Overheard at an IHOP in Chicago Last Weekend

[toonygal]

There were two people, a man and a woman, sitting at the booth behind me. They had just gotten the bill for their meal when I heard this.

Woman: I've got my tip calculator. I do ten percent.

She types the numbers into her cell phone's tip calculator.

Woman: Alright, ten percent of $37 is $3.70

The man didn't say anything, like, "You seriously

Comments

[ghostsanddreams]

I don't get people who get all calculatey with tips. If I go out and get a meal and it is say... 11.25... I usually give 2 bucks or something. I'm not going to break out the nickels and get some precise number.

[yakko]

I try to round to a whole dollar amount while making sure I don't give an insulting tip. I usually end up rounding up beyond any "official" tip percentage.

[kinkyturtle]

I usually just divide by six (while feeling smug about being able to do so easily in my head). :}

And then I round up to the nearest quarter.

[okkaywarner]

wow. I'm the biggest math idiot ever and I even know how to figure out 10% without a calculator.

and I thought a tip was supposed to be at least 15% or something.

I find it amusing to listen to conversations going on around me at restaurants. I always wonder if people are listening to mine.

[toonygal]

Yeah, somewhere between 15-20% is customary, with closer to 18-20% for very good service or for parties of six or more.

I would only give ten or less if the service was particularly bad for the type of restaurant. I don't expect the same service from IHOP as I do from a fancy steak house, obviously.

I suck at math too, and even I couldn't believe that someone couldn't move a decimal point over without a calculator. A TIP CALCULATOR. I wonder if she would have known how to figure it out using a regular calculator.

[keeper1st]

Math and me? Uh-uh. "Curse you, Math!"

But at least it's pretty easy here. Tax is 8.25%, so I just double the tax amount on the receipt to figure out a decent tip.

[toonygal]

I hope they do listen to my conversations! I'm going to talk about how to calculate tips. They might learn something!

[yakko]

This is why the USA isn't on the metric system. It seems that no one can grasp the concept of moving the decimal point around.

And that shit-ass tip is why the rest of us get shit-ass service. Cheap jerks.

[toonygal]

I wonder what percentage of diners leave no tip at all, though. o_o

[okkaywarner]

HOLD ON! LET ME GET OUT MY TIP CALCULATOR AND FIGURE IT OUT!

[ghostsanddreams]

On another note every time I go out with my cousin he tries to leave his change as a tip. He says they will appreciate something more than nothing, I say hmm, I dunno... they come back to the table and see his 37 cents and probably want to murder him.

Of course my top is there too, so it is more like $2.37 or whatever, but usually I just grab his change and say DON'T PUT DOWN ANYTHING LESS THAN QUARTERS and then throw in more of my money to make up for him, blah.

[toonygal]

Haha! I've never been a waitress or talked to anyone who did waitressing so I don't really know what the feeling is about coins for tips. I think most places split up tips equally among the service staff, so it's not as if your individual server gets to (or maybe has to) pocket the tip. You're probably right about leaving something less than quarters - I'm sure they don't like having to count that.

I do throw change in those tip buckets at counter service places, though.

[kuh]

LOL!