Appropriate?

This weekend I treated Gilday to lunch at one of the local establishments in Gardiner. It's right down the road, has friendly staff and most importantly, the food is always great. They also make the absolute best sweet potato fries on the planet and I always try to stall Gilday from going at breakfast time so that we can go during the lunch hours, just to get them.

On this occasion, we were almost at the end of our meal and we see one of the waiters, I'll call him "Andy" walk up to a gentleman who was leaving after paying his bill for himself and his family of 5. We overheard Andy ask the patron if there was anything wrong with the service. The patron remarked by saying "No, Why?". Andy, who is about 19 and really needs to learn a thing or two about the world said "You only tipped me 10%. Thats rude, man. Come on...". The flabbergasted guy, stumbled around in his pocket, mumbled something and gave the kid some singles and quickly left the restaurant. Andy then skipped back to the counter with a smile on his face and a victorious stance.

Now, the Flabbergasted Guy could have been a) just a bad tipper b) Calculated incorrectly and was deeply embarrassed or c) Wasn't impressed by the service and want to avoid any confrontation (they have been known to be slow).

My question is to Andy. Do you really go up to a guy who just dropped about $60 in food and ask him about his tipping practices? Andy, do you really think that guy is going to come back, eat there and reestablish himself as a good tipper, and keep your employer in business? No. That guy, and everyone he talks too is going to know that you embarrassed him in a crowded restaurant. And that means less tips (even crappy ones) for you.

Of course, maybe I don't know the whole story. Maybe the family would go in every Saturday, take up the big table, and leave shitty tips. Maybe Andy just got fed up with the crappy tips each week and WANTED to embarrass the guy. Hey, I've been there with crappy tippers. But, I got back in other ways.... I never would've confronted the guy.

When we got the bill, we looked at each other and started to comment on what we should tip him. Generally, we tip pretty well because we live right down the street and we like to feed our local infrastructure. But, Andy's antics made us think about it. Would we want to be in the same position as flabbergasted guy? Do we want to be bullied into tipping a certain percentage?

Overall, I was shocked by Andy's behavior and shocked that the guy only tipped 10%. But now I've know got a bad taste in my mouth for the place. I honestly don't think that we'll be going back there any time soon. Its a shame really. I'm going to have to find a new place for sweet potato fries.