Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Earn that tip
Usually, I have no problem tossing a few small coins into the cup by the register at Dunkin' Donuts, almost an automatic gesture. Even generous when the girl asks if I want whipped cream on my hot chocolate, maybe one time out of every five. Tonight, I wandered into the cool place coming back on a muggy evening from the library & supermarket. The big screen TV at DD was switched to Fox News last month & O'Ratface was on. I've asked several times, please put it back on CNN. One girl rang up my small overpriced beverage while another filed a cup from a hot water & powdered mix dispenser, the entire transaction took maybe 30 seconds, & I received 28 cents in change, which I put in my pocket, a cheapskate. I saw nothing that they had done to earn an extra cent, especially after a friendly librarian had renewed a book for me that I didn't feel like doing online myself (while another librarian googled information on the nutritional value of fish for a phone caller) , & the cashier at Shop Rite had been very polite & efficient & reminded me that I'd left my baseball cap in the red basket, & they don't have tip cups.
If the DD servers labor over an order, do a barista thing, sure, that's tip work. The friendly Filipino ladies at the DD in my former town used to give me a senior discount when their boss wasn't around, although I was barely eligible for AARP, because they were betting I'd toss the difference into the tip cup, so I did. That's resourcefulness. But I don't even want cream put in my coffee for me. I like to look at black coffee, judge its strength & heat, & then decide how much cream it needs. DD is also the only coffee place where the servers can be such automons that they don't hear you say "No sugar." Which you discover two miles down the road when you sip the coffee & go "Blaaah, it's sweet."
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
If the DD servers labor over an order, do a barista thing, sure, that's tip work. The friendly Filipino ladies at the DD in my former town used to give me a senior discount when their boss wasn't around, although I was barely eligible for AARP, because they were betting I'd toss the difference into the tip cup, so I did. That's resourcefulness. But I don't even want cream put in my coffee for me. I like to look at black coffee, judge its strength & heat, & then decide how much cream it needs. DD is also the only coffee place where the servers can be such automons that they don't hear you say "No sugar." Which you discover two miles down the road when you sip the coffee & go "Blaaah, it's sweet."
Labels: Elizabeth NJ, shopping
