RTP-area local music and culture

["Clark, Chris" <CClark AT slk-law.com>]

I experienced a different (and on some levels even more offensive) version
of this recently.  I purchased a bottle of water from a stadium vendor at a
Panthers game - you know, one of those kids that walks up and down the steps
with a tray of sodas or waters hanging from their necks - for $3.50.  (This
was 20 or 22 oz. bottle of water - one of the ones you can get at a
convenience store for 99 cents or so.)  When I handed the kid four bucks, he
says to me "do you want your change?"  When I said "yes", he acted like I
had offended him.  When I sat back down in my seat, I reported this exchange
to my friend, who said that apparently all the stadium vendors have started
doing this now - asking basically if they can keep the change.

Am I supposed to be tipping the stadium vendors now?  On obscenely
overpriced water??  I know it's a sporting event and that's just what things
cost, but do I have to tip now on top of that?  

Maybe I'm wrong, and if so please correct me, because I too try to be a
generous tipper when appropriate.  I just have never heard of this.

Chris


-----Original Message-----
From: rws6 [mailto:rws6 AT duke.edu] 
Sent: Monday, January 17, 2005 11:35 AM
To: RTP-area local music and culture; grady
Cc: RTP-area local music and culture
Subject: Re: Note to waitpersons


please.  this has to stop.

listen.  i used to wait tables.  i am too uptight to ever have brazenly
asked somebody if they need change.  waiters typically do this for two
reasons:

1) they want to save a trip (as grady suggests).
2) some people get very annoyed when you bring change to them (seriously).

so, on the one hand, you've got your gradys: simmering in their annoyance at
the repeated violation of a hitherto unannounced social taboo.  on the other
hand, you've got your no-changers, ready to plunge into the sautee of
animosity at the suggestion that they did not include your tip in their
overage.  what does a poor waiter do?

here's my solution:  grab money from table, thank patron, while still
looking him/her/them in the eye(s), announce "i'll be right back with
change," and wait a beat.  the gradies look relieved, and the no-changers
have the opportunity to announce, magnimously, "there's no need!"

please, let's get back to talking about how fucking over rock music is
anymore.

r.

uoting grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>:

> Would you think it odd if they asked you if you needed a fork, or a
> napkin? How about if you dropped your fork on the floor, would you find 
> it strange if they said "do you need another fork?" and seemed reluctant 
> to make the extra trip to get you one?
> 
> I can understand "do you need a box?" if you have leftover food, because 
>   some people want to take home leftovers and some people don't, and
> once the box is on the table you've either got to use it or it needs to 
> be thrown away, and that would be a waste of a perfectly good box.
> 
> As for change, I quite often need it, because I live in enlightened
> times when two people dining together split the check, and the change is 
> often necessary to get the details of that worked out. Doesn't mean the 
> tip is going to necessarily be less than the total of the change; it 
> might just as easily be *more*.
> 
> The point is that the waiter/customer interaction is so limited and
> codified that every utterance takes on layers of additional meaning, and 
>   it's hard to read "do you need change" as anything other than "don't 
> waste my time getting you change; that money is rightfully mine," and 
> that's a drag.
> 
> xo
> 
> Ross
> 
> p.s. yes, I'm a crank. I would assume that would go without saying (I
> know it does for Bo, but there may yet be others reading this), but if 
> not, there you go.
> 
> Bo Williams wrote:
> > This is, honestly, the first time I've ever heard anyone complain 
> > about wait staff asking if you need change. As far as I can 
> > remember, it's something they've always done in more-fancy places 
> > where odds are either a) you're paying with a card or b) you 
> > actually don't need change.
> > 
> -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill -- 
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene
> 



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