eating out on Sundays

I remember a few days that I had to fill in for an absent employee on Sundays that I would have 15 customers and zero tips. The excuse was almost always, "I gave at church today." A couple of times, I did reply, "So did I, and I make my living off tips." Sometimes it made them think; other times, it simply made them angry.

 

I don't understand how tips work anyhow. Does the "server" keep it all or does it get shared with the cooks, dishwashers, bussboy and the girl at the register?

(Someone is saying "that's the stupidest question ever.")

A.F.

 

Probably already been said, but don't let your house catch on fire on Sunday and whaever you do, don't have any medical emergencies on Sunday either, else you "force" them to work who take care of such things.

It is no emergency to eat out on Sunday, but the resturaunts opened first to let all the non-church crowd come in and the church people followed.

My wife cooks all three meals 6 days a week, plus breakfast Sunday and a light snack before bedtime that night. We do occasionally go out on Friday night.

Should she "work" on Sunday by cooking an afternoon meal, or let her have the day off and let us make a spoil of the God rejecting crowd by eating out?

I won't spend anymore redeemable time on foolish and unlearned questions by trying to answer them, i just ask them! But of course with no expected response, not a logical response anyway.

 

as to the issue of tips.......both my husband and I waited tables at some point in our pasts, and we never heard of sharing tips, unless more than one server worked the same table. The server (most of whom do not just sit around and do nothing) does not even get minimum wage in our country.....because the waiter is expected to get a tip. Regular salary is something like $2.33 an hour, because tips are supposed to make up the difference. The cook gets paid a real wage, because they don't get tips.

 

All this talk about working on Sundays reminds me of what my father (who is 87 years old) told me, how it "used to be" that almost everything was closed on Sundays.

I can barely imagine what it must have been like, but there were no retail stores open, no grocery stores open, no department or discount stores, nothing! The only things that might be open were a few gas stations (and not very many of those either).

I really don't know about restaurants, but since lots of people were eating Sunday dinner at home with family, I would assume the majority were closed; of course there must have been some diners and coffee shops open for travelers and tourists, etc.

I am nearly 50 and I really don't remember it, so it must have been in the 1950's and earlier.

Sunday was a day to go to church and then have Sunday dinner with the family, maybe visit relatives or friends, etc.

 

That depends on the restaurant.

 

I remember the liquor stores being open on Sunday. If you wanted something (even oither alcohol) then you bought it there.

 

Corndoggy,

Unfortunately, you'll hear a lot of "harsh and abrasive" stuff on the BB. Don't think anything about it!

 

gb93433, here in Colorado, two types of stores that are closed on Sunday are the liquor stores and (believe it or not) auto dealerships.

 

In the super-fast, obnoxious car dealership announcer voice:

ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT THE AUTO DEALERSHIPS AREN'T OPEN ON SUNDAYS? COME DOWN TO ARKANSAS WHERE THE DEALERSHIPS NEVER CLOSE! SAVE THOUSANDS ON A GAS-GUZZLING SUV WE COULDN'T SELL!!

----
Sorry, I had to do that.


As far as waiters go, if you are in an inexpensive restaurant, a tip-share would almost make the waitresses work for free.

My wife worked in a Dixie Cafe (a southern-style restaurant--about 8-10 bucks per person), and she only worked as a waitress part of the time. She never liked to wait tables because even a good percentage tip wasn't high, and most people don't give a good percentage. The other waiters/waitresses didn't really do any better, either. When she was taking take-out orders (just an hourly wage), she actually made more money.

 

Oh I agree it's a rather stupid system.

 

That's just gross Gib! I'd rather fast :tongue3:

 

Ok, as a former waitress I must comment on the system!

A waitress, at least when I was working, didn't have to be paid minimum wage.

We were making $2.01 an hour. (higher than some places!)
The busboy was making $6 an hour.
The cooks were getting a base wage of $2000 a month and their rent paid.

At the end of a shift, if we had a busboy, the waitresses would get together and decide how much to give him, and we would split that amount up evenly so we each gave the same.
It wasn't REQUIRED, but it was encouraged. Some of them would refuse it.

AND we still had to pay the taxes on the tips, because they were given to US.

Sometimes we averaged much more than the busboy would make, sometimes we averaged less. Depended on the day.

Our job wasn't to take an order, throw it on the table, and come back to refill a drink.

We would go and greet the customer. We would answer questions about menu choices, help with decisions, know what was ok for diabetics, know what was ok for this or that type of allergy.
We were expected to be courteous to everyone, and that included the Amish who almost never tipped, the Christians who not only tipped poorly but expected you to stand there and yap while they guided the conversation to Christianity as if you didn't know they were headed there anyhow, the men who seemed to have a problem lifting their heads all the way up to eye level, the screaming little brats who spilled stuff, threw it on the floor, and wanted to stick mashed potatos in your pockets or turn around and stare at the other customers who would then get annoyed, not enjoy their stay as much, and thus tip you less.

And often you have a combination of all these characters at once.
Then you get to go and put their order in to a chef who may or may not be in a good mood that day, who may or may not get the order straight.
You do get to go and refill drinks, at the appropriate time for every single guest at each table which could be anywhere from 20-50 people. Not only that, you're picking up dropped napkins and silverware. You're taking back orders with complaints. You're taking new orders. You're being gracious. You're giving out compliments. You're wiping off the spit of someone who just sneezed on you as you walked by. You're smiling. Your feet are burning and you probably have to go to the bathroom, but another order is ready, a new table just sat down, a kid just spilled soda all over his table, and a woman is signalling you because she wants another side of ranch sauce for her salad. Your shoulder is aching from balancing a large tray of full glasses and heavy dishes on it over and over. Your back aches. Your boss is standing back in the kitchen snapping his fingers every time you walk in and telling you to hurry it up.

Then the cook gets someone's order wrong, they're sighing and moaning because of it, you hand it to the cook and he starts slamming stuff around and yelling about it because he's been working hard and he's got a ton of other orders waiting and he's mad at himself for messing up or even better, the guest didn't order it that way for real to start with.

Then you get to watch people sit there and try to figure out EXACTLY what 15% of the check is, if they're generous to even bother doing it that way.

Then you get to share it with the busboy and pay taxes on it. Then you get your paycheck for $2.01 an hour, which has taxes taken out of it too. (keep in mind that $2.01 doesn't even cover the cost of a babysitter if you have a child and have to work)

Then someone comes along and says they think you aughta share even more of it because you just aren't doing that much work.

I'm not even waitressing anymore and my nostrils are flaring at the thought! :laugh:

 

amen Gina!

I think waitresses should get full pay and still get tipped generously after that!

 

Gina L - Great stuff!

I love this book:

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0805063897/?tag=baptis04-20

And to think, most here probably oppose raising the minimum wage.

 

Me too, works for me! Besides, i like the fellowshop since you see so many Church folks eating out.

Going forward, I will make sure my server is non-Christian as not to "force" a child of God to be disobediant to his word.