how much to tip?

[jerrybob]

I come from a country that does not believe in tipping in any way.
But I just want to get something straight so I am not mistaking what is going on.
You are going to the barbers?.
He owns the business and is not on wages?
And you actually tip him!!!
My immediate reaction is why. If he can't make a living without the tip he should not be in business. And he is tipped for exemplary service? he did not cut an ear off :laughing:
And you pay a bartender to pour your drinks!!!! If you tip him you have to tip the person in the deli who sells you a coke, or the person who sells you a cup of coffee at Starbucks, do you tip the person who sells you a newspaper or magazine, the postman who delivers your letters, the person who presses a button so you can pump your own gas? where does it end.
I sell wine to the public at markets either by the bottle or glass. I don't expect to be tipped for doing my job and if an overseas visitor does offer a tip I thank them but gently refuse to take the money saying good service is given freely you should not have to pay for it and give them the full correct change.

It's an Obama thing in our country....we either tip or put folks on welfare or food stamps. I know one doctor who is not a big tipper but offers a free health check up to any server who provides good service. My brother in law owns a tire store......he doesn't tip much either but he will rotate the cooks tires while he waiting for his meal. Just our culture.....I guess.:laughing::laughing:

 

[JDgreen227]

Every year around Christmas time my local newspaper prints an article about holiday tipping and a suggested amount. Among the people they suggest you tip are:

Newspaper delivery person
Barber
Hair dresser
Apartment house doorman (In NYC anyway)
Dog Groomer
Pet Nanny or sitter
Mail delivery person
Babysitter
Garbage man

And a whole bunch of others I cannot remember. I tip my barber after every haircut, but as for the rest...no way. The idea of tipping a garbage man is so inane I cannot understand why anybody would do that. Sad thing is, more and more occupations in this country seem to be expecting themselves worthy of a tip. Last time we flew into a major airport on the way home from a vacation, the shuttle bus driver who was driving the passengers from the terminal to the parking lot was getting their luggage out of the side of the bus, and of course all the passengers (us included) were tipping him a buck or two a bag. Now, don't tell me that guy was being paid less than minimum wage. Why do we have to give a cab driver a tip? He makes fair profit on the fare (pun intended)

The main issue I have with paying tips to people other that waitstaff and/or servers is that very few of those people, if any, will declare the tips collected as income.

 

[mikehaugen]

garbage man and mailman I can see tipping. My garbage man has been pretty good. I put a LOT of garbage out sometimes and he just about always takes it if he can lift it, even though he doesn't have to per the policies. My wife's uncle is a garbage man and he remembers tippers and will take extra care of them, i.e. take things he doesn't have to and makes sure to pick up the little scraps that may have fallen out of can. his motto was "to tippy no takey" :laughing: My mail lady sucks, I am constantly getting the neighbor's mail and I always go and put it in their box- makes me wonder how much mail I am not getting. Also, she delivered a package one time and threw on the hood of my car and backed out :shocked:

I have not yet tipped the garbage man yet, but I intend to... I just always forget at Christmas time. I have no intentions of tipping the mail lady. My mother delivers mail for a living and she really does put up with a lot of crap. For those that don't know, they don't have to deliver the mail if the mailbox is blocked by a car or a snowdrift... they actually are not supposed to get out of the jeep to put mail in the box, and also if there is a dog around.

 

[tcreeley]

20%, sometimes more. I try not to be stingy.

 

[Mace Canute]

The tipping situation is much different here in Canada than it is in the USA. Up here waiters/waitresses make minimum wage; thousands of people who work at minimum wage jobs outside of the restaurant industry (often much harder work) do not expect or receive gratuities for their work so what makes waiters/waitresses expect they should receive a tip for simply doing their job? They need an attitude adjustment. Gratuities are a gift given in return for extraordinary service. I would refuse to pay any automatic gratuity added at the till. Isn't that what the price attached to each dish in the menu is for? Try that with any other bushiness, a grocery store for example, and see how far it would get you.

I tip but it's a fixed amount that is closely related to what I feel is the actually effort the waitress/waiter makes during my stay. Sometime (rarely) I will not tip and I have even left two pennies as a tip just to get the point across that the service was extraordinarily sub par.

 

[whistlepig]

Great goodness gracious. Its just a tip. I wouldn't even think of going into a restaurant with the preconceived notion that I am going to leave without a tip just to punish someone. We rarely eat out but when we do it is something that we enjoy doing. We aren't going to dwell on the bad food or service. We just won't go back. We tip our barber, the mail person, and tip anyplace that we eat. Works out well for us. Perhaps the non-tippers have something really rewarding going on for them by not tipping. But its not the way it works out in our world.

 

[kenmac]

What gets me is, it seems everyone now has a tip jar. I've seen them in the fast food joints. They take your order & your $ hand you your food & expect a tip.. I never leave a tip there

 

[jerrybob]

The garbage guy in our town is a city union employee making a darn good wage and really doesn't work all that hard....nice guy....but really has learned the art of pacing himself. I don't tip him....he makes more than most of my neighbors and gets great benefits. Maybe he should tip the citizens he works for and who pay his salary??

 

[jimmpatrick]

No it is'nt . i lived in the UK for 30 years and never heard of tipping till i came to canada .

I took my granddaughter and family out for a birthday meal last night. When the credit card machine came with the bill, the first question to be answered was, "Do you wish to leave a tip?" This is increasingly common in Britain.

 

[JDgreen227]

What gets me is, it seems everyone now has a tip jar. I've seen them in the fast food joints. They take your order & your $ hand you your food & expect a tip.. I never leave a tip there

Concur with you on the tip jar situation...our local bagel shop, Starbucks, etc. have tip jars out. I have NEVER left a tip there. BTW, I recall now back about 1976 my sister worked as a bartender in an upscale hotel in downtown Lansing, the lounge next to the bar featured a guy who would play a piano or guitar and he had a tip jar out...so it's not a new idea by any means.

 

[KretZ]

Being in the military haircuts are a mandatory type situation, and the barber shop on base provides pretty cheap haircuts. This one occasion while I was still young and single, I over extended myself financially one month and the last week before pay day I was pretty much broke. But I really needed a haircut and I wasn't going to be able to wait another week. So I scrounged up 7.25 in singles and change (the price of a haircut at the barber on base). Normally I would tip those guys a buck, but rarely did you get the same guy to cut your hair. So it wasn't really like you had a set barber. Anyway after a quick trim, my hair was back in regs and I started to count out the money for the guy. I gave him the singles and counted out stacks of 4 quarters each and then all that was left was the last quarter to make it 7.25. So I am holding this last quarter out to him and he stops, looks at it, looks at me, slams the cash drawer shut, and smacks the quarter out of my hand. He says "I don't want that" and turns his back on me as the quarter goes flying up under the other barber chairs. I then realized he thought I was trying to tip him a quarter haha. I said, "that was the last 25 cents of the 7.25 I owed for the haircut, I wasn't trying to tip you a quarter" The whole place went silent as everyone is looking at him and me. He just looked at me. I picked up my hat and bdu shirt and as I was walked out I saw him bend down and get the quarter off the floor. He was let go not long after that for something else. But tips are a hot button issue for a lot of people, evoking a lot of anger.

 

[dave1949]

Great goodness gracious. Its just a tip. I wouldn't even think of going into a restaurant with the preconceived notion that I am going to leave without a tip just to punish someone. We rarely eat out but when we do it is something that we enjoy doing. We aren't going to dwell on the bad food or service. We just won't go back. We tip our barber, the mail person, and tip anyplace that we eat. Works out well for us. Perhaps the non-tippers have something really rewarding going on for them by not tipping. But its not the way it works out in our world.

Pretty much my approach. We hardly ever eat in restaurants, so that makes a difference I suppose. If we do eat in restaurant that isn't good, we don't go back, and not tipping the waiter isn't likely to make the restaurant any better.

I figure a well-managed place is going to have an enthusiastic staff. Staff reflects management 99% of the time. A good restaurant manager is not going to keep a poor server around, that's a losing proposition for the business.

 

[seymojo536]

It's easy for me. 20% or 2 bucks a person or $10/hr. ( if we're just taking up booth space drinking coffee). Whichever is the greatest.

 

[cmhyland]

Given a choice, I would be in the 20% baseline camp, but I don't have a choice. My wife is in the 25% baseline camp. I have noticed that many of my fellow seniors appear to be in the 10% (or less) camp.

Just curious. What do you tip your barber? My wife doesn't go with me to the barbershop, so I am on my own. My barber charges $13/cut and $12/cut for those 65 and older. I have been giving him $15 -- a 15+% tip before I turned 65, 25% since then.


Steve

I think it all depends on the Barber... I live in a bit of a rural town and I go ove rthe stateline to get my hair cut. The area I go to is depressed and the two young guys running the barber shop clearly poor. They are scratching out as basic a living as you get in this part of the country. They are two young hispanic guys that are very nice and don't speak a great deal of english. But they are working for a living, and in some cases state aid may pay more but they still work and I thank them for having some standards and self respect. The haircut is 12 bucks, and it's well done.... I give them a 20... I feel good that I supported a couple of guys struggling against the odds...

Regards,
Chris

 

[JDgreen227]

About my barber...he is a 30-ish divorced buy raising a kid and a sole owner of his shop...he prices haircuts at $11 and gives me a beard trim inclusive of the price of the haircut so I tip him $2 per haircut and and $12 during the month of December. Believe me, I get my money's worth from my $13 as a lot of times when I am there I see a guy in the chair with practically no hair and he still has to pay $11....:laughing:

 

[JDGREEN4ME]

Baseline 20% and work up or down from there as appropriate...

 

[daugen]

when a loaf of bread can easily run four bucks, I think twenty for the barber including a nice tip is in line with the reality of today's inflation.

Since that's what just strikes me as a fair price for my fat but easily barbered head...
and I do feel badly for the guys with no hair at all but something around the bottom and back. Now they should be given
a "folliclely challenged lower rate"

 

[Deere Dude]

"Service" does not exist in France except in good restaurants and in the occasional small business. I have walked out of cafes and restaurants because no one has come to take my order - and I am quite patient.

fascinating. Sure saves on tips...

Well, I think the first time I got a good look at the waitress's armpit hair I'd probably not want to bother her too much...

I was at a restaurant pancake house of some sort in the Keys somewhere. The place was packed because it was over Christmas and everything else seemed closed. I patiently waited for my strawberry pancake and watching the kitchen door for my pancakes and I saw a rather large lady come out with both arms full of plates with food on so she was a hard worker. I noticed that one plate had whipped cream on it and she had her boob in the whipped cream and I kind of giggled and told my wife, "It would be my luck if that was my plate." Sure enough. She trucked on over to another table with a couple plates and then over to mine with my pancake ala boober. I didn't have the heart to complain and she still got a tip because I felt sorry for the old gal.

 

[mjarrels]

I always tip well. Wife worked food service at the golf course next door... she earned about $8.50 a hour but the tips were great, sometimes $130.00 per day. Daughters first job was in food service, she lived off tips. I'm a credit/debit card person, worst case is I need to tip and I have no cash.

mark

 

[vabiker23518]

This thread reminds me of the first time I went to NYC and took in a Yankees game...I was all of 19 and never been to the big city before. The usher wiped the folding seats for my girlfriend and I, and I said "Thank You". He held out his hand and replied "Thank You's don't pay my bills"! That was my first memorable experience with tipping and I've never forgotten it!