Dear Tourists,
Here’s how it works: We’ve got the cultural and historic sites, the
cute little tugboat and, of course, the lighthouse. That’s why you’re
here.
And you’ve got the dough. That’s why we welcome you.
We’re going to get that dough by pulling you into Halifax’s
restaurants, “the premier culinary source for food and drink in
Atlantic Canada” (according to edining.ca). It’s simply the way it is, so
pull up a chair, close your eyes and think of Barack Obama. You’ll love
us for it later, I promise. Sure, you’ll leave here, visit other towns
and see other sights, but no matter how many others you experience,
you’ll never find another lighthouse quite like ours.
With thousands of you visiting over the next few weeks, we need to
set a few guidelines in your interactions with us in our eateries, the
ground zero for this relationship. So I sit down with two downtown
servers, “Buddy” and “Mac” (their real names are disguised to ensure
future employment opportunities), and discuss the top annoyance issues
they have with tourists.
Currency: “People pay with American money and ask for
American change,” says Buddy. “They get upset when you tell them it’s
illegal to provide such a service.”
Jeez Louise, you folks are in a foreign country, what do you expect?
Are you going to accept a five dollar bill with picture of hockey
players on it at your sub-prime mortgage house? I didn’t think so.
We’re big on the history, but when it comes to dealing in cash,
we’re as up-to-date as our New York City service industry counterparts
assisting a discrete governor—any restaurant in town will accept
credit cards.
Conversation: “Sometimes there’s an expectation that I know
where everything in the province is, and people get disappointed that I
have only been here for a few years while I’ve been going back and
forth with school,” says Mac. “I thought the Valley was in the eastern
part of Nova Scotia for a while. One time, I may have told a customer
that Wolfville was a three-hour drive away.”
Turns out you tourists aren’t the only transient population sharing
our city. Halifax is home to nine post-secondary institutions, with a
student body population in the tens of thousands—many who have “come
from away” (that’s Nova Scotian for “untrustworthy, possibly criminal,
outsiders”), from such exotic locales as Guelph, Ontario.
These CFA students make up a large percentage of our serving staffs.
So, keep the conversation light—avoid politics and, especially, the
harbour smell. (What? You don’t know?!) Instead, talk about how awesome
your food is, how nice and polite we all are, how our money looks funny
and ignore us if we snicker behind your back that you don’t know where
your cruise ship takes you. It helps us feel better sometimes.
Gratuities: “I’ve noticed people from out west tend to tip
better,” says Buddy, recalling his glory days slinging hash in
Calgary.
What do we look like—some sort of cultural backwater willing to
whore ourselves for pennies on the loonie? Well, maybe, but still:
Around these parts, a 15 percent gratuity is expected.
Does it hurt to add extra anyway? Hell no. Is math as scary for you
as it is for me? Don’t have a handy way to calculate a tip? Here’s how
you get ‘er done. See the “HST/sales tax” line on your bill? That’s a
13 percent sales tax. Slap a little extra on—say, $20—and
presto-blammo you have a happy server. If you have a penchant for
rounder numbers, here’s my cheat sheet: 15 percent of $25 is $3.75
(just make it $6); of $50 is $7.50 (round up to $10) and so on.
The ultimate annoyance: “Don’t clap, snap or shout to get my
attention,” says Buddy. “That’s really rude.”
Leave that sort of behaviour to locals, eh?
Oh, and enjoy your stay!
This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 5, 2009.
15% is expected?
I regularly tip 15%. But not anymore. Now you’re going to earn it. Good luck.
This article ‘sucked’, BTW. Leave rudeness to the locals? Fuck you.
No wonder “Tipping Bitches” are so heated.
if anything the locals & student workers need to buck up on their manners. guests are visitors and visitors should be treated with respect even if you prefer to profile them. if haligonians don’t like serving or accommodating to visitor needs, then they should find employment in another industry, perhaps a new perspective in a call centre? halifax thrives on service industry jobs and to blame our visitors for negativity & poor tipping is silly. you don’t automatically get 15% just because you’re a charmer, you have to provide good service too. if you hate your job it’s not the guest’s fault, it’s yours so suck it up and find something at your job that brings a little bit of happy. to employers: when the staff are snappy, bored & unmotivated, you attract the snappy, lazy people. so learn to be nicer and more accommodating worker or you’ll continue to get the suck. this sense of entitlement junk kills me.
Haligonian news readers score near the bottom of the class in sense of humour, according to random samples of online comments in 24 cities released today by researchers at the National Tourist Board.
$6.00 of $25.00 s a huge tip! WOW! That’s $1.00 more than $20.00 percent. Come-on now. I do agree about the currency thing though, go to a bank and get your cash changed to our currency (unless a it’s a quarter or something big whoop).
I’m probably going to stop tipping the chick that carries the food from the kitchen to the cash when I do p/u too. Sorry.
I completely agree with Cranky and labitae: a tip needs to be earned. I understand that server wages are low because the employer is counting on the fact that customers will pay tips, evening out their income; I also understand that most servers hate their jobs. Yes, customers can be complete dickheads, and rude to boot. That is NO excuse for some of the behaviour I have seen here. I worked in the service industry for years in a non-tipping country. Wages were just as low; but servers were polite (well, not 100% of the time). That’s your job – to provide good service. The fact you have just been tipped means the customer enjoyed your service and wants to thank you for making their dining experience a good one. If you did not give good service don’t expect a tip. If you hate your job and your customers that much you need to find a new industry to work in. Labour jobs pay reasonably and you don’t have to deal with customers too much – oh, but sorry, you’ll actually have to do some hard graft for once. Suck it up, and pretend you enjoy it.
if you don’t tip properly, don’t expect me to bring you a beer. you can go wait at the bar for fifteen minutes like everyone else.
On that note, servers in this city are like molasses. I’ve seen patios that I could handle on my own, and even with three servers, it takes ages to get a drink. Do you put rocks in your shoes? If you can’t hustle it, don’t expect a reward.
Please oh please tell us where you work so we can avoid it. Pretty please.
It is quite apparent that none of you have worked in a high traffic restaurant in this city. We expect 15% because we dont get the 15%. If you stiff a server on the bill it costs them money for you cheap bastards to eat/drink. A server has to tip out the bartender, the host, the busser, and most importantly the kitchen. If you don’t tip your server than the tips they get off of other tables has to make up the tip pool for the other staff. When I have to pay money for someone to eat it pisses me off. But tipping out your support/kitchen/managers is required regardless of what we made in tips on the table. And if you take a large group to a lot of the “good” restaurants in Halifax, you get auto charged 15, or 16% grat on your bill. The added grat on my wedding is 16%, it’s in my contract. 15% was the norm, it shouldn’t be anymore. Working 4 or 5 hour shifts for 8.60 doesn’t pay halifax rent or bills. WE SURVIVE on tips. And you are rightm there are better, highier paying jobs out there. But if everyone did that where would you go to eat. Stop bitching about shit when you don’t know the back side of the story. I have seen cooworkers pay out alot ofm money because they were brought in to work a reso of 20 or 30 and got stiffed because some dip shit European didn’t know what the tip line was for. An 1800.00 bill ment the poor girl paid 63.00 out of her own pocket to cover the shitty lack of tip in one cause. So tip the poor kids, they bust their asses for it, or stay the fuck at home and drink your own beer and eat some Mr. Noodle WELL DONE LOUKAS!! Someone had to say it
So, servers, why blame the customer for the shit deal your BOSS and the INDUSTRY are providing for you?
Geesh, what a useless article.
Buddy and Mac sound like real winners
Delete my comment? Can’t handle the truth or a valid opinion Loukas? Go get a job at the Herald asshole. You’re pathetic.
I’m in the states right now, in a pretty hip place, on vacation. I don’t think it would ever occur to the local writers to put such an article in their local version of The Coast, if they did and I saw it I’d be pissed. But you know what? Everyone here is so friendly and NOT like in Halifax I don’t have a problem tipping 15%. I’m actually getting to see what real, honest, friendly service is.
I have to say that ‘expecting’ 15% is the wrong approach & attitude … how about, ‘I’m gonna bust my ass to give you outstanding service, and for that I expect a fair tip’ … just a thought
Gotta say, as a fellow service worker receiving tips… You are crying an awful lot. Yes, some people are cheap, some people are rude, others downright have no class whatsoever. But, fortunately for us, as service givers (that is our title right??) we kind of have to work on averages, and just hope that common decency prevails. Ya win some, ya lose some. Just except it. Its not changing.
Look, I’ve been to places in the world where the locals had no idea what was ten miles down the road, let alone anything about stuff a tourist might be interested in. If I hit a blank stare I just say “thanks anyway” and stick to my Rough Guide or Lonely Planet. Local knowledge isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
But you haven’t truly been abused until you’ve been ‘shat’ on by a snooty Parisian waiter who thinks all tourists should be ignored or flogged or both AND still gets a big tip because “service compris”. The first time it happened to me I left the fellow an extra bit of change just because his ‘local colour’ made my day (and my travel journal). I truly felt I was being abused by a master.
What’s with tipping at Tim Horton’s and Starbucks? At one time you didn’t tip for anything but table service. Soon folks will be tipping the checkout staff at grocery stores.