Waiters/waitresses are unnecessary 90% of the time

2manband

2manband

Kick Henry Jackassowski
I'm perfectly capable of picking up my own food. I don't need my meal to be interrupted, and (especially these days) I don't need another person handling my plate, glass, etc. I can refill my water when it's empty instead of waiting for someone else to come around, and then go get water, and then bring it back. I can pay and leave when I'm done instead of once again waiting to be waited on.

I suppose it would be nice to have a food-servant when you're going to splurge on a nice night out or have all the time in the world or something. But 90% of the time you're just going to the local diner for some french toast, and in those scenarios it's pretty weird that we cling to the food handler intermediary model.
Why are we paying for this inconvenience? Not to mention how wacky the whole underpayment/tipping thing is.

And I'll just go ahead and respond to the "YoU can JuST eAt FaST foOd All tHe tImE tHeN" argument and say you're clearly missing the point, probably on purpose.
 
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Most places that aren't fine dining in Portland do not have table service.

TBH it can be a huge PITA when a place is crowded and most people w/ small children seem to struggle with it.
 
Lerxst said:
Most places that aren't fine dining in Portland do not have table service.

TBH it can be a huge PITA when a place is crowded and most people w/ small children seem to struggle with it.
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I have small children, and in my experience anything that cuts down on the waiting around time is a huge benefit. Try explaining to a 2 yr old that they need to sit still for another 10 minutes while Shirley finds time to take our money. And then we pay Shirley a discretionary (but not really) extra fee for that service.
 
I would guess that you’ve never been a restaurant worker. There’s a lot more work involved than just transporting dishes from the kitchen to the table.


Here’s something to consider:
You know it’s it’s extremely fucking annoying when everyone waiting for their luggage to come down the chute and onto the conveyor at the airport baggage claim?
They all crowd the conveyor so that unless you do the same, you can’t see your luggage.
There’s a line on the floor. We’re all supposed to stand behind that line and then approach the conveyor once you see your luggage.
That gives you room to muscle your crap off of the conveyor without having to throw elbows.

Imagine that bullshit at the pick up window of a busy restaurant. Fuck that shit. Totally and completely.

That and servers are trained in safe food handling, and get re-certified on a regular basis. At least here, they do.

I’m gonna say that more than 90% of patrons at a restaurant have not the first clue about safe food handling, except that they expect it, or assume that it happens.
They don’t know how to do it properly and most would not respect the area where food gets handed over from the line to the servers.

Servers are necessary.



Even in a small diner or take out type shop. Where it appears that you’re getting your food right from the person that cooked it. They ARE the server in that scenario.

Even fast food joints need servers, or runners as they are sometimes called, or else the joint will lose its “fast”.


….and tip your server, dammit!
 
2manband said:
I have small children, and in my experience anything that cuts down on the waiting around time is a huge benefit. Try explaining to a 2 yr old that they need to sit still for another 10 minutes while Shirley finds time to take our money. And then we pay Shirley a discretionary (but not really) extra fee for that service.
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It doesn't always cut down on wait times & your concentrating customers around what's usually a single order or pickup spot, which depending on the size and layout of the place makes things worse. If there's only one parent present, they usually have to bring the kid(s) up in line and have to deal with the wrangling them plus the ordering or conveying food back to the table. I know if perfect 2 manland none of these things could possibly happen.
 
dodgechargerfan said:
I would guess that you’ve never been a restaurant worker. There’s a lot more work involved than just transporting dishes from the kitchen to the table.


Here’s something to consider:
You know it’s it’s extremely fucking annoying when everyone waiting for their luggage to come down the chute and onto the conveyor at the airport baggage claim?
They all crowd the conveyor so that unless you do the same, you can’t see your luggage.
There’s a line on the floor. We’re all supposed to stand behind that line and then approach the conveyor once you see your luggage.
That gives you room to muscle your crap off of the conveyor without having to throw elbows.

Imagine that bullshit at the pick up window of a busy restaurant. Fuck that shit. Totally and completely.

That and servers are trained in safe food handling, and get re-certified on a regular basis. At least here, they do.

I’m gonna say that more than 90% of patrons at a restaurant have not the first clue about safe food handling, except that they expect it, or assume that it happens.
They don’t know how to do it properly and most would not respect the area where food gets handed over from the line to the servers.

Servers are necessary.



Even in a small diner or take out type shop. Where it appears that you’re getting your food right from the person that cooked it. They ARE the server in that scenario.

Even fast food joints need servers, or runners as they are sometimes called, or else the joint will lose its “fast”.


….and tip your server, dammit!
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Meh. None of this is insurmountable. Just have a bigger pickup window or a "now serving number 69" sign or whatever. I mean clearly there are restaurants that do it effectively
 
So the restaurants that currently user servers are supposed to retrofit their facility to accommodate you because you are inconvenienced by having a server?
That's easily the dumbest thing I've read all day.
 
MonkeyZero said:
So the restaurants that currently user servers are supposed to retrofit their facility to accommodate you because you are inconvenienced by having a server?
That's easily the dumbest thing I've read all day.
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Lots of newer startup restaurants are getting away from servers. I celebrate this advancement in the field of bullshit reduction. :shrug:
 
we go out to eat so infrequently its nice to have someone wait on you. the 20% tip seems worth it.

the fast casual idea works for some places but would not be a one size fits all type of solution.
 
When the waitstaff is good, I'm glad to have them.

Recently we are running into more situations where the waitstaff is not so good, or undertrained, or whatever, for the obvious reasons. And that does make the "fast casual" approach more attractive I admit.
 
MonkeyZero said:
So the restaurants that currently user servers are supposed to retrofit their facility to accommodate you because you are inconvenienced by having a server?
That's easily the dumbest thing I've read all day.
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I mean if you wanna play hardball, I could ask if you're not just getting a patriarchal boner from having an underpaid, often young, often female servant cater to the animal desires of the customarily male bill payer in the hopes of winning his favor, as expressed through tipping.
 
2manband said:
I mean if you wanna play hardball, I could ask if you're not just getting a patriarchal boner from having an underpaid, often young, often female servant cater to the animal desires of the customarily male bill payer in the hopes of winning his favor, as expressed through tipping.
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Or you could, like the rest of the planet, have an equitable minimum raise for servers and, possibly, get rid of tipping altogether.

Now, that doesn’t make nearly as much sense as 86ing hundreds of thousands of careers, but I guess it’d be a decent alternative option.
 
Flamencology said:
Or you could, like the rest of the planet, have an equitable minimum raise for servers and, possibly, get rid of tipping altogether.

Now, that doesn’t make nearly as much sense as 86ing hundreds of thousands of careers, but I guess it’d be a decent alternative option.
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Oh I fully support paying workers a liveable minimum wage and doing away with tipping.
 
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