I was talking to my sister last night and the discussion flowed into the topic of tipping, a practice highly debated here in the US. The discussion started off with her complaint that too often, customers who come in the restaurant that she manages, either doesn’t tip the wait staff enough, or won’t tip at all. She mention that just recently, a group of four customers came into her restaurant, spent more than $100 and left a $1 tip. Now understandably, I too would get upset over this as most of us know that at the least a 15% tip should be rendered as standard practice. I also felt her pain when she mentioned that she simply turned her head and looked the other way when her waitress vocally expressed her rage with the customers after they had left the establishment.

On to the topic to which this discussion is really about, who else should we be tipping as we go through life receiving service from others? I know I personally tip my barber very well, after all barbers do provide a personal service that says a lot about you, provide relevant conversation and even entertainment at my barbershop. My sister tips the guys who change her oil, the mechanic who works on her car, the sales person at the department store who helped her find what she was looking for, the guy who helped her load an extremely heavy item at the hardware store and so on… My concern for this manner of tipping is, when does it stop? Why should tip someone for services such as these, when they aren’t providing personal, in-your-face services, that I can really appreciate?

I had to receive services from a tow truck driver the other day and felt bad that I didn’t give him a tip. Why you may ask? Well the towing services received was a standard part of my AAA service, however, the driver didn’t just ask me where I wanted to go, he also attempted to resolve the problem I was experiencing by getting under the hood and even sliding under my SUV to see if it was something that he could do to get me back up and running. This was a service I would have gladly tipped for if I had any cash on me at the time. So a big shout-out to Wayne’s Auto Repair & Towing located in Fairfield, VA . Services & advices were top notch!

Anyway, to conclude, I will not be tipping for those services that don’t provide in-your-face services. To wait-staff, you will always get a minimum 15% tip from me.  Maybe one day when the restaurants start realizing the value that you bring to their establishments, they will start paying you real wages. As for my barber, since there is no industry standard practice for tipping barbers, when I get a raise each year, you will get an increase in your tip.

After viewing several methods for building a raised bed

After viewing several methods for building a raised bed

testing two