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  • From: "Clark, Chris" <CClark AT slk-law.com>
  • To: 'RTP-area local music and culture' <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>, grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>
  • Cc:
  • Subject: RE: Note to waitpersons
  • Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 11:49:22 -0500

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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