMStatements made on this blog do not necessarily reflect the beliefs and opinions of the owner to this website. Send all complaints, flames and general bitching and moaning to uh..., um... well, just post it here and let dialogue wars begin!
Posted by: LA on October 22, 2002 04:17 PMRecently, as I was standing in line at the local supermarket, I noticed a tip cup in front of the cash register. I turned to my wife and said (loudly), "Oh - what a GREAT idea! A tip cup at the grocery store!" The cashier said, "Yeah. You wanna hear something really sick? I put that there as a joke this morning, and people have actually been PUTTING MONEY IN IT!"
I blame Starbuck's for a majority of the world's problems. I used to be able to go into the local greasy spoon and get a cup of coffee for fifty-five cents. Not a great cup of coffee, mind you, but a cup of hot, brown, caffeine-infused liquid that tasted reasonably good once I had added the required condiments. Now, that same shitty cup of joe costs me a buck and a quarter. It's because Americans like to treat themselves and have no self-control that these kinds of things are allowed to happen.
Where I'm from (Minnesota) we have a little thing called "Minnesota Nice". Minnesota Nice is where you come to a complete stop in the middle of a highway - during the morning rush hour - to let a drunken farmer on a tractor illegally cross the highway (at five miles per hour), thus holding up traffic for miles and causing everyone behind you to get fired from their job - JUST SO YOU CAN GET A SMILE OUT OF THE DRUNKEN FARMER IN FRONT OF YOU. The idea here is that it allows you to go through life being an absolute jackass while thinking you're a great person because the people in front of you always smile at you. That's Minnesota Nice.
So, for the sake of the people behind you, think about that the next time you decide to get a smile out of that spoiled, condescending twenty-something behind the counter at your local corporate coffee establishment, alright?
That is, unless you really WANT to see a tip cup at your doctor's office some day....
"The boat goes where you point the nose."
- My Grampa
Huh? Um, Ted... what the hell are you talking about? I've never been to Minnesota, so I've never had the opportunity to indulge drunk farmers. Nor do I attempt to elicit a smile from someone opposite a cash register. I just want my coffee and my change.
Alas, the only way I will have a tip jar in my doctor's office is if I specialize in amputations...
Posted by: LA on October 23, 2002 04:40 PM... or circumcisions.
Posted by: Robyn on October 23, 2002 04:44 PMLong-time reader, first-time caller...
I have to say that this whole "tip" things has gotten out of hand. it's not bad enough you have to pay more than $3 for a cup of coffee (I don't drink coffee, but still think it's straight-up theft what these "coffee shops" are charging) but to have to give up your change as well? Sheesh!
Things could be worse, though. In Mexico you HAVE to tip the lads that are putting your groceries in the bags. But then again, "un peso" isn't all that much as far as tips go...
I work at baskin robbins, and I make minimum wage. I'm 26, above average intelligence, and below the poverty level. I put a tip cup up where I work, and work hard for my tips. Not many people leave tips at our store, but the extra 4 or 5 bucks I may go home with equals almost half of what I will go home with from the company for that day. It makes a difference, feeds me for the day, or gets me gas money to get to work the rest of the week. THANK YOU, to those who leave tips. And for those of you who don't, and think that I'm ill-mannered for putting out a tip cup, have obviously never needed to do so. I don't expect everyone to leave a tip, but when you order 5 malts, a 3 banana splits, which take me several minutes, and effort to make, and I get it RIGHT, I think I deserve one. Otherwise I'd make your malts to specs (smaller and not as thick) and your banana splits all the same classic style, instead of each flavor and each topping of your choosing.
I do alot more than work the register, but that's all i get paid for.
Sex LOVE
BUSH SEX SCANDAL
Washington is a hotbed of sexual high jinks
Sorry for offtopic, but I cannot stand not to write this:
http://www.nationalenquirer.com/stories/feature.cfm?instanceid=61852
read it ... bush is lier and whore !
Posted by: gAy sEx pOrN Scandal on June 15, 2004 04:08 PMTramadol is one of the most prescribed treatments for pain in the world.
Posted by: tramadol on September 24, 2004 08:59 AMToday blackjack gret online blackjack great play blackjack online .
Posted by: online blackjack on October 1, 2004 06:41 AMHi there roulette
slots also check
craps and
baccarat and
video poker getting tired
blackjack gretas
online roulette good buy
online slots now
online craps back from
online baccarat visitation
online video poker nowadays
online blackjack gigabyre
play roulette online best
play slots online luxury
play craps online polica
play baccarat online joke
play video poker online laos
play blackjack online stop now.
texas hold em
http://www.i-texas-hold-em.info
Tens of thousands of players play online poker daily on
Online Poker Free, and there are
many good reasons why! Here are the largest
Online Poker Rooms in the world
and we offer a variety of Free Online
Poker Games and Tournaments, including Texas Holdem, Seven Card Stud and
Omaha high/low .With thousands of players
Online Poker Free provides the
best in live, multi-player online poker, offering a wide variety of
free online poker games and
daily, weekly, and monthly free poker
tournaments with generous cash prizes. Guaranteed security and fairness !
Play online casinos now
Posted by: online casinos on October 3, 2004 06:54 AMhighest quality replica jewelry Rolex watch, wrist watch, Replica Watch purchase your affordable realistic Rolex replica watch today at http://www.pro-rolex-replica-watches.com
Posted by: Rolex Replica on November 8, 2004 09:53 AM