Tipping when 20% tip is already (and openly) added to the bill.

[medtran49]

Places with liquor licenses here buy from licensed distributors for the most part, and the mark up is nowhere near what you have by the time it gets to consumers at bars, restaurants, liquor stores and groceries.

BTW, it's almost always cheaper if you look at it from volume/cost wise to buy a whole bottle of wine at a restaurant versus a glass. But, Craig doesn't drink at all anymore, and I only have a glass or 2 with dinner once in a great while, so....

 

[Texmex]

Not a restaurant story....I've not had a glass of champagne in a long, long time. I thought I would pick up a split at the market. I changed my mind! They wanted $45 for a SPLIT of champagne and it wasn't even a great champagne!

When I was young when I mostly used to drink was champagne, and I wish I could still have some but there's no way I could afford it now and I'm not allowed to drink anyway.

 

[Linda0818]

You and me both. I didn't buy soft drinks at the grocery for years but then I started back up a couple of years ago because I like Coke zero. But I limit when I buy it. Last time I bought four cartons to get pretty much half off.

I'm mad at one of my favorite restaurants because they had one salsa I liked a lot that is usually what got me in there even though they do have delicious brisket. I guess trying to save time or money that you decided to quit having that salsa and I just told him that I wouldn't be in very often anymore and I haven't been in since. I'll probably call them in a few weeks and asked if they ever got their salsa back. I'm in the prices are high enough they should be able to do whatever.

There's one just little neighborhood Tex-Mex place that is just okay and their prices for lunch are still reasonable except I kept wondering why my bill was a lot higher than the price on the lunch menu, so I asked them how much were their drinks and then stopped ordering them because I mean it was literally like half of the price of the lunch entree. And then I ordered flour tortillas and they had jacked the price up on those so they're flour tortillas is one reason I went there. Ugh. They're putting themselves out of business.

On the soft drink thing, I normally buy the 24 packs. A 12 pack is $7.99. A 24 pack is $10.99. So for $3 more, you get 12 more cans.

 

[Andy M.]

My 'go to' beverages used to be iced tea or soda. I cut them both out 5 years ago. Now it's just water and the occasional beer or glass of wine with dinner.

 

[GinnyPNW]

I make my own Sodas. It costs me about 40 cents per litre.

 

[taxlady]

Restaurants in Canada must buy liquor/wine from a controlled supplier. Should an Inspector enter and find no tax stamp on the bottle the fines are extremely hefty.
So in actual fact they pay MORE for that booze than we do.

I was just going to mention that. I know it's true for Québec, but I don't know about the other provinces. You can usually figure that you will pay twice as much for a bottle of wine at a resto as at the SAQ (Société des Alcools du Québec - government run liquor stores). BTW, when you buy booze or wine at the SAQ, the listed price includes the sales taxes.

 

[KatyCooks]

I can buy a bottle of Pino Grigio for about £7 - £9 in Sainsbury. The same (or very similar) will cost around £21 - £23 in a restaurant. That's quite the markup when you consider they can buy in bulk.

 

[Andy M.]

A there times markup for restaurant wine is common in the US.

 

[Aunt Bea]

Years ago many of the little restaurants allowed customers to bring their own bottle of wine and charged a corkage fee, to cover the cost of service.

I haven’t seen that in years, it may be illegal or just unprofitable.

 

[taxlady]

We have bring your own wine restos here in Québec. I vaguely remember a corkage fee many, many years ago. I haven't seen that in long time. They just open the bottle for you when it isn't a screw top.

 

[medtran49]

There are high end places you can bring your own bottle, but it can't be a kind they sell.

 

[Marlingardener]

There was a lovely Italian restaurant in a nearby town but they couldn't sell wine. They were within some distance of a Baptist church (hey, this is Texas, the buckle on the Bible belt) and were prohibited from selling "spirituous beverages." They did allow BYOB and did not charge for glasses nor opening the bottle.
Loved that restaurant, but they went out of business. So much of a good restaurant's sales are liquors and wines.

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

Two things that annoy the hell out of me re: tipping:

1. The tip jar sitting on the counter of take-out places. The pimply faced kid on the other side of the counter is making over $15 an hour and I am expected to tip him for doing his friggin' job?

2. Delivery services, including pizza places with their own delivery vehicles and people, or the ones that use Ubere Eats, Door Dash, etc. that attempt to add a tip to the bill befoe you even get your stuff. They hire the stupidest people on the face of the earth, who don't speak English or Spanish, but some obscure language that only their relatives speak, that will go the wrong address, leave your order in some wierd place, and are too lazy to drag their sorry asses up four flights of stairs to bring the shit to my apartment door. Now I just tell them to call me from the parking lot and I will come downstairs with my walker and take the order off their hands. Then I tip my own damn self!

Remember when pizza delivery was free? And if it took more than 30 minutees to get it to you, you got the pizza for free, too! Now those delivery guys I would tip.

 

[medtran49]

Hah, I just fussed at Craig again the other day when we got delivery. In the past, he has always gone outside to the end of the driveway and picked up our food. I told him to stay on the porch instead of going down and then back up the steep stairs and let them get out of their car and walk the food to our home, that they get paid to do their job of delivering PLUS we tip them.

 

[Linda0818]

Two things that annoy the hell out of me re: tipping:

1. The tip jar sitting on the counter of take-out places. The pimply faced kid on the other side of the counter is making over $15 an hour and I am expected to tip him for doing his friggin' job?

2. Delivery services, including pizza places with their own delivery vehicles and people, or the ones that use Ubere Eats, Door Dash, etc. that attempt to add a tip to the bill befoe you even get your stuff. They hire the stupidest people on the face of the earth, who don't speak English or Spanish, but some obscure language that only their relatives speak, that will go the wrong address, leave your order in some wierd place, and are too lazy to drag their sorry asses up four flights of stairs to bring the shit to my apartment door. Now I just tell them to call me from the parking lot and I will come downstairs with my walker and take the order off their hands. Then I tip my own damn self!

Remember when pizza delivery was free? And if it took more than 30 minutees to get it to you, you got the pizza for free, too! Now those delivery guys I would tip.

Our Domino's charges $5.99 for delivery. Which is ridiculous. Upon reading an article, they claim it's to keep the cost of the food low, yet the prices on their food have gone up anyway. A MEDIUM (not a large or an x large) specialty pizza from Domino's is $18.

Now, you can do their "2 or more items for $7.99" deal (used to be $5.99) which includes medium 2-topping pizzas, some desserts, wings, etc. But by the time you add in the delivery fee and the tip for the driver, you're still chucking out some decent change.

The "30 minutes or free" thing was discontinued, I believe, because drivers were too pressed for time and they were speeding just to get the food to the customer. I always wondered who really paid for that. Like if the driver was late (over 30 min) and the customer chose to accept the "30 minutes or free" deal, obviously Domino's would have to eat the cost. But I wonder if the drivers were financially penalized for that as well.

I knew when that whole promotion started that it was going to be trouble. If I remember correctly, there were people killed or injured by Domino's delivery drivers rushing to get the food to the customer in time.

 

[medtran49]

We just had an unpleasant experience tonight. Went to a fairly new Italian restaurant for dinner, will post about food later in dinner thread. The check was brought to the table and our waiter didn't even give me a chance to look over it, just stood over us with one of those handheld point of sale devices. I absolutely HATE having somebody stand over me/lurk regardless of what I'm doing. The check also had the QRC code to pay, which I chose to do. I felt very rushed and pressured, but went ahead to add the tip and pay. As I was finishing payment, the waiter walked away to get Craig's takeout dessert. Then, as I jotted down the amount of the tip on the bill, I noticed a 20% service charge had been added to our bill for the 2 of us. The service charge plus tip was about 45% of our food bill. Waiter came back and I guess my face showed my unhappiness as he asked if something was wrong. I spoke about the service charge and that I hadn't noticed it. He said he hadn't noticed it and that they would void the transaction, which they did. I redid the payment with him standing over me again.

Where I live, service charges are required to be prominently posted on or next to the entrance or listed on the menu. There was nothing anywhere, not even for large parties much less for 2.

Perhaps I'm being very cynical, but given that I was being rushed, plus the fact that we are older, I have trouble walking, and there is nothing posted about a service charge, I have to wonder if this was, in fact, a mistake.

I made sure I brought home the voided transaction so there were no more "mistakes."

 

[GinnyPNW]

I get it, @medtran49...we're just "not in Kansas anymore, Toto"...the world is/has changed. Sigh.

 

[larry_stewart]

Something should definitely be posted in an obvious way, or directly mentioned. To be blindsided, or put in a way that they hope you wont notice is ridiculous. That would definitely rub me the wrong way.

 

[rodentraiser]

It's much easier to avoid paying income taxes when you get paid in cash.

Well, no. Waiters and waitresses are required to declare x amount of dollars for every hour they work because that's what the restaurant will report as their salary on their W2s. Of course, if you're reporting $1 an hour and getting $10 an hour in tips, that's something else. But remember, most servers only make $2 an hour - I can't remember exactly what it is, but that's close.

 

[GinnyPNW]

Something should definitely be posted in an obvious way, or directly mentioned. To be blindsided, or put in a way that they hope you wont notice is ridiculous. That would definitely rub me the wrong way.

I'm with you Larry...up to a point. Meaning, there was a great restaurant in Battle Ground - unusual in our area - and, at some point, they needed to stop taking Credit Cards. Every time you walked in the door, they would say something like, welcome, how many and we are cash only, no cards. At first, that was fine. After the 10th time or so, it was annoying and insulting? If you know what I mean. We always had paid cash, we were regulars, enough already?

That said, maybe others needed reminding.

About a year later, they closed their doors. Not sure what to make of that.