Superbowl and the Morality of Tipping

Superbowl has come to an end with the Ravens beating the 49ers. Did you go out to your neighbourhood bar to watch the big game? If you did, did you second guess your tipping approach or did you tip like you normally would?

Superbowl is the biggest day for takeout for many bars and restaurants such as the one I work for. The bar did get full but it was not as exciting as a Hockey Night in Canada evening. Disappointing? Yes. The common misconception is that waitresses make a TON of money on Superbowl. There is very little truth to that. Once you take everything into consideration you will actually be able to understand that we sometimes end up making less money than we would on a typical evening.

Here are a few reasons why:

• Customers come in and sit for the entire 4-5 hours. This means no turnover. No turnover in the type of restaurant I work in means no money, unless they are drinking and eating heavily.
• People do not drink as much because cops are in full effect. I would much rather people be safe than make money at the end of the day, but this does affect the amount of consumption.
• Customers do not take into account that you have been serving them for the entire night, therefore do not compensate you for it. If I have been refilling your $2.99 pop or better yet your free water for 4 hours why do you still tip 10% at the end of the night. Haven't I done more than a normal night out where you only spend an hour at a restaurant?
• The customer demographic is different on these nights. Your regulars may have all gone to a Superbowl party. This makes a HUGE difference on how you will be compensated.

I worked a 12 hour shift yesterday and my partner in crime worked 14 hours! We decided at the beginning of the day that we would pool our tips together so our customers will get better service and it will be easier to close out at the end of the night. Some people even decided not to tip at all and when asked, in a polite manner, if anything was wrong with the service, they said no. Hmm... strange that people feel they can sit for 5 hours and get served somewhere and not tip at all. On top of it the woman was offended that she was asked and said it was "begging for tips." I say it was making sure everything was alright and bringing to your attention in the most tactful way that you were not compensated for your work that evening. At the end of it all we ended up making less than we would in a 5 hour shift. Was the juice worth the squeeze? Nope. Would I do it all over again? Now, where did I leave my shotgun? All kidding aside, I probably would only because I love what I do and you got to get through the bad to understand what the good really is.