I’ve recently started a habit of patronizing Buffalo Wild Wings on Tuesdays, when wings are 45 cents each. I eat about a dozen, and the bill for me and my ”wing wingman” usually comes to about $20 for food, drinks, tax. Now I know when I go any other day of the week, that bill is closer to $30…so I tip $5-6. I know people who work at chain restaurants that have deals like this, and a lot of them don’t like working on days with specials like that because the tips are lower, so they’re working a lot more for the same money at best.
I didn’t used to think like that. But now I work for a company that puts on promotions for its customers and takes on 100% of the expense. My rate of pay is completely unaffected – in fact, I tend to make more because of the increased business. Personally I think restaurants should pay staff the *real* minimum wage those days (well, actually all days, but that’s a whole other battle) - it wouldn’t entirely make up for the difference, but is certainly a gesture in the direction of fairness. However, I’m pretty sure the CEO of Buffalo Wild Wings, TGI Friday’s, etc. want to hear this.
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | tipping
Thanks for this. As a former waitress and bartender, there’s really nothing worse than happy hour when everything is discounted. I used to work in a place that had happy hour Mondays, which is great to go to but terrible to work. We were so busy, running constantly from 4pm – 12am – and we’d walk with less than half of a normal night. We had the cheapest happy hour in town.
Sounds like a Happy Half-Day…for everyone but those working it. I once found the only TGI Fridays in Manhattan that participates in promotions like 2 for $20 (2 mains + 1 app), which was about 40% less than full price. I didn’t appreciate the mooch I was stuck paying for “reminding” me to tip twice as much without putting his hand in his pocket, but that’s when I first became aware of this phenomenon…about 2003 I think.
Great post.
I’ve recently noticed at our restaurant, that when people have gift cards, they only tip on the balance. Which makes no sense to me at all. If you have a $100 gift card and your bill is $150, how can you think it’s ok to only tip on the $50 left over? You ate the other $100 worth of food?
So it’s good to see that someone takes how hard the server works when things are discounted and still tips well.
I always tip on the whole bill. I used to waitress at a popular restaurant that gave away free birthday meals. We also sang to the birthday person. It was ridiculous how people took it so for granted. Tipping was one way that they said they didn’t even notice that one person ate for free.
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