Best 'tippers', Men or Women??

knotty man's Avatar
i always thought it was customary to just double the tax. guess im just "small town"
rekcaSxT's Avatar
I would love to see things change. I think servers should be paid a decent wage, it is hard work. The cost of eating out will go up, but the tip will be built into the meal.

Eating out is a luxury, and should be treated as such. For those who don't tip, part is because they don't feel they can afford it. My response to that is: If you can not afford the meal, and to tip the person who waited on your every need during the meal you should not go out to eat, or choose McDonalds.

If we changed the culture and raised the price of eating out, servers could work without fear of being stiffed, lowlifes may eat out less, and maybe servers could get insurance etc....

Until then, I will continue to tip though.
Rand Al'Thor's Avatar
that is Standard fair for Techies, Tech Engineers are the cheapest guys out there!!!!!!!! regardless of age Originally Posted by RALPHEY BOY
Did not know that was standard for us techies, but not surprising when I consider some of my peers.

Several moons ago I was a bartender for a period of +/- 2 and 1/2 years. During this time my experience in regards to who the best tippers were, from best to worse, are the following:

1. Other people from the service industry BY FAR!
2. Females between the ages of 23 to 50 (with me at least)
3. Males between the ages of 23 to 50 (although I had some regulars that rocked)
4. Pseudo-Gagnster "wannabes" and $30k millionaires (they both always liked showing off what they "had")
5. Young people in the financial industry (back then for some reason they seemed to always have a lot of cash and didn't mind parting with it, but don't think that's the case anymore)
6. My fellow minorities (I'm hispanic and always hated it when a fellow minority would leave me a $5 tip on a $100 bill)
7. Professionals (Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, etc... the more money they have the worse they tip.)
8. Seniors
9. College students (they are always broke)
10. Europeans and most people from South and Central America (Tipping is not customary so they basically don't tip unless they know and understand that servers live off their tips and it is still an up hill battle).

I think most of these still hold true today. I know it sounds bad because it sounds like stereotyping but If you don't believe me, ask any friend of yours who is a server today and they'll tell you Originally Posted by Grecco
Mostly true...though I would break up the women's age group. 23-35 or so were great, but 35 and up were pretty bad for the most part.

I agree with that mostly, but I think college students tip better than seniors and minorities in my experience. And tipping is bad from all non-U.S. residents, including people from Asia and Africa, not just Europe and Latin America. Originally Posted by Sensual Sophia
Doh! That's two points against me. I thought Asians tipped pretty well. Well, there's a huge difference between Asian men and women.

I would love to see things change. I think servers should be paid a decent wage, it is hard work. The cost of eating out will go up, but the tip will be built into the meal.

Eating out is a luxury, and should be treated as such. For those who don't tip, part is because they don't feel they can afford it. My response to that is: If you can not afford the meal, and to tip the person who waited on your every need during the meal you should not go out to eat, or choose McDonalds.

If we changed the culture and raised the price of eating out, servers could work without fear of being stiffed, lowlifes may eat out less, and maybe servers could get insurance etc....

Until then, I will continue to tip though. Originally Posted by rekcaSxT
I'm on the fence about this one. I agree about not having enough to pay for the meal, etc..

Changing the wage structure of servers would have some unintended consequences though. Right now, it's a profession that lets you walk out with cash - sometimes a decent amount, if you work in a nice place. That would change drastically once a better wage is in place, it would become no different than a retail job. For the customer's side, I've experienced some pretty horrid service in parts where tipping is not customary. server wage is built into the cost of the food, so there is no incentive for good service.

Reading some of the posts here, I wonder how much of this is half the equation of a self-fulfilling prophecy. When I was a server, I knew many who would jump to the conclusion, based on ethnicity, age, gender, accent, etc., that they would get a shitty tip from certain tables. Consciously or not, I can guarantee you those tables got less attention than others. I also find that I fit at least two of the bad tipper category, maybe that explains some instances of bad service I've had - which leads to less than normal tips from me..
RALPHEY BOY's Avatar
@Grecco: on your number 6 and 10 I can add a few things I have observed over the years.

#6: some are horrible tippers, for example my buddy who waited tables for 15 years told me older Black people only tipped 2-5 buks no matter what the tab was and no matter how good the service was.( this not a racist comment I am merely taking what my buddy told me even Black waiters I know did not like waiting on other Black people)

#10: they are not accustomed to tipping, they add a service charge to your bill regardless. ( my first trip to London I was tipping 15% of my tab the next day I went to the same Pub to eat they were very happy to see me!!)


@Rand: perhaps not all techies or engineers, at least 75%
sixxbach's Avatar
I tend to always 20% unless the girl is really hot or the service was excellent.

For bars, I tend to do a buck per drink ordered. I went with some buddies about 2 years ago to a younger persons bar in corpus. Pretty darn ghetto and it was 50 cent shots and dollar beer. I couldn't believe the cheap asses! People are cheap when I'm bitching about it lol I ordered 2 beers and gave her a 5 and every time I went up, my drinks were ready, etc. Most there wouldn't tip or actually take the .50 back from the change of the .50 shot....

sixx
As a previous waitress I say men are the better tippers. Lil ol ladies are the worst!!! So I make sure I always tip 15% unless the waiter/waitress just sucks!!!