The State of the Park: Busch Gardens Williamsburg

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warfelg said:
Some of it is happening because people weren’t tipping, so to pay people a higher base pay they ”had” to take a surcharge for the value.
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That explains when an establishment adds gratuity to a check but is really irrelevant to surcharges. If it was a gratuity I really wouldn't be that upset because at least that meant it was going to the employees that are being screwed by a shit job but, instead, it's a surcharge that is going to the bottom line and ultimately to Scott Ross' bonus.

WDWRLD said:
The tipping has gotten out of hand. Theres so many places I go now that have added a space for tips on reciepts or has tip jars is unreal. Now do I believe a true tipped position is good....yes. If I go somewhere to eat or for a service and they do a good job they deserve a good tip. If I get service above what I expected they get a great tip. Now when I go to a farmers market where I picked and bagged my own items and there is a spot on the reciept for "tips"......thats absurd. My local chinease place that I have gone to for 20 years now has a place for tips on the reciept. Nothing has changed, you call in a order, they give you a number, you tell them the number through the tiny hole in the covid plexiglass, and they hand you a bag of food. You pay for the food you recieved.....what service do they expect a tip for now? It feels like the street corner beggers have moved into other businesses now.
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Ice said:
I hate the places where I order my food at the counter like a place like Chipotle, get my food, and go to do a digital payment and a screen pops up that says "Tip?". With different buttons 10% 15% 20% and "Custom amount" where if I want to give no tip to people who did nothing but stand there and punch buttons on a screen I have to manually type in my three zeroes. It is pure purchaser psychology as if I am in a slightly impatient mood I just mash the 10% because I don't feel like typing extra buttons to back out of a dollar or two.
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It's not likely in all cases but I think in at least some this is something that's out of the control of the establishment. I've yet to see somewhere that uses Square or something similar that doesn't have that tip box and I kind of suspect the payment processing service just has the same flow for all of their customers -- or at least category of customers. Same thing with the credit card receipts. I do agree that it's stupidly annoying though.
 
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Yes, but lately i’ve seen quite a few places that I wouldn’t expect to tip with a cup or jar marked “tips”……sometimes I wonder if the owners even know they are pulling that crap.
 
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WDWRLD said:
Yes, but lately i’ve seen quite a few places that I wouldn’t expect to tip with a cup or jar marked “tips”……sometimes I wonder if the owners even know they are pulling that crap.
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They are most likely encouraging it using the “work hard get tipped” thought over just giving their employees a raise.
 
The flip view is tip jars and credit card tips are a way to get more revenue that can pass through to employees as additional wages that wouldn’t otherwise be available to the business in a competitive market. E.g. If a competitive market sandwich and side is $8, the owner can’t easily raise prices to $10 (and subsequently wages) without pricing out of the market and losing business, but encouraging customers to tip $1-2 can achieve that while keeping a competitive pricing strategy.
 
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rswashdc said:
The flip view is tip jars and credit card tips are a way to get more revenue that can pass through to employees as additional wages that wouldn’t otherwise be available to the business in a competitive market. E.g. If a competitive market sandwich and side is $8, the owner can’t easily raise prices to $10 (and subsequently wages) without pricing out of the market and losing business, but encouraging customers to tip $1-2 can achieve that while keeping a competitive pricing strategy.
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Perhaps SEAS would have done better putting tip jars at every register instead of rolling out a 5% surcharge? :)
 
Nicole said:
Setting aside how problematic the entire tipping structure is, I like tipping and take every opportunity to help out low wage earners.
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I have a problem with the tricks places are pulling. Neo near me does 30%, 25%, and 10%. Basically makes you tip a high amount by making one of the options feel so little.
 
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warfelg said:
I have a problem with the tricks places are pulling. Neo near me does 30%, 25%, and 10%. Basically makes you tip a high amount by making one of the options feel so little.
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And keep in mind the places that base the tip on the subtotal amount + tax, instead of just the subtotal. In my experience, 50% of the time the suggested 20% tip is on the basis of the subtotal amount + 10-11% sales tax. Thankfully I am good at math and catch that trick every time.

As an aside, I am just thankful Wawa and Sheetz haven't started asking for tips when I pay at the pump. A $1 tip per gallon could get costly fast!
 
I64 Trekker said:
In my experience, 50% of the time the suggested 20% tip is on the basis of the subtotal amount + 10-11% sales tax.
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Oof. Louisiana, California, Washington, or Illinois?

I64 Trekker said:
As an aside, I am just thankful Wawa and Sheetz haven't started asking for tips when I pay at the pump. A $1 tip per gallon could get costly fast!
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One would be forgiven for interpreting current gas prices as containing a baked-in $1-2 tip per gallon for oil investors and executives.
 
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When we went to France we still tipped but you don't have to because they pay their restaurant workers, including servers, a livable wage. And the service was excellent without the expectation of tips. I don't understand why companies can't pay their workers a decent wage which is better than relying on tips. As the economy takes a hit I imagine customers will be tipping less. Anyway, here's an interesting article on tipping - https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...w-formerly-enslaved-black-workers/3896620001/

Edit : After reading this I wonder if I might have offended our servers in France.
 
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I fully agree the negatives of the tip-based industry far outweigh the subtle gains of it. Problem lays in how hard it is to get rid of at this point since companies would have to spontaneously incur massive cost hikes when their books are optimized for what they run at now, especially now that we are seeing it spread deeper and deeper into everything.

I can't remember where off the top of my head but I once read a full fleshed out report of what it would take to remove the deep-seeded practice and it honestly goes beyond what most service companies or small businesses are capable of. The industry standard is so worked into fees and costs of spaces that it is straight up not possible for restaurants as an example to just pay workers full wages and still survive. A lot would have to be done from the government side of things to reduce cost on restaurants to begin with for it to be possible, since so long the industries surrounding the running of a restaurant have tailored their pricing to what the restaurant has been able to afford for decades. It is a massive undertaking and I would love to see it happen, but I don't think most people realize how big of a task it is to flip over to paying normal wages.
 
Small business and restaurants, sure - lots of things that make eliminating tipping difficult. I remember seeing something how a certain restaurant owner made the switch, and customers and staff had too many issues that they had to revert... Though that probably has more to do with ingrained tipping behavior than pure wages.

As for BGW or other large venues - yeah, pay great wages and don't burden guests for tips unless either the servers are working for charity or they are operating line a normal bar you'd find outside the gates.
 
Jonesta6 said:
Small business and restaurants, sure - lots of things that make eliminating tipping difficult. I remember seeing something how a certain restaurant owner made the switch, and customers and staff had too many issues that they had to revert... Though that probably has more to do with ingrained tipping behavior than pure wages.
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When I lived in the Front Royal, VA area there was a regional chain of restaurants that actually made the switch and did it very well. What they did was put signs up that said their employees were paid well and tipping is not required but that if you felt obligated they would direct any tips given to a specific list of charities. It seemed everyone was really happy with that and it worked well. I'm not sure what the place was called or what their current status is but I know it lasted to at least after I moved out of the area.
 
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