Tipping & The beloved ghetto community

Looks like appallingly ignorant, crude, and ill-mannered aren’t qualities limited to white restaurant patrons. I’ve heard it all before; see Mr. Pink’s anti-tipping rant at the opening of Reservoir Dogs.

It’s of a piece with general fat-assed Americans’ sense of entitlement: “I want what I want, never mind what my conscience, societal mores, common decency, and common sense tell me. I can afford to eat out, but I can’t afford to tip, and I have a long litany of lame excuse to help me justify stealing from the mouths of hard-working people.”

She’s got plenty of people to look to for inspiration, starting right at the top of our government, a group of people so immoral that they congratulate themselves for turning a giant surplus into a giant deficit to benefit the Paris Hilton tax bracket, thereby saddling our great-grandchildren with crushing debt. This pathetic YouTuber and W show the same sense of self-centered, infantile greed utterly untroubled by any human empathy.

That last six years have been a similar middle finger to and mooning of ordinary working people like restaurant servers. W has given us the same big middle finger and mooning that this pathetic excuse for a human being did.

Well, speaking of….Has anyone else ever noticed the leisurely, overtly contentious
way in which blacks - and black females in particular - order
sandwiches at Subway restaurants? I swear to God, every time I’m
in line to order a crappy Subway sandwich, a heated shouting
match invariably breaks out between the black person that’s in
front of me and the Arab employee preparing the sandwich. Don’t
believe me? Just watch the next time you’re in a Subway
restaurant. You can see the way the black person’s eyes narrows
to slits as soon as he or she steps up to the counter. Their
countenance says it all: “I’m gonna get me a 6″ roast beef and
cheese (ironically, always on white bread), and I’m gonna get me
EVERY muthafuckin’ condiment on it.” And then the battle
begins. Look at the Arab sandwich artist’s expression. He looks
like he just found out that he made the FBI’s “person of
interest” list. He wants nothing more than to throw the black
person out of the restaurant because he knows what’s coming - a
fight over 1) what constitutes adequate meat and 2) what
constitutes ample garnishings. I thought that the fights that I
had witnessed between black patrons and Arab sandwich artists
over the last month or so were just isolated incidences. But
they’re not. Friday evening as I trudged through Penn Station
I stopped briefly at a Subway to get some crappy food. Sure
enough, there was a fight in progress between an unmarried middle
aged black female with a close cropped afro and a trio of Arab
sandwich artists. I looked at her sandwich. Yup, just as I
suspected, it was overflowing with shit - sweet peppers, onions,
all manner of sauces, every single fucking condiment on the
buffet line. Why so many contradictory flavor choices? Well, I’ve
thought about that, and this is the conclusion that I’ve come
to: Blacks view the ordering of a Subway sandwich much as they
view tipping: as an opportunistic right to exploit a service
industry courtesy. Subway restaurants extend you the right to
choose - presumably within reason - the garnishes that you would
like on your sandwich. Blacks, for reasons not entirely clear to
me, see this extension as some sort of “freebie”, a “loophole” if
you will, that simply MUST be exploited to maximum
effect. Anyway, the fight between the bitter black lady and
the Arabs, believe it or not, actually ended with police
intervention. After putting everything but the kitchen sink on
the sandwich, the black woman (who WAS NOT homeless) refused to
pay for the meal until - now get this - until the Arab cashier
PHYSICALLY REMOVED A SOFT DRINK CUP FROM THE DISPENSER AND HANDED
IT TO HER. The cups, I should mention, were right in front of
her, directly to her left. The Arab flipped out and screamed for
the MTA police. I left at that point. I have witnessed this
same scenario at least 5 times in the last year and a half. Has
anyone else witnessed this bizarre phenomenon?

Well how about Foreigners too? Regardless of how PC your politics are, when you hear an accent at a table the first thing you think is going to be “shitty tip” (I do this too, admittedly). However, I always give everyone the benefit of the doubt and treat them equally well despite whatever is tossing around in my head. Still, there’s at least one person that I work with that will auto-grat the table every time he hears an accent, [regardless of cover count (policy is six or more)] thinking they won’t see “service” listed on the bill. That is truly shameless.

Stereotypes are based on experience if they’re not learned from parents or society. Working in restaurants, you learn who and who not are going to be good to you, for the most part. When you get an order for drip coffee with steamed milk on the side you can basically guarantee yourself said customer is cheap. Why else would they not order a cap or latte? They’re penny pinching, just like the people who order hot water with lemon and honey instead of hot tea. Whatever, it’s the nature of the business and it’s just part of what we do. No matter how cheap, needy, or grossly stupid the customer is, you provide them with the same best service you can supply and cross your fingers; hope for the best. How many times have you waited on a Louis Vuitton clutch carrying bitch decked out in gold and diamonds, eating fois and fillet, sipping on yellow label bubbles, who just adores you, flirts with you, then leaves you ten percent or less? Even worse is waiting on a coworker, hooking them up with tons of free shit and then getting 15% on the adjusted bill. That happens, too and that’s your “family”! It goes either way and it goes either way ALL THE TIME. Bury that bullshit mentality and focus on up selling. If you really think the tip is going to be ten percent or less, get them to spend twice as much money. shit, get every customer to do that but be insistent on the ones you doubt. Regardless, there’s no excuse to ever put a table on your back burner. You’re not a fortune teller. You can’t predict the future, and no one should ever suffer because you think you know what they’re going to leave you. If you disagree, you have no business being in a customer service oriented profession. Live and let live and treat your customers the best of your ability, otherwise learn to cook.

reading these posts, racist, sexist, outright stupid, shows us all that even the Irish can get lit and make bad humor. even the experienced waitron looks at the beautiful black couple and can’t shake the programmed ‘nigger, nigger, nigger’ that runs through their mind. worried about the tip.
America is a land of thieves, a place where the underhanded make out far better than the above-board.
now, meyer lansky, bugsy seigel, popular jews making popular money, tipped the gentiles 100% on ALL TICKETS. You think those useless waiters resented those jews? DOES ANYBODY think they had the nuts to mark the ticket ‘ jew gangster ‘ to remind themselves who they were serving?
if you are too stoned, buzzed, pilled to the gills, to recall that you are waiting on someone high-maintenance, that they, by the nature of this business, deserve better service than the low-maintenance guest, then you are in the wrong business. and you deserve to get a flat 15%.
all things gangland melt, and those of you who have served jews, served ‘no tippin’ Pippin’, who have had Russell Crowe drop a cool grand on you at Gaucho, or Rick Fox throw hundreds on top of the hundreds already added to the bill… you servers are SERVERS, pros. You know that. and you will continue to make better cash and give service that is true CRAFT .

What does a waiter say to a table of four old Jewish women?……………………..”Is anything OK!”

You are all a bunch of racist pigs who are so dumb to think that because you waited on one Jewish person that was high maintenence and didn’t tip you can stereotype an entire group of people dating back thousands of years. Being Jewish, a good tipper, and low maintence, I can say that I’m personally offended that you blame and refer to my heritage in such a way as to demoralize us to a single phrase. Each person is an individual, not all black people are in gangs, not all Asians are smart, etc… Furthermore, so if a couple of Jews, because you know they are the ONLY people that are high maintenance and bad tippers (get the f#&*ing point) did act in such a way, who can blame them. ONLY Two generations ago 6 million of them had everything taken from them including their lives, and those so lucky to escape starved and came here with nothing, horrified by their fate, and so they try to penny pinch a bit. SO go take your racist self to a library an educate yourself

The Right Honorable Gordon Brown;
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland;
First Lord of the Treasury; Minister for the Civil Service
10 Downing Street
Westminster, London, England, United Kingdom SW1A 2AA

My Dear Sir:

While it may trouble you to receive this correspondence regarding the behaviour of your delightful citizens abroad, specifically in the former colonies; now commonly known as the United States of America, I feel compelled, as a citizen of afore stated former colonies, and thereby a cousin, if you will, of the otherwise pleasant British, to inform you of some rather disturbing actions which your people engage whilst visiting or travelling this side of the Pond.

Personally I find the British charming, polite, urbane, civilised, and otherwise of a generally agreeable lot. Not having had the pleasure of personally attending an Arsenal or Manchester United football match, I leave the reputed hooliganism and accompanying rows to cultural idiosyncrasy, one not evidenced in my experience. Nevertheless, the one behaviour of your citizenry here in America of which I find the most annoying, disturbing, and ultimately maddening is the ignorance of a peculiar American cultural artefact, which manifests itself most obviously in the act of the tip. As a waiter, and one who has served the Queen’s subjects (and your constituency) on more than several occasions, and because of the vagaries of the American economic system, professional waiters in America depend wholly upon the tip, which, as I understand in Great Britain and Europe, is meant to be an extra reward for good service, due to the fact that waiters there receive a salary of liveable degree. In America, waiters receive a pittance salary, usually of an hourly nature, and far below the minimum wage, which is more often than not applied to income tax; subsequently the majority of waiters in America owe taxes at the end of the year. To put it simply: American waiters depend upon tips for their livelihood.

Mr. Brown, I urge you, if only for decency’s sake, to inform your citizens, before travelling abroad to the United States, that while dining out in a restaurant where waiters take orders and serve food, that the tip is not compulsory, but mandatory, the amount of which is meant as a level of satisfaction of service provided. Excellent service is rewarded in excess of 20% of the total cheque amount, for example, a $100 meal with excellent service deserves a $20 (or greater) tip. Average service requires a 15% tip, and poor service can be indicated with a 10% tip. Under no circumstances is it acceptable to “stiff”, or simply not tip, a waiter in America, or leave a tip under 10% (with the exception of absolutely abysmal service).

As the global economy continues to deteriorate, I can understand a certain reticence in the spending of money; however, British people in America have been displaying this ignorance for far longer than the duration of the current fiscal crisis; therefore, I can only surmise the problem stems from a lack of education of the British People, and you Sir, are the political leader of Great Britain, so this grim task must remain your responsibility, nay, your duty, for the sake of the continuing good reputation of the British abroad.

I have prevailed upon the United States Department of Homeland Security to distribute proper American Etiquette Pamphlets, including proper tip technique, an e-z Tip calculator (sponsored by Applebee’s), and common American slang terminology to all foreigners arriving in America, in an effort to improve international waiter-guest relations. As of the date of this letter, I have not heard from the Department of Homeland Security’s Undersecretary to the Assistant Adjunct of Customs Enforcement and Cultural Assimilation’s Office’s Secretary’s Assistant, although the Border Patrol is very interested.

Please Sir, I beg you, do not let this simple lack of education evolve into a further international crisis. Yes, our military are busy at the moment, but after the elections next month, we may have some troops to spare. Do you want to be remembered as the PM who let Britain’s subjects starve while in America, or truly, has the sun set on the British Empire?

Sincerely,
The Waiters of America

PS. Please forward this letter your your pals, the Prime Ministers of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, as we have similar problems with them, and post this letter in a good location in the Hague’s Bulletin Board of International Notices next time you’re there - the European Union has been slow to adopt our policies as well, and is in need of a gentle reminder. Actually, we’ll deal with the Canadians as we see fit.

To people who complain that some of the comments are racist, sexist ect… Well, that’s right! They are. Any comment that says, blacks do this, whites do that, jews, women ect…
That’s the definition of those racism and sexism, generalized statement about a group of people.

Unfortunately, a lot of these statements are true. It’s not like it’s just the occasional black person acting out. It happens all the time. It’s not like it’s one old Jewish women who’s insufferable. I personally don’t like feeling this way, but how can you ignore reality?

I have to agree. I’m no racist, but the reality is that it’s a very surprising thing to recieve a decent tip from an african-american customer. The same is true of many other groups, I can think of rednecky types, foreign students, and ostentatious christians (the little pamphlets about christ in lieu of tip are my absolute favorite). I wish it wasn’t so, but to deny it is just silly.