Dave Smith wrote:
>
> I have been to places in US and Canada where tips are expected and service was
> slow, sloppy and sometimes rude. I have been to places in Europe where tips
> are not expected, service usually being included in the price, and the service
> was excellent. So many of us are so intimidated about tipping that we leave
> at least 15% even if service was rotten, more if it was acceptable. In those
> parts of Europe where service is included, it is still in the waiter's
> interest to bring food quickly and to push more food and drink sales. I just
> don't buy the argument that tipping ensures better service.

At bottom of the barrel greasy spoons and chains, at places where help
turns over like flapjacks, you're correct. I don't call those
restaurants... those are essentially snackbars, a wee step up from the
hotdog cart... no one dines at IHOP, TGIF, Olive Garden, Pizza Hut,
Sizzler and their ilk. But at the quality establishments employees
generally stay for years, they get to know their repeat clientele, they
learn who consistantly tips appropriately and who are the pikers... and
so afford service accordingly. And it's really unjust to judge by the
eateries one encounters on vacation or when traveling in general...
restaurants that cater primarilly to tourists/nomads, regardless where
in the world, are typically the pits in every respect (as are their
patrons)... after all in the vast majority of cases you will never see
each other again, they know it, you know it... no relationship ever
ensues... may as well be dining from a vending machine. Try to
remember, for every lousy waitperson there are hundreds of even lousier
patrons... you deserve each other.

Btw, I can always tell instantly which woman I encounter in NYC who
just arrived from countries where they don't tip... their hairdos
invaribly look like someone missed the bowl with the lawn mower....
just like they do up here in hillybilly land... dykey dos. Folks don't
tip well here in the sticks either, but then again the majority of
restaurants around here are crap and service stinks (literally). The
waitpeople hereabouts dress like they just mucked the barn, smell like
it too.... when you enter a steak house around NY's Capital region you
know with absolute certainty you're in cow country.

Sheldon