Tipping, not a city in China, is the act of giving additional money on top of the bill, sometimes grudgingly, other times not so grudgingly, but never really happily, after a meal in a restaurant. The amount has little to do with the actual service, it's like breathing, just something you do.
For the longest time, I thought 15% is a decent amount, 10% is socially unacceptable, anything less is just abhorrent and I don't know you. 18% or 20% is just dare I say for exceptional service or a bit of a showoff. And anything above is just needlessly stupid. Apparently time has really changed. Now 18% is really the new 15%. In a recent New York Times Food Issue, there was this article about tipping and one restaurant is all for no tipping, and I thought wow, that's really the kind of restaurant any man would love to go to and way cool. Alas, there is no such thing as free lunch as there is no no tipping, the bill actually has the 18% charge factored in. So the tipping becomes mandatory unless if you were so unsatisfied to demand to take that 18% off.... And still in another food magazine with a some Frenchie name (er, that would be the October issue of Bon Apetit), there is a Q&A about this perennial question of Am I stingy for tipping 15% or something to that extent. The answer was an unequivocally yes. Not surprisingly the norm as suggested by the answer is 18% to 20%. So there you have it. If you aren't prepared to leave 18% as tips you are just too cheap to dine out and better off staying at home not to embarrass yourself and your dining partner.
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Oh your post reminded me of what I hate most about living in NYC (well certainly in the top 5 anyway) - that of having to add tax and having to tip virtually everywhere for virtually anything! So that 2.99 muffin actually turns out more like 5 bucks! Yes I was cheap (in my defense I was a poor student surviving on scholarship).
ReplyDeleteNow that you don't live on stipend of scholarship you can definitely live a gilded life in NYC, Ha-ha-ha. Perhaps you can now afford a $3.01 muffin and you don't have to tip in Starbucks, oh just ignore their tip cup already. Another ha-ha-ha from me.
ReplyDeleteWhy embarrass if you feel not worth /not happy to pay additional ?
ReplyDeleteOh, u reminds me a character (role played by 張學友) in a HK moive : 東邪西毒 (by 王家偉) The character will respond like that "边個話一定要比tips 呀....hahaha......".
Because tipping is not about the service. It's about psychology and social norm. It would be socially unacceptable not to tip at all. In short, it would make you an asshole if you were to walk out a restaurant without tipping at all. Just like the NYT article suggests, economically you can't explain it, tipping is done after the meal, so it would have no effect on the service. If you were not to come back to that same restaurant then tipping or no tipping have no bearing to future service. But most people most people would tip what's normal and customary.
ReplyDeleteI pick up this ha-ha or ha-ha-ha or some derivative of the expression from other bloggers. I just start using it lately if the response is promising I will use it on every post and every reply. Ha-ha.
Though I can't be sure but I have a feeling you did not mean "Ashes of Time" which I saw but didn't see it as a comedy of course you or somebody else can see it as such.... I think you are referring to this comedy not directed by WKW.
ReplyDelete"Another ha-ha-ha from me."
ReplyDeleteSomehow I can't help but feel that this is a not-so-subtle dig at my inept use of Haha's in my comment responses to you?? You can't blame me for having to state the obvious when what I thought was humourous self-deprecation was taken to be immersion in self-pity y'know.
Anyway, my gripes about NYC tipping isn't so much that there is extra cost involved (although that didn't help when I was living there) but the fact that you would never know the price for sure and you could only guessimtate how much you'd spend at a given day. (My gripe thus extends not only to tips but also taxes and as a "radical leftie" you know I have no ideological aversion to paying taxes at all). I'd much rather a place just includes the tax and the service charge (even if it's 18%) and anything else they care to throw in on the visible price tag, so that I know off the bat how much damage my particular purchase would cost to my wallet.
Also, the insane tipping culture in NYC developed that way because the wait staff are paid next to nothing and survive only on tips. I had friends who did the J1 work holiday thing during undergrad and their experiences were unbelievable. If there is minimum wage and indeed proper living wages then there won't be this perverse social norm unique to NYC and tipping could actually mean reward for the rendering of proper service instead, as they largely do here.
My sincere apology. I never meant to hurt your feeling, if I could do anything to make you feel better please let me know.
ReplyDeleteRelax I'm not so thin-skinned :) I just wasn't sure if it was meant to be a dig or not (though even if it is I know it's meant good-naturedly). And sorry for my rant above re: tips. (Geez I sure am not doing my rep any favours here so perhaps I should just simply desist.)
ReplyDeleteI know I sometimes go overboard without knowing it. That has been a problem in real life. Sorry about that.
ReplyDeleteYes, same moive, but from diff angles.
ReplyDeleteWKW (like Lam kwok leung) is good at analysising then presenting each character by the words and the way she/he speak, but in a boring (my own opinion only) way.
Personally, I like KKL's style. Few yrs ago, I saw him walking in a cake shop in Pacific Place when eating my late breakfast. Still very plëasing in simple (subtle) dress at his early 50's.
Try this DVD again, esp with friends and family. You will find it is very entertaining.