Joe’s Crab Shack Tried Getting Rid of Tips. It Didn’t Last Long.

[FrodosPet]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/13/business/joes-crab-shack-tried-getting-rid-of-tips-it-didnt-last-long.html?_r=3&utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link

By DANIEL VICTOR, May 12, 2016

The day may come when you won’t have to figure out what 15 percent to 20 percent of your check is at the end of a meal, but the earliest experiments in eliminating tipping at American restaurants have proved to be less than conclusive.

In one closely watched case, Joe’s Crab Shack has decided to revert to accepting tips at most of its trial locations, six months after announcing that it would become the nation’s first major restaurant chain to test a no-tipping policy at 18 locations.

The casual seafood chain, which is based in Houston and has more than 130 restaurants nationwide, raised its menu prices at the test sites and said it gave higher, fixed wages to its staff. At the time, Ray Blanchette, then the chief executive of its parent company, Ignite Restaurant Group, called tipping “an antiquated model.”

~ snip ~

Company research had found that 60 percent of the restaurants’ customers disliked the change in tipping, Mr. Merritt said. They wanted to inspire good service with their tips and they didn’t trust management to pass on the money to its employees, he said.

~ snip ~

[cyberswede]

1. customers "didn’t trust management to pass on the money to its employees"

interesting.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Customers are assholes, as any server will tell you...

and servers don't act nice for customers simply to get bigger tips.

Most of the time, anyway.

Tipping is verboten in most of Europe, and the service is just fine. And I still don't understand howcum the guy giving me a slice of pizza over the counter can be a nice guy without a tip, but the waiter can be having a bad day and still expects a tip for showing up.

[Bonx]

8. I waited tables and most of what you wrote doesn't make sense.

[LanternWaste]

9. You don't understand how the guy having a bad day wants to take home a living wage?

You don't understand how the guy having a bad day wants to take home a living wage?

[cagefreesoylentgreen]

3. I wonder

How much this is just out of habit to tip, and customers just wanting an excuse to be cheapskates?

[1monster]

10. Well, as a rule, I tip between 20 and 30%, and I don't trust businesses

to pass on any extra profits they make this way on to the servers either.

(BTW, sometimes I tip more, but never less.)

[Nye Bevan]

13. Even if you got horrible service you would still leave 20%?

I usually give 20% but if our service is poor I will reduce it (for example if the server doesn't come to check on us between the food arriving and bringing us the check).

[cagefreesoylentgreen]

15. Only if the service is abysmal

I like to think I'm pretty tolerant and patient with a server, particularly if it's busy. I understand then why I might wait 10 minutes for a check. I'll still leave 20% regardless. Servers are human beings like anyone else. I might take a few percentages off if it was bad, but I try to not stiff completely.

The only time I can think of when I didn't leave a tip was when I was kept waiting for a check for 30 minutes when it wasn't busy at all. This was like a 3 AM graveyard special at a casino cafe. The server just disappeared and left me hanging.

[Igel]

16. Around 20% by default.

If service is excellent, a bit more. Not much.

If it's sucky, then less.

I've gone so far for really, truly horrible service to leave a tip of $0.01 just to let the server know that it wasn't an oversight. But we're talking sitting for 30 minutes, rude, getting order wrong, more rudeness, etc., etc. This has happened perhaps 2, 3 times in 30 years. Even if the server is rushed there's still basic levels of competency expected, and how busy s/he is is taken into account. Perhaps the server was sick; in which case this incentivized the server to stay home.

[cagefreesoylentgreen]

17. The 0.01 thing

I understand that completely. One time I was having lunch with my mother who is not a native English speaker. The server was nasty and rude to her, despite my mother's best attempt to communicate with her, and I was doing my best to help. I not only complained to the manager but I dug around in my pockets for that 1 euro coin I'd been holding onto and left that as a tip. A 1 euro coin in an American restaurant as a tip is probably worth a penny after any currency exchange kiosk takes its fee. I didn't stiff the server but I was majorly pissed off for the way my mother was treated.

[LisaM]

4. Ivar's in Seattle has done this, too (you can leave a discretionary tip).

I ended up eating there for dinner one night and lunch the next day when my family was in Seattle in November, and maybe it was because the system was new but the service was an absolute disaster. They seemed to have fewer wait staff for one thing (that might just have been perception, they'd also remodeled extensively, so it had a different look). But I can't even begin to describe how awful the service was. The waiter sat down at our table with us the first night just to chat (instead of putting in our order), he discouraged questions, he actively lobbied against things like having something served without sauce, and he was just all around unusual. The food also came out at all different times, and this is a local chain that's always done well with this aspect. I have worked retail and in service jobs and I try to cut people slack, but I had nothing for him this time. It didn't help that he kept bragging about how much training he'd had for the job.

The next day was far, far worse. The server didn't connect with us at all. She likewise wouldn't, for example, bring my mother crab cakes without sauce ("oh there's not much", then they came swimming in sauce). But my sister and I each ordered burgers and she put the order in wrong four times. My sister just wanted hers with nothing on it but ketchup, and I just didn't want the bacon. That's all. The first time mine came with bacon and hers came with everything. I said I'd just take the bacon off, but she took the burgers away anyway, just leaving the fries. A short time later, another sandwich appeared - this time it was a burger, but on regular bread, with about six pieces of bacon crossed over the meat, and cheese, nothing else (it was supposed to have pickles, onion, tomatoes, and lettuce). We all just stared at it and asked her "what's this?" and she laughed and said she didn't know and took it away, again leaving the fries. My sister's plain burger kept coming with things on it too. Eventually we had about six orders of fries and no burgers and everyone else had finished their meals. The manager came over to find out what the problem was and we said, "we don't know!" She'd actually just put the order in wrong multiple times.

I can't swear that the no-tipping policy led to the eccentric service, but it did leave me wondering. I do support higher untipped wages, and I applaud the thought, but from the little I've seen in practice, the service became an actual train wreck.

I may have to venture down there again and see if it's ironed itself out.

[fizzgig]

5. my bar did away with tipping last september

prices went up a bit but the service remains as good as always. any tips left go to charity, although i've been known to buy a shift drink for the bartender from time to time.

[Nitram]

6. Check out Doug's Fish Fry in Courtland, NY

Great food, great service and no tipping. Never seen a happier looking staff. Doug pays them well.
http://www.dougsfishfry.com/

[LisaM]

7. Good to know.

Maybe Ivar's was just having a bad couple of days. I do intend to go back and try again because I liked the idea.

[Takket]

11. "didn’t trust management to pass on the money to its employees"

That's funny... because that is one of the reasons why I dislike tipping. I worry more about the 20% I put on my credit card getting to the staff than I do the other situation because without tipping the manager is telling the waitperson exactly what they paycheck is going to be and there is no concern over whether the he/she is getting their fair share of the tips or not.

[TeamPooka]

12. I try to always tip in cash because the restaurants take a fee from tips on credit cards

the server never gets the full amount you tip with a credit card.

[Sgent]

14. Depends on the restaurant

I've worked at four and none of them took a credit card fee.