New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells usually saves his vitriol for eateries that don’t meet his standards, like his infamous 2012 review of Guy Fieri’s American Kitchen and Bar. But Wells’ latest target is the even more controversial institution of tipping restaurant servers. [More]
tips
Food Truck Worker: I Was Fired For Calling Out Customers Who Didn’t Tip On $170 Order
By 7.30.13
While sit-down restaurant diners customarily leave tips, gratuities are much more rare in the to-go food business. But when an eatery goes out of its way to accommodate a customer, it’s not unheard of for that customer to toss a few extra dollars in. So when a food truck worker in Manhattan saw his crew had been left without a tip on a $170 order placed by a multinational shareholder advisory service, he took his frustration to Twitter — and got fired for it. [More]
Make Your Walmart Cashier’s Life Better: Wear Some Underwear
By 7.24.13
Sure, the People of Internet like to gawk at the site People of Walmart, but that’s probably because they don’t work at a Walmart store. Reader C. works as a Walmart cashier, and does. He wants us to know: he’s not going to bag our groceries with our rat poison, and for gosh sakes, wear ripped pants or go commando, but please not both. [More]
The Argument For Abolishing Restaurant Tips
By 7.10.13
As any Consumerist reader knows, tipping is a hot-button topic, with some people arguing that they will only leave a tip when they receive excellent service, while others point out that most tipped employees — especially in restaurants — make well below minimum wage and rely on tips for survival. Then there are those who attempt to make the case that tipping should just be done away with, as it has been in most of the world. [More]
Man Trying To Visit All 50 States Leaving $500 Tips Inspired By Late Brother’s Last Request
By 7.8.13
Last summer we learned about one man’s dying wish: That his family go out and tip a restaurant server $500, as stipulated in his will. His family managed to complete that wish, and now his brother has decided to take that request one step further — he’s now trying to leave $500 tips in all 50 states. [More]
Lottery Winner Grabs Burger In Canadian Midwest, Leaves $10,000 Tip
By 7.1.13
Passing through Saskatchewan, a man from British Columbia, Canada happened to stop in a little restaurant to grab a burger. The visitor wrote a $10,000 check and told the restaurant owner to take his bill out of that and keep the rest. Was it some kind of scam? No, just a very generous lottery winner. [More]
Court: Starbucks Baristas Only Have To Share Tips With Shift Supervisors, Not Asst. Managers
By 6.27.13
In the fight over who gets to dig their hands into the Starbucks tip jar at the end of the day, everyone is coming out kind of a winner. Well, except for assistant managers, but they already earn salaries and have benefits, so that’s pretty winner-y. A court says baristas must share their tips, but only with shift supervisors. [More]
NYC Restaurant Tells Customers That Tipping Is Not Allowed
By 6.7.13
As we’ve discussed here many, many times, restaurant wait staff often rely on tips because their base pay is generally far below the minimum wage level. Since tipping is an anomaly overseas, waiters in most other countries are paid a living wage. Thus, one sushi restaurant in Manhattan, which claims it has always paid its employees well, has recently started telling customers that tips will not be accepted. [More]
Starbucks Baristas Trying To Keep Higher-Ups’ Grubby Paws Out Of The Tip Jar
By 5.29.13
Anyone who’s ever worked a job where customers are encouraged to dump their change or heck, even a wonderful dollar into a tip jar knows how coveted those tips are. That’s why Starbucks baristas are in a fight in New York to keep shift supervisors and managers out of the tip jar. The fewer people entitled to tips, the more money each barista gets after a shift serving up venti extra caramel no whip low foam frappywhatchacallits. [More]
Servers Sue Wolfgang Puck Catering Company Claiming It’s Skimmed Tips Since 2008
By 5.20.13
If you’ve got the bucks, you can get celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck’s food at your private event. The Wolfgang Puck Catering & Events company bears a famous name, and now it’s being blamed for adding services charges to its customers’ bills without then handing over gratuities to its servers. [More]
Man Leaves $1,000 Tip On $60 Bill So Waitress Can Finally Take Dream Trip To Italy
By 5.20.13
There must be something in the water lately and if there is, we need to get ourselves a big ol’ glass of it: Just last week a customer left a $446 tip on a $6 Steak ‘N Shake bill, and now another generous patron has splashed out with a $1,000 tip on a $60 restaurant tab so the waitress can finally go on that trip to Italy she’s been hoping for. [More]
Steak ‘n Shake Waitress Scores $446 Tip On $6 Check
By 5.16.13
It’s nice to ride toward the end of the week with a happy tipping-related story for a change. A waitress at a Steak ‘n Shake eatery in Indianapolis got the biggest bonus of her life when a diner left a 7,433% tip. [More]
Amy’s Baking Company To Re-Open May 21, Hires Damage-Control Publicist
By 5.16.13 — Updated: 5.17.13
The saga of previously anonymous Amy’s Baking Company of Scottsdale, AZ, continues, with the eatery — which came out of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares looking like a heretofore undocumented circle of Hell — scheduling a “Grand Re-Opening” next Tuesday night and hiring a publicist known more for damage control than for shilling restaurants. [More]
Some Non-Wacky Tips That Make Doing Laundry Faster And Easier
By 5.10.13
There are two kinds of household tips that people share on sites like Pinterest: tips that are so simple and useful that you’re amazed that your mother never taught them to you, and tips that are the product of a person with a magazine deadline and a half-baked idea. [More]
Restaurant Learns Instagram Isn’t Intended For Hurling Racial Slurs At Bad Tippers
By 4.25.13
Someone at a restaurant in Delaware missed the class where they explain that the usual place to vent racially biased frustration at a customer is on the receipt, as the eatery is now having to do a lot of apologizing for things that showed up on its Instagram page. [More]
Waiters Sue Employer For Taking Wages To Cover Walk-Outs
By 4.5.13
Earlier this week, we wrote about the legality (or lack thereof) of employers docking tipped workers’ wages to cover walk-outs and bad orders. Little did we know that the same day, dozens of current and former servers at a Milwaukee restaurant were filing a class-action suit, alleging these sorts of violations. [More]
Well, At Least Most People Aren’t Stingy Jerks When They Tip
By 4.4.13
Tipping is a hot topic here on Consumerist, and…well, everywhere else online too. Common decency dictates that when you use a coupon or otherwise get discounted services or chow, you should still tip based on the original sticker price. Makes sense, right? And yet, a recent survey shows that 26% of adults who say that they leave tips claim that they tip based on the post-coupon total. For shame! [More]
After A Dine-And-Dash, Is It Legal For A Restaurant To Take Money From A Waiter’s Tips?
By 4.2.13 — Updated: 5.23.17
It’s a story we’ve heard any number of times, both professionally and from friends in the restaurant world. A customer splits without paying the bill, or doesn’t leave enough to cover the full amount; to make up for the loss, the manager takes it out of the waiter’s pay. Can this be legal? [More]
