Now, freshly back and laundered from a few days up in high places and time for a civilized dinner before I'm off to the Balfour Work Camp.
Pitchfork, a charming little "fine dining" place in Nelson. I sit at the bar (no reservation), have a steak, blue rare.
Service, fine, steak, fine, not exceptional.
But I'm presented with the debit machine and looking at the tipping options I just about flip my lid. This is what's killing tipping culture:
"Tip Assist". First - the "Lowest Option" - default 18% - which is in reality 20%, because you're tipping on taxes as well.
Now, in my world, 20% is a great tip. Everything done well, exceptional service, etc, etc.
Here, it's the worst tip. After that you can tip 20% all the way up to 30% - and the machine makes you feel as if an 18% (really 20%) tip is "not enough" or "Cheap".
This is what's killing the the restaurant industry. Tipping, in itself a controversial subject, is made worse by owners expecting people to treat their waiters like their doctor or dentist - I mean, really, if you can't make a living wage on 15%-20% tips then you're in the wrong industry.
There are a whole host of other issues - housing/rent to be paid, etc, etc - but those are problems everyone faces and are systemic to the economy at the moment, and are not the problem of customers. As food prices and costs rise, so do a servers tips, and so - this is comparatively a well indexed or hedged against inflation profession.
Anyways, every time I see a machine that goes above 20% I'm calling bullshit. It's the basest form of gouging and begging and does the entire industry a great disservice.
Oh - and even though where I work the highest option is 20% a good many customers tip higher. That's nice, but it's not the expectation. This is getting fucking ridiculous.