Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Tipping!

My 30 yr. old daughter and her fiancé came into town a couple of weeks ago. My wife and I decided it'd be fun to take them to a few local distilleries (he likes bourbon) while they were here.

After tasting a flight of different bourbons, and sharing an old-fashioned with me to boot, my wife, a little bit tipsy, decided that she'd like to purchase a bottle of one of the bourbons, so we left the "tasting" area, having already tipped our servers, and entered a small store they had on site.

My wife, after the sales clerk there rang up the total on the bottle of bourbon she was buying (one of those electronic pads where you insert your credit card), turned around and asked "how much should we tip?!!"

Sure enough, there was a prompt button for 18%, 20%, 22%, etc. tips!!! Had to look more closely for the "custom" option, which allowed me to put in 0%. I suppose that, typically dealing with folks in various stages of inebriation, that little feature sometimes works out well for them.

Wonder how many discussing tipping waitresses know this started with tipping… don’t even know who!…
on an online order?

Just ran to town and back for some siding... was kind of thinking... when I worked for local government a few of us, only a couple, always went above and beyond. In early. Out late. Make inspections at last minute or come in early etc... even on the weekend if I was not out of town to help folks move along.

Did reviews and such at night sometimes if a contractor was in a hurry and so on. And tipping never ever came up in 17 years for all that above and beyond service. I never expected it either.

Thats not totally true, as I got a bottle or two of booze over the years at Christmas. One for sure. Maybe two. So I was tipped I suppose.

Kind of weird, that some services get tipped and others dont even think about it. Neither here nor there and like I"ve said I don't really care.

Current job I factor in if the pay gets it done then I"m ok. If its not, then I move on to another. And now and then we get a tip. Some years more some less. Its a plus. Though .gov takes a bit of it of course. Greedy bastids they alway are.

I'll tip at sit down restaurants, barbers, and the like but I pay cash rather than add it to the card. If put on the card, the card issuer takes a cut of the total which is taking it from the server. Then there can be other hands grabbing their share such as local taxes and whatever else someone can think of to ding a credit card charge.

Tips paid back to the server are included on their W-2, 1099, or whatever so the government can be assured of getting as much from every worker as possible. I'll pay cash and let the server decide how to share that with Uncle Sam. If I do have to pay by card, I'll add a bit more to the tip to help offset this. It is my intent to give a certain amount to the server so I'll reluctantly give more to others to meet that goal.

Also, how do you figure tips? Do you go off the price of the meal before or after any taxes or other expenses? I always went off the final price even though I was tipping local taxes. The first I heard of basing the tipping differently came from the company my wife worked for who "recommended" tips based off the pretax price rather than total bill. It was interesting how that was adhered to by women but men ignored it.

If I don't give my order to a waitress or waiter, I'm not tipping.

If a contractor or guide goes above and beyond, I'm willing to cough up some extra.

In restaurants I tip in cash, usually 15 to 18% Servers always seem happy with that amount. If I pick up take out food, I usually do not tip. My mail lady ( she is a totally hot 40 something) gets a Christmas card with a real nice present in it every December. Guess who's mail never gets screwed up? Mail delivery, mail holds always run perfect.

A lot of places around here split tips. I give cash to my watress and she or he can do what they want with it.They should not have to split tips with some someone elese that gives [bleep] service all night while they bust there ass to do a good job.

With $20/hr fast becoming minimum wage, my tipping might just drop off a bit if the service is not truly exceptional.

A story on my younger sister: She was a real cutie in her college years, a seriously outgoing talker, and could feign interest in damned near anything. "Wow! Nuclear physics! Really! That's amazing. Where do you work?" All of it a complete act. She summered working in a Poconos style resort/hotel in the hills of WVa where staff were allowed into the tip pool after gaining experience and putting in 3 or 4 seasons. Newbies had to struggle on their own take. About two weeks in it became obvious she was in tall cotton, and she was invited into the tip pool. She politely declined saying such wasn't fair to those that had put in their time. Her guess was that income would have taken about a 40% hit if she'd signed up.

Another event from Ca: Five or six of us dined in a high-end Mexican place, had a great time, and left about $100 beneath a plate for the waiter. We were about 50 yds down the street when he came out yelling about what a bunch of cheap bastards we were and invited us to never come back. The elder in our crew did a turnabout, walked back in, lifted the plate, fanned the bills in his face, and walked out. We didn't go back.

Last: About 5 years back I signed up for my first ever guided elk hunt. A six-day contract. On the eleventh day a shooter finally presented himself. The guide came out quite well on that one.