Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Bad Tippers Update

Remember my post on my trip to Junior's in Brooklyn? My post was partially about how badly black people tip and me wondering why. It seems that fellow blogger, Hungry Cabbie, also had the same experience in a soul food restaurant in the Bronx. It is almost like waitresses in establishments that serve primarily black customers don't even expect tips anymore. Plus, there is the general assumption among cabbies that black people are poor tippers.

I did some research on this phenomena and it isn't just us. Other people have noticed this too! This article from the Seattle Times lays it out pretty rationally. It may be a self-reinforcing cycle that waiters/waitresses do not give good service to black people because black people tip poorly and black people tip poorly because they get bad service and the cycle continues. The article also noted that it isn't purely a race thing as the "race of the server didn't affect the tip size". In fact, black waiters/waitresses hated waiting on black customers! I was really glad that this article explored this issue and suggested possible reasons why it happened and solutions to the problem. Apparently, black people tip their hotel maids and bartenders more than white people so perhaps this restaurant and cabbie tipping part is all a big misunderstanding or simply just not knowing the social rules of tipping.

The article suggests outreach to black churches and informative placards. I'm not sure that this would actually help as I have seen in person the way black customers treated their waiters/waitresses and it was not pretty. But perhaps it was an isolated instance. I would say that really wealthy (read ENTITLED BUTT-MUNCHERS) probably also tip the same way. This also confuses me because the really wealthy do have enough money to tip and know the social norms about tipping but it is probably their natural tendency to be entitled butt-munchers.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

wow, i didn't mean to kill your blog. sorry for any problems this caused.

7/13/2006 4:13 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

They just have very poor math skills.

2/02/2009 7:16 PM  
Anonymous Jason said...

Get the t shirt

"Its not a myth B L A C K people dont tip

www.86badtips.com

4/24/2009 1:08 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home