Chapter 3 Eating: Tips are not given for nothing.

When I first came to the United States, there was a kind of moral consumption that made me uncomfortable when I first arrived. That's a tip.

Every time I check out after dinner in a restaurant, I am happy to lift my ass and leave directly. Instead, pick up a pen and bury yourself in toilet paper to calculate the tip. First I calculate the tip by multiplication, and then I calculate the final total by addition. For people who are not good at verbal arithmetic, this is simply too torture.

Since then, I have developed the habit of eating carefully. For example, if you go to the canteen or McDonald's for a snack at noon, you generally don't have to pay a tip, just take the meal and clean it up after dinner. Or call to order food and then go to the restaurant to get it and go home to eat.

The most cost-effective thing is to cook by yourself. As the saying goes, every foreign student is a small host. Even if he has never cooked before, as long as he goes abroad, he will be forced by life to cook more and more. I often cook some simple and delicious home cooking in the evening and leave some in the lunch box for lunch the next day. However, don't bring overnight pasta, especially jiaozi with leek stuffing, which smells too sour and refreshing.

Occasionally, I also like to go out for dinner and get together with friends. As soon as the meal arrives, the restaurant is very lively and full of people. A waiter is responsible for several tables. Sometimes after we order, the waiter doesn't care to bring us water, so he goes directly to the next table to order. Seeing that they were so busy, we didn't want to rush them, so we just sat and talked until the food was served, and then we asked for water.

Although the service speed is not fast, the checkout speed is quite fast. My friend and I were just in the middle of eating when the waiter put the bill book in front of us, which meant to urge us to eat quickly so as to make room for other guests. As a guest, I didn't have the heart to urge you to serve tea and water when I ordered just now, but now I have to be urged to eat by you, which is chilling. In such an unpopular situation, we only give a minimum tip of 15%.

Poor service is actually quite common in Chinese restaurants, but restaurants that force customers to tip more are rare. A friend of mine has met such a rampant black shop. That day, he and his friends went to a Sichuan restaurant in China for dinner. It was just after 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and it was not time to eat. There are not many guests in the shop. However, the waiter's attitude is not very enthusiastic. When they asked questions on the menu, the waiter was impatient and answered vaguely.

Because they were going back to school, they ordered three dishes that were a little faster. I didn't expect to wait for more than half an hour before waiting for the first dish: Sichuan pork. As soon as they saw, there were a few pieces of fat meat in this Sichuan-style pork, and the rest were all green garlic sprouts, just like vegetarian dishes. The next two dishes are also speechless: the fried kidney flower is cut too thin and broken, and it can't be clipped at all; Boiled fish fillets are full of pepper and pepper. The dishes are not only different in price, but also heavy in taste. Coupled with the poor service attitude, they have a bad impression of this restaurant. At the checkout, they only tipped 15%.

When they were about to leave, the clerk stopped them. They thought they had left something behind, but never expected that they had to make up for it because they didn't tip 20%. My friend suddenly got angry and rightfully accused the store of poor service attitude, slow serving and terrible food. How dare you tip for such service? Besides, how much to tip is up to the guests. No restaurant in America dares to stipulate that customers must tip 20%.

Many people waiting in line to eat melons felt that this shop was an unreasonable black shop when they heard this, so they didn't wait, pushed the door and left. After all this, the clerk still refused to let go and had to call the police for help. When the shopkeeper saw that things were getting serious, he didn't want to find something for himself, so he let people go at once.

I feel incredible after listening to it. How dare this Chinese restaurant be so lawless on American soil? If this hotel is tall, elegant and comfortable, with first-class dishes and services, and customers are satisfied, customers are sincerely willing to give high tips.

In the fierce competition, in order to leave a good impression on the guests, many restaurants rack their brains to find ways to please the guests, such as providing free fruit bowls, fortune cookie and puffs, so that the guests have a feeling of making money; Or write a big "thank you" with a colored pen and a smiling face at the bottom of the bill; Or give some vouchers or something. But the shop itself is full of loopholes, but this restaurant obviously can't cook that kind of first-class food and can't provide quality service. I'm sorry to ask guests to pay a high tip. Where does this confidence come from?

In the United States, tipping is an affirmation and respect for the work of service providers. As long as the waiter treats the guests with care, the guests will naturally give some tips as a thank you. Many people in the service industry have low wages and rely on these tips as extra income. In order to earn more tips, even if you meet unreasonable guests, you will try to restrain your emotions and endure not to have direct conflicts with them.

At work, the boss will take us to some high-end western restaurants for dinner every month. The waiters there not only dress appropriately, but also behave like gentlemen. They will take the initiative to move out the chairs for each guest, and carefully cover our coats and carry-on packages with clean covers to prevent clothes from slipping or getting dirty. The waiter also answered our questions in detail and kindly recommended suitable dishes to us.

Once, one of our female colleagues accidentally spilled red wine on her body, and the waiter immediately came to cover her with a beautiful shawl to cover up the stains, and then took her to clean in time to avoid the embarrassment of her colleagues. I'm sorry I didn't tip more when I met such a considerate waiter.

Tipping culture is not limited to catering services, as long as it involves manual services, almost all tips should be given. For example, if you travel with a group, you have to pay 10 USD as a tip for drivers and tour guides every day; Haircuts, manicures and massages should also give the stylist a certain percentage of tips; Tip the driver when taking a taxi; For taking art photos, you have to give a large tip to the makeup artist and the photographer respectively; Order takeout, and give the takeaway brother money to run errands.

These seem to be just "tips". If you count them carefully, the amount is still quite amazing. According to the ratio of 20%, if you order 10 yuan, a tip of two yuan is nothing, but just like taking a wedding photo, a set costs thousands, and the tip alone costs several hundred yuan. No wonder Americans here are so diligent and do what they can. Although they are a little tired, they can also save a lot of labor and tips. I have an American friend who built his own wedding room, brick by brick. It's amazing!

Every time you go back to China, it is the best time to spend money, because you don't have to tip anything, just say "thank you"