Ken Nelson

To restaurants that add automatic tips

I don’t like places that stick on a mandatory “tip” for parties above a certain size. It defeats the entire purpose of a tip. In Philadelphia, predatory government recently came to the aid of an establishment set up this way:

"You can’t give us terrible, terrible service and expect a tip," said Pope, a 22-year-old Moravania College senior who’s a Pottsville native, according to the Lehigh Valley Express-Times.

By all accounts the service was terrible. But… the menu says that parties above 6 have a mandatory 18% tip added.

So when they paid the bill less the tip, the pub called the cops and they were arrested for theft.

So what would have happened if the non-tippers were other cops? Or what would have happened if it was the Mayor’s party?  Certainly no arrests. Probably no tip.

I’ve got a rule…. I don’t take large parties to places that charge automatic tips. I’ve got options. Like Chilis, where the host seating us proclaims loudly that “unlike other places, they don’t add an automatic gratuity” and it  is up to us to tip.

So use your consumer choice, while you still have it.

And as to the coppers that didn’t walk away from this after telling both parties to settle it themselves…   I know your job is tough and everybody second guesses you, but you might like your job better and find the public works better with you if you treated everybody like a fellow cop, or the mayor.