Here’s a tip: try a subtler approach
Posted on March 30, 2004 @ 6:23 pm
I’ve had a shockingly productive day today; I submitted a manuscript to a journal, cleaned the house, did a couple of loads of laundry, and prepared my lectures for the next week or so. To reward myself for all the hard work, I decided to go out to Sonic Drive-In this afternoon for a celebratory fresh-fruit slushie. My total came to $1.38, and I handed the carhop two dollar bills.
“Would you like your 62¢ back, sir?” she asked.
“Uh…yeah,” I responded.
“Oh,” she replied, sighing and dispensing my change from her money belt.
Surprisingly, this isn’t the first time that this has happened to me at Sonic. I’ll admit that I’m occasionally a bit out-of-step when it comes to “should I tip, or shouldn’t I?” situations (e.g. the tip jar at Subway). Still, is a 62-cent tip appropriate when all someone does is walk twenty feet to hand you a $1.38 slushie? She wasn’t even on rollerskates!
At least my carhop asked if she could have my change, though. A couple of years ago, I was paying for a $13 haircut with a $20 bill in a salon at the mall. The hairdresser counted out seven dollar bills into the palm of my extended hand and then simply took two off the top for herself, sticking them into her pocket as a self-made tip. I was so dumbfounded by the sheer audacity of her actions that I had stumbled back out into the mall before I completely processed what had just happened.
And I was actually going to tip her, too.
Posted by Jess | Filed Under Random Musings |
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