Poor tipping practices across racial divide

You are joking right? If the restaurant isn't successful, there are no tables to wait on and no tips to collect. The waitstaff certainly has a stake in how the restaurant does even moreso than the back of the house.

Yea, let's see. Restaurant goes under, I bet you that waiter has another job before the week is out. Trust me, is that's the case, you tell me who's feeling it more, the waiter who's working now at Joe's Bar or the owner, who has loans and other crap to pay off?

You can say that about any industry and it still doesn't negate the fact that it is in the waiter's best interest for the restaurant to be successful.

Ok, I'll give u that, but just in the case of all things, the way it SHOULD be is hardly ever the way it really is.

What the hell difference does the % make? It's a lousy dollar!. No, actually, it's a lousy $0.50 actually, since you said you'll leave a quarter or fifty cents. What are you going to do with the two bits you put back in your pocket? Throw it in the change jar when you get home?

Let's imagine you go out to a bar and drink, let's be generous and imagine you can down 8 bottles in one evening out. If you do tip a dollar a beer, that's eight dollars to you. Does that seem like an unreasonable fee for an evening of service from your bartender? Is it going to break you financially? That 8 bucks could maybe buy you two more beers. But if the server or bartender gets $8 from each customer, he'll have a decent night (depending on how many customers he serves). It makes a much bigger difference to him or her.

The percentage doesn't make a difference in this case. Why stand on principle just for the sake of it? We're talking about pocket change.

Also, keep in mind a good bartender will give you at least 1-2 beers on the house if you buy 8, so really that extra $8 isn't hurting you at all.

I've never gotten a dirty look for not tipping at Starbucks. If I do tip, and sometimes I do, they always thank me, though.

He will? Over here that only ever happens if you are a regular. NO way that will ever happen the first few times you visit a bar.

I guess it depends where you live, but it happens to me a lot. I can even remember times when I was in Belgium that they game me a free one. Not often tho.

are you a woman with a fondness for low-cut tops?

No, but I frequent bars with one or two in tow..... hmmmmm..... are you telling me it's not just the bartender being nice?

Seriously tho, I guess it does happen more in bars where you're a regular, but it doesn't seem to be that uncommon.

It frequently happened to me in bars where I was practically living (this was when I was still attending college). But never ever when I was a new customer at a bar.

In my last year of college though, there were afternoons and nights where I would pay for 3-4 drinks and get the rest on the house. Off course, I had spent a fortune in that place in the four years prior to that.

Well, never heard of giving abarman a tip, but then never heard of getting free drinks either - isn't that theft from the landlord?

Only way you'll get a free drink from an Aussie barman (unless you're a good sort) is to stick a finger down their throat *.

* Apologies to Hitchhikers Guide

I guess I have never been served by a good bartender!

Can I use this logic to convince everyone in this country to give me 10 cents each? I am sure it would mean little to even the poorest people in this country!

That's, frankly, a dopey thing to say. Are you offering a service to everyone in the country, in return for the ten cents? Because a bartender performs a service. Also, did I imply that everyone in the country has to pay every bartender? Because last I checked, only the people who choose to enter a bar, buy a drink and use the services of the bartender are being asked to pay the bartender. Oh, and let's not forget, there are plenty of people out there who daily try to convince strangers to give them 10 cents each. They're called homeless people or beggars, and they usually need the ten cents more than you do. So your ability to follow my logic is falling a little short so far.

If I read your original post (that I responded to) correctly, your emphasis was on how little it would cost the customers and how much it would mean to the bartender, and not on whether the bartender had actually provided a service worthy of the tip that you suggested/demanded. If the example that I used did not please you, how about an example of a doorman who opens the door at a heavily trafficked store/building. I suggest/demand that every time you enter that building, you should tip that doorman $1 since it would mean so little to you and other people who enter that building and yet would mean so much to that doorman.

Or ask the doorman to leave the door alone as you don't want that service, don't value it and will open your own doors

Well, if the barman wants to go off for a break I'll happily serve my own drink

Vending machines - problem solved

My emphasis was indeed on how little it would cost the customer, assuming that the service was adequately performed by the bartender. You extrapolated that concept to suggest that I was saying people should randomly demand each other's spare change, or something like that. What, do you suppose, would be a service worthy of a dollar? Think carefully about what you can buy for a dollar these days. To me, taking my order, serving my drink and providing me with any necessary change is worth at least a dollar. And even if it's not, I'll round up to the nearest dollar.

A bit slow on the uptake, are you? Is it customary to tip doormen every time one enters a building? Do doormen live off the tips they earn? If so, then I would have no problem whatsoever tipping a dollar every time I enter. No problem at all. I would consider it my obligation to do so. I had been under the impression that one should tip a doorman when he gets your bags for you or performs some other service beyond just holding the door. I believe it's also customary to give money to the doorman of your apartment building or office building at Christmas time. Other than that, I'm not sure if it's expected. But I'll tell you what I would NEVER do. I would never tip the doorman 50 cents.

Or, here's an idea: you could buy the beer at the liquor store and drink it at home.

True, but at a pub I'm happy to pay extra for the surroundings, atmosphere, watching the game on the big TV with my mates etc. Just not paying some out of work actor extra for twisting the top off a bottle or turning a tap. Just a cultural thing I guess - as I said in an earlier post, bar staff here are being paid a good wage.

You are paying the bartender by paying for your drinks. It's been made abundantly clear in this thread that non-Americans are uncomfortable with the American tipping system, and that's fine. It is a cultural thing. Still, it is what it is. Under-tipping someone is just not cool, whatever one thinks of our system.

Fair call.

As an indication, what would you pay at an average bar for a standard domestic beer in the states?

Here you would pay around AUD3.80 to 4.50 (USD3.10 to 3.70) with no tip expected.

prices can vary by a wide margin, even within the same city. it all depends on the bar, where it is (i.e, obviously overall, prices in manhattan, new york are gonna be more than in manhattan, kansas), if there are specials, ect...