I recently wrote in Discourse Magazine about restaurants, dining out, inflation, and how the cost of going out to eat is reaching a point where it’s no longer the casual thing it was throughout the 2010s.

Not only have menu prices spiked. Recommended tip percentages appear to have jumped, which means you’re tipping a larger percentage of an inflated bill. And yet still restaurants are struggling mightily. I don’t object to paying more so that service workers get a decent wage and businesses I like can stay in business.

But the prices are the prices, and they’re pretty high. In my experience they’ve gone up a lot more than grocery prices, meaning cooking at home is a better deal now than it was pre-pandemic.

I’m interested, in particular, in how much of the defensive commentary about very high tip rates, random service fees, and the dismissive tone towards customers I see on a lot of social media chatter about dining out is 1) from people who’ve seen the labor end of this and are frustrated by what looks like entitlement from customers, or 2) a set of “restaurant lobby” talking points that are really self-interest concealed as civic concern or pro-labor sentiment.

What actually is the prevailing “good tip” percentage today? I can still remember “10 is for poor service, 15 is average, 18 is for great service.” Today, the Square terminals everyone uses typically offer you 20, 22, or 25—even at counter-serve places. That’s another change: I don’t recall ever tipping at counter-serve places or being asked to do so, but a lot of people today seem to feel there’s no difference between that and a sit-down place.

I also don’t remember ever tipping for pickup (of course you used to tip for delivery), but you’ll find very long and detailed arguments on social media as to why you should. I can’t find one I’m thinking of, but it detailed how there’s no “takeout” staff at most places, so the shift to higher volumes of takeout orders basically stretches front-of-house staff thinner than their jobs really are supposed to entail.

I think it’s interesting, though, that most restaurants still have language on the receipts along the lines of, “For parties of six or more, an 18 percent gratuity will be charged.” I’ve seen that quite a bit even post-pandemic. If 18 is deeply insufficient these days, why do restaurants think it’s a fair number even for large parties? Or is the idea that you leave a “real” tip on top of the added gratuity? I’ve seen people suggest going up to 30 percent!

I’m also curious whether there’s a regional element to this. It seems like the pandemic widened some geographic trends. One thing I’ve remarked on a lot is the near-extinction of all-you-can-eat buffets in the Washington, D.C. area, which does not appear to have happened in a lot of more “middle America” locales. (Maybe that was happening without the pandemic, but it certainly accelerated.)

Are people in Ohio or Kansas tipping 25 percent at Applebee’s? I don’t know. Is anybody in the middle class, at a casual restaurant, tipping 25 percent? I feel like they’re more likely to have service industry experience than more elite folks around D.C., but also more likely to balk at inflation.

Here’s a pretty non-committal article from Northern Virginia Magazine on the question of tipping percentages, which is interesting.

Also this tweet, from a D.C.-area journalist:

Jessica Sidman @jsidman

Need everyone’s thoughts on this, stat

9:39 PM ∙ Feb 2, 2023

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5Likes1Retweet

As I suggest in my piece, I think this is good for workers and may be a necessary part of turning a profit overall. But it puts the total cost of, say, a quart of Chinese takeout, a plate of Thai noodles, or a plain whole pizza to almost $20. Those don’t feel like prices that can be sustained over the long term. Charge less, and the business is trying to make up a loss on volume. Charge what you need to charge for the business to pencil, and it’s too high for the volume you need.

If you do or did go out to eat often, or especially if you work in the restaurant industry in some capacity, what does all of this look like to you? News about the fortunes of restaurants is all over the place, but there’s a lot of news to the effect that it’s a bloodbath out there. Is it? Or is it going to be like housing—no matter how high the prices go, there are always going to be enough people to line up to buy?

I also wrote a little bit about our experience in Europe—Italy and Croatia—where restaurant meals are cheaper, longer, and nicer. There’s typically no tipping there, even in many of the nicer restaurants where the waitstaff consists of older and pretty professional and well-trained workers. I honestly don’t understand how these restaurants can even turn a profit, and how—or whether—the staff gets paid enough.

As prices have risen and fees have begun to appear on receipts, there’s more talk of getting rid of tipping, banning fees, and making the price the price. I don’t entirely understand the arguments for and against these things. This, from the article I linked above, is interesting:

Some servers are worried they would make less money if tipping is done away with. “Servers take these jobs because you can make decent money if you’re good at the job,” says a server in Leesburg who asked to remain anonymous. “If Virginia ends tipping, I would have to be paid around $24 an hour to make what I make now in salary plus tips. If I was paid $15 an hour but didn’t get tips, I would get a different job.”

I still have a memory of leaving a few bucks on the table at a diner for the teenaged or retired waitstaff. (I still remember my parents paying their friends’ older children pocket money to babysit me!) Is it a new thing, or a regional thing, for servers to be career professionals making real salaries (which again, if they are, they should)? It seems like there are some cultural shifts here. Shifts away from the loose and informal.

Part of me—the consumer part—would like the price to be the price. The other part—that can imagine being a server—likes the idea of tips as a kind of merit pay. Yet another part of me—hearing the little socialist devil on my shoulder?—thinks it’s unfair for a handful of exceptional servers to clean up and make everyone else look bad. Outside of fine dining, it’s not a bespoke job that’s about cultivating excellence. It’s not, you know, being Batman’s butler.

I guess another way of putting this is that maybe customers expect too much. I don’t want to or expect to be “served”; I want a pleasant, affordable experience with some good food.

But that gets me into the deeper question of what the purpose of restaurants really is, which I’ll be exploring in another piece to come soon!

Related Reading:

Whose Side Are You On?

The Restaurant Vs. The Supermarket

Has The Economy Changed, Or Have We?

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