Belt-tightening starts with restaurants
When people decide they have to economize, one of the first things they cut is going out to eat. And restaurants are feeling the pinch.
I noticed last week in Little Italy that a couple of familiar restaurant façades along St‑Laurent were sporting brown paper on their windows. But you can’t make a campaign out of encouraging people to eat out when they may be having trouble getting enough groceries in.
Adding another link from Le Devoir about the hard times being experienced by smaller beer breweries.
jeather 13:59 on 2023-11-28 Permalink
Also, restaurants are becoming phenomenally expensive. The reasons make sense, but it becomes harder to consider worth it
Ephraim 13:59 on 2023-11-28 Permalink
There is also a backlash against restaurants raising the tipping amounts. The 15% doesn’t even show anymore, it starts with 20% and that’s 20% after tax, not before. We need to actually make tipping illegal and pay waitstaff a living wage and let them work staggered schedules, so they don’t all want to work Friday and Saturday and leave the restaurant with difficulty getting staff for other days of the week.
Heck, deps and some of the self-serve restaurants are now showing tipping screens. And then there are the tipping that the restaurants are taking for themselves and not even paying to their servers
jeather 15:05 on 2023-11-28 Permalink
Oh yeah, the tip screens at places where people get full wages. I never tip there, because it’s impossible to know who gets the money, as apparently the CNT says that if you aren’t a tipped position they don’t have to pass it along. This seems weird to me and clearly not the intent. Table service, yes, I tip. Self-service or a coffee shop? Not anymore.
Joey 15:51 on 2023-11-28 Permalink
Do coffee-shop employees not get tips?
azrhey 15:57 on 2023-11-28 Permalink
Coffee shops definitely get tips, the tip jar usually gets shared between cashiers and baristas.
I tip there and know several people who depend on those tips to make a (barely) living.
The tip button on the Esso-Couche Tard machine around the corner is a big NO WAY.
jeather 16:22 on 2023-11-28 Permalink
Many coffee shop employees get tips! But apparently the coffee shop is not, in fact, legally obliged to pass on your tips to them as they are not tipped workers, and sometimes they are just kept by the coffee shop. I am happy to tip the coffee shop employees. I am not happy to tip the coffee shop itself.
Ian 16:36 on 2023-11-28 Permalink
It’s easy enough to just ask if they get to keep the tips themselves.
Chris 17:06 on 2023-11-28 Permalink
It’s funny, I pay everything cash, so haven’t noticed this tip inflation thing at all. I just round up change or do a quick 10% calculation (shift the decimal) and add a little more.
Kate 17:25 on 2023-11-28 Permalink
I always tip at coffee places. It seems like a double espresso is $3.75 everywhere now by a natural process of price-fixing, so I add a couple of quarters or a loonie, depending what’s left in my pocket. Usually the tip goes in a dish and I hope is fairly shared out by whoever’s working that day.
I haven’t eaten in a restaurant since the eve of the pandemic.
I flatly refuse to tip when I’m handed the machine by someone who’s done me no more service than to ring up a sale.
CE 18:06 on 2023-11-28 Permalink
I mostly use cash too and calculate the tip based around the taxes, meaning I generally tip around 15%.
I did some busing shifts last summer at a bar to help a client who couldn’t find someone to do the work. I was surprised at the end of the night when I didn’t get a wad of cash for the tips. The manager reminded me that almost all transactions were done by card and there was hardly any cash in the register. The tips were put on my paycheque at the end of the week. It kind of took some of the fun out of getting tips.
Ian 19:38 on 2023-11-28 Permalink
My wife was a bartender for a very long time, so out of solidarity I tip 20% but never less than a loonie on a drink if the 20% is lower than a buck, even if it’s a coffee – at a sit-down place, anyhow. I do ask if the server gets to keep their tips though because I know a LOT of restaurants hire international students to work under the table and just keep their tips.
If the employee isn’t making a tip-earner’s wage & getting to keep their tips, I don’t tip.
Of course I tip for “traditional” tipping services like food delivery, cabs, haircuts, or a valet – but being prompted to tip for retail? Hard nope.
Ephraim 09:52 on 2023-11-29 Permalink
I tip higher on breakfast than any other meal. Especially when it’s one of those $4.99 breakfast deals (I remember when Mike’s used to have one for $1.99 but only one egg) Because the staff shouldn’t lose out because the boss is having a loss-leader. But c’mon… if I’m doing a pick up order, you can’t expect me to put out cash… you moved the bag from the kitchen to the counter.
I don’t think we have done delivery in over a year. Almost always pick up. And have you seen the businesses that are using Uber for PickUp or order ahead? Poulet Rouge charges more if you order ahead for pick up. NO! And then a tip on top? No! Thai Express / Sushi Shop prompt you to tip for a pick up order. We have gone way too far with the tipping. Pay people properly and outlaw tipping. Set up a 3 year program, if you have to. But it’s time that restaurant tipping died! And there should be a law about order transparency. You know, I might be willing to actually use the service is the fees were disclosed. But taking part of the resto’s profit as a hidden charge… NOPE! That’s why we do pick-up. The resto pays them, then charges you and then takes a cut on the driver too. Nope Nope Nope Nope Nope!
Chris 11:57 on 2023-11-29 Permalink
>I haven’t eaten in a restaurant since the eve of the pandemic.
Wow. Why?
Kate 13:06 on 2023-11-29 Permalink
Use your imagination, Chris.
Chris 17:10 on 2023-12-01 Permalink
I don’t know anyone irl that’s still so scared of covid, so I was curious of the details to understand that view better.
Closest I know is a family member that’s had 8 vaccines (including pre-approval Medicago clinical trials), and still wears both a mask and face shield everywhere, but even she’s come to a restaurant once or twice for birthdays.
I’ll just let my imagination fill in the details I guess.