why should i give tips?

In order to understand waitstaff tipping, you must first understand why tipping exists.

TIPs mean To Insure Prompt Service.

Anyone can write down what you want to eat, bring a note to the kitchen and then pick up the food from the kitchen and bring it to your table. However, someone who wants to give you good service will be sure to make your dining experience a good one.....or they will make no money and find another job. Restaurant owners depend on good service to stay in business, this makes their workers competitive to earn good tips, otherwise they earn next to nothing and leave, allowing other people who want to be great servers, take the job.

Menu prices would increase if restaurants paid their workers more money. So, To Insure Prompt Service (Tips), they hire workers who are willing to earn their tips by giving that prompt service. You see?

That is the restaurant/waitstaff side of dining.

Now about the patrons of the restaurants. We all have only so much money to spend. It is called a budget. When buying anything, we think about what we can afford to spend, right? So, when dining out, we need to think about the total cost. Therefore, we seek out a restaurant we can afford. That includes what we can eat, drink and tip. And, that is the dining budget.

So, dine at places you can afford.

I recently went to buy a car, with a budget and only so much money to spend.. The salesman picked a car to show me. I explained that after the taxes, title transfer, registration and other dealership fees, the total cost would be over budget. Therefore, I picked a less expensive car so I could stay within my budget.

Same with dining out. If you cannot afford the food, the drink, the dessert, the taxes and the tip, dine someplace where you can afford to do so.

You do not HAVE to tip, nonetheless.

Only complete idiots, or the perpetually cheap who pretend to be idiots, turn the American tipping system into some evil corporate plot to separate us even more from the few extra bucks in our pockets.

Don't blame to $2/hr waiter for your inability to have a sense of humanity and your indignance at being expected to leave a few measly dollars so he can scrape together his rent.

You want him to get a better job? Fine, give him yours, and YOU wait tables for pennies and keep a smile on your face while struggling to make a living busting your a$$ to keep rightwads like you happy.

You don't like the way American restaurants are run, then don't YOU go to them and expect four star service for nothing.

And if you think paying the wait staff more is the solution, be prepared for a 50-75% increase in prices to offset the higher salaries.. Will you be able to afford to eat out then???

..i used to get annoyed when going to restaurants where tipping was expected; but that's because i didn't know what to look for.

if the waiter was attentive to your requests, gives suggestions and is rapid in delivery of the meal with a smile on his face, smooth talker and if he's quick at cleaning up the table: then he deserves a tip ( anything between 5 to 10 dollars is generous ).

if he was a prick, slow, inattentive, not groomed or even rude ( looking away when you're talking to him or looking at ur date ), then show your dissatisfaction by giving him a single dollar: meaning that you were displeased with his service and attitude.

cheers.

I think you may need to change your dictionary app -- gratuitous and gratuity have no more to do with each other than an obscure word root.

Think of it as battling the outdated idea that people performing a service on behalf of a business or corporation are only worth a sub-standard wage so that the cost of those services, which in many ways define the business' high level of customer satisfaction, are pushed onto you in a disingenuous manner, creating the opportunity for debate.

I'd be much happier not to need to tip.

It's really simple. If you don't like people waiting on you, go to a fast food restaurant. If you like people waiting on you, tip them. That's the way they make a living. Your only decision is whether to be a cheapskate or to reimburse someone who has served you.

Dude. This conundrum is so simple. Tipping at sit down restaurants is expected. if you receive good service, you tip, period. If not, you leave a nickel or a dime. Don't like it? Cook at home, get food to go or eat at McDonald's.

Tip. Don't tip.