Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The expectation to tip will absolutely remain. Service will deteriorate (not because of servers, but because restaurants will start moving to self service) and your night out will be much more expensive. But 75% of voters support that tradeoff.

Not accepting your premise, but isn't that how democracy is supposed to work?

Direct democracy, yes. Representative democracy (which is what we actually have), no.

What exactly do you think a ballot initiative is?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

So we will move to this model from NYT article and now have less lower skilled jobs available. We will get worse service too.

"You scout your own table. place your own order, You fetch and fill your own water glass. And if you’d like another glass of wine, you go back to the counter.

Runners will bring your order to the table, but there are no servers to wait on you here, or at the two other San Francisco locations that Souvla has added — or, increasingly, at other popular restaurants that have opened in the last two years: RT Rotisserie, which is roasting cauliflower a few blocks away; Barzotto, a bistro serving hand-rolled pasta in the Mission district; and Media Noche, a Cuban sandwich spot with eye-catching custom tilework."

I believe the no tipping was tried in several cities on the west coast and it was an epic failure. Restaurants ended up closing as customers would not pay the new prices for food.

That's about to happen anyway. Have you seen what prices are now?

Tipping just hides the cost. Now is the perfect time for this because there's already going to be a reckoning over prices.

High prices + 20% service charge + 10% DC tax = No thanks.

A few things that would help restaurants are: falling commercial rents, less greedy restaurant owners, and cutting taxes.

Anonymous wrote:You’re all so damned petty and cheap. As for the poster who drools over the “European model,” service in European restaurants generally sucks - slow and surly.

Hey I work very hard for my money and to support my family, actually eat out less now because of the surcharges and 25% bs. I'm going to pay you a quarter of the cost of my meal to eat in your restaurant? No thank you, that is not being cheap it's called sensible money management.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

So we will move to this model from NYT article and now have less lower skilled jobs available. We will get worse service too.

"You scout your own table. place your own order, You fetch and fill your own water glass. And if you’d like another glass of wine, you go back to the counter.

Runners will bring your order to the table, but there are no servers to wait on you here, or at the two other San Francisco locations that Souvla has added — or, increasingly, at other popular restaurants that have opened in the last two years: RT Rotisserie, which is roasting cauliflower a few blocks away; Barzotto, a bistro serving hand-rolled pasta in the Mission district; and Media Noche, a Cuban sandwich spot with eye-catching custom tilework."

I believe the no tipping was tried in several cities on the west coast and it was an epic failure. Restaurants ended up closing as customers would not pay the new prices for food.

That's about to happen anyway. Have you seen what prices are now?

Tipping just hides the cost. Now is the perfect time for this because there's already going to be a reckoning over prices.

I worry that with this model our service will resemble the service we get at ... the post office. Or the DMV.

I didn't mind tipping and think that servers actually could make more than minimum wage (at least at nicer places).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The expectation to tip will absolutely remain. Service will deteriorate (not because of servers, but because restaurants will start moving to self service) and your night out will be much more expensive. But 75% of voters support that tradeoff.

Not accepting your premise, but isn't that how democracy is supposed to work?

Direct democracy, yes. Representative democracy (which is what we actually have), no.

Price of meals went up prohibitively in cities where this has been attempted. The restaurants ended up closing.

Anonymous wrote:

So we will move to this model from NYT article and now have less lower skilled jobs available. We will get worse service too.

"You scout your own table. place your own order, You fetch and fill your own water glass. And if you’d like another glass of wine, you go back to the counter.

Runners will bring your order to the table, but there are no servers to wait on you here, or at the two other San Francisco locations that Souvla has added — or, increasingly, at other popular restaurants that have opened in the last two years: RT Rotisserie, which is roasting cauliflower a few blocks away; Barzotto, a bistro serving hand-rolled pasta in the Mission district; and Media Noche, a Cuban sandwich spot with eye-catching custom tilework."

I believe the no tipping was tried in several cities on the west coast and it was an epic failure. Restaurants ended up closing as customers would not pay the new prices for food.

Anonymous wrote:

So we will move to this model from NYT article and now have less lower skilled jobs available. We will get worse service too.

"You scout your own table. place your own order, You fetch and fill your own water glass. And if you’d like another glass of wine, you go back to the counter.

Runners will bring your order to the table, but there are no servers to wait on you here, or at the two other San Francisco locations that Souvla has added — or, increasingly, at other popular restaurants that have opened in the last two years: RT Rotisserie, which is roasting cauliflower a few blocks away; Barzotto, a bistro serving hand-rolled pasta in the Mission district; and Media Noche, a Cuban sandwich spot with eye-catching custom tilework."

I actually prefer this model unless I'm at a fancy expensive restaurant.

2amys switched to all-in prices awhile ago. Haven't noticed much of change in either total bills or service quality.

This seems like a nice step towards transparency. Our current system is pretty silly.

Anonymous wrote:The expectation to tip will absolutely remain. Service will deteriorate (not because of servers, but because restaurants will start moving to self service) and your night out will be much more expensive. But 75% of voters support that tradeoff.

Some restaurants will seek to distinguish themselves with excellent service (and prices will reflect the higher price of labor, but upside, you’ll know your excellent server is making decent money).

Some will move to self-serve model, but there will be price competition here. And your self-serve system has to make sense and work. Fast casual restaurants are already like this, so if you want to compete you need to either offer a better product/experience than chipotle OR be price competitive. That’s fine with me. I’m happy to pay more for good food even if I stand in line to get it. I’d also pay more for okay food if there’s a self-serve system that works really well and you create a mor enjoyable environment than a fast casual restaurant.

I will still tip for service, and I’ll still tip 20%, but restaurants will need to be transparent about any service charges because I probably won’t pay a 20% service charge AND a 20% tip. Restaurants are going to have to build service costs into menu prices, it’s what people want because otherwise it’s hard to guess how much it costs to eat somewhere.

There will be growing pains but the market will adjust.

Anonymous wrote:The expectation to tip will absolutely remain. Service will deteriorate (not because of servers, but because restaurants will start moving to self service) and your night out will be much more expensive. But 75% of voters support that tradeoff.

Not accepting your premise, but isn't that how democracy is supposed to work?

The expectation to tip will absolutely remain. Service will deteriorate (not because of servers, but because restaurants will start moving to self service) and your night out will be much more expensive. But 75% of voters support that tradeoff.

Anonymous wrote:You’re all so damned petty and cheap. As for the poster who drools over the “European model,” service in European restaurants generally sucks - slow and surly.

Yeh, but the food is so much better.

I'm torn. So if I still want to leave a tip via cc, how will I know if the waiter actually received it? I'm sure business owners will pocket those cc tips.