New York vs. London

[gabriel]

suppose we have a bar that serves $5 beers

suppose, too, that bartender likes you and always gives you $3 beer

suppose, last, that bartender gives you a beer free of charge

you should smile and accept the free beer without tipping on that beer

however, when the next beer is served at $3, you should leave a $6 tip

fucking hell that's complicated! i think after i'd had that many beers i really wouldn't be able to multiply the non-existent tip by three, subtract the free one and leave the difference, lol

 

[Mr. Tea]

fucking hell that's complicated! i think after i'd had that many beers i really wouldn't be able to multiply the non-existent tip by three, subtract the free one and leave the difference, lol

Hence the advanced mathematical field of 'algebraic tipology'.

 

[STN]

Half the time I can't even remember what I'm supposed to fucking order in the pub let alone perform simple mathematics.

Whenever I go boozing Stateside, my cousins take care of all this shit while I fumble at my purse-strings and smile like a confused, but ultimately loveable, grandma. I probably should try to learn for myself. And don't get me started on sales tax, does NYC have that?

 

[Mr. Tea]

Aargh, sales tax is STUPID! I've been caught out with it in Chicago. You have your money ready to pay for something that's $X.99 or $X.50, and you get to the till and it's $Y.28... :slanted:

 

[STN]

though arguably you save money cos here they add VAT and round the cost up, still I'm happy to pay not to have to do sums.

 

[shudder]

yeah, I hate it that sales tax is not included in the advertised price here (Canada)

 

[Freakaholic]

though arguably you save money cos here they add VAT and round the cost up, still I'm happy to pay not to have to do sums.

wait wait, how does this work? you dont have to fool around with "pennies" or "nickles" or "dimes"? all the prices include taxes, and are rounded.... to the nearest what?

 

[petergunn]

in MTL it's all about the $2 slice.

i thought in montreal it was about the 99 cent slice?

 

[Mr. Tea]

wait wait, how does this work? you dont have to fool around with "pennies" or "nickles" or "dimes"? all the prices include taxes, and are rounded.... to the nearest what?

I don't think it works like that exactly. I mean, in America they decide on a 'round' figure (i.e. £X.99) then add sales tax (depending on the state) at the till. In Britain they must just factor VAT into the cost of the article, I suppose, and then round it to the nearest £ or 99p. (Given that a few pence one way or the other is not going to radically alter the amount of VAT payable, which is fixed at 17.5% - also, it's only applied to things categorised as 'luxury goods', so it'd be a nightmare having to remember/work out whether every item you were buying was VAT-liable or not.)

It certainly makes paying for things easier.

 

[shudder]

i thought in montreal it was about the 99 cent slice?

yeah, of course! That's what I meant.

 

[Guybrush]

Interesting article on tipping:

The Economics and Etiquette of Tipping

...

Unfortunately for tipping, a number of studies point toward a positive but weak relationship between service quality and the amount tipped. For example, a study by Cornell University Professor Michael Lynn and Ithaca College Professor Michael McCall, combined the results of 13 studies using exit interviews of 2,547 dining parties at 20 different restaurants and found that the correlation between tip percentage and service ratings was only 0.11—that is service quality explained, on average, only a very small proportion of the variation in tip percentages.[4] Also worrying, was that they found that tips were not related to servers’ or third parties’ evaluations of service. Another study by Professor Michael Lynn, this time with fellow Cornell University Professor Ted O’Donoghue and Professor Michael Conlin from Syracuse University, looked at the tipping behaviour of 1,393 dining parties in 39 restaurants in Houston, Texas, and found that one point increase in service quality increased the tip by only 1.5% of the total bill—not very encouraging considering that the study used only a five point scale. The correlation between tip percentage and service ratings was even lower in this study, only 0.07.[5] These results are important as they call into question whether tipping provides strong enough incentives to improve service quality.

Furthermore, some studies find factors that affect the size of a tip which seem to have little to do with the principal-agent problem. For example, one study reports that lightly touching customers when returning change increases the tip size.[6] Beware too the innocent piece of candy that arrives with your bill as it may be a strategy to elicit a higher tip—one study found that customers who received a small piece of candy give larger tips that those who did not; and that the tip size was related to the size of candy.[7] Other peculiar tip-inducing behaviour[8] includes squatting at the table, drawing a smiley face on the bill, forecasting good weather,[9] telling a joke, and wearing a flower in your hair.

...

Anyone heard of that practise?

 

[Freakaholic]

the candy practice?

its pratically the rule around here. if i DONT get candy, i get kinda irritated and wonder what sort of cheap restaurant wouldnt give me a piece of cand,y a mint, or at least a fortune cookie.

My favorite is the sushi restaurant that leaves me with a tootsie roll every time, for the last 8 years.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Some bastard waiter gave me a whole packet of Polos as I was leaving a restautant once, I had no choice but to slip him twenty quid.

 

[petergunn]

sorry, i have to revive this thread after being stiffed by English, German, and French people all weekend...

next time i go to europe, i am going to wear all Red Sox gear, speak loudly at people who don't understand me, and request budweiser wherever i go... if they can impose their non-tipping culture on me, i can impose being a fucking hideously ugly american on them...

oh and re: bog trolls... i have only known a few people who have had that job, but they have all been ex-criminals of some sort, so be glad they are in the bathroom begging for quarters, rather than sticking you up or breaking into your house...

 

[Mr. Tea]

oh and re: bog trolls... i have only known a few people who have had that job, but they have all been ex-criminals of some sort, so be glad they are in the bathroom begging for quarters, rather than sticking you up or breaking into your house...

What the hell kind of argument is that? Since when should I feel 'grateful' to someone for not mugging me?

 

[petergunn]

What the hell kind of argument is that? Since when should I feel 'grateful' to someone for not mugging me?

you're missing the big picture

there is a certain type of person who cannot get that many jobs in the straight world.

society's underclass.

so, when you see then passing out fucking cologne and paper towels in the bathroom, rather than turn up your nose at them, be happy they are doing some sort of legimate work.

believe me, no one wants to do a bottom of the rung service sector job. and for a lot of people doing them, their other options are petty crime.

so, next time some poor soul tries to turn on the taps for you after you take a leak at a club or restuarant he couldn't afford to go to, think twice before you call him a fucking "bog troll"...

 

[Mr. Tea]

so, next time some poor soul tries to turn on the taps for you after you take a leak at a club or restuarant he couldn't afford to go to, think twice before you call him a fucking "bog troll"...

There's no need to get on that high horse. I don't go to expensive clubs and I've never seen one in a restaurant. I have very little money myself at the moment (and, given that I've been a student since I left school, I never actually have) - I haven't asked for the service, so I don't expect to have to pay for it.

The ones I have seen certainly do not look like criminals to me - maybe it's different in America, I don't know - in Britain no-one starves because they don't have a job and I certainly can't see anyone who's had a criminal career, with the financial rewards that can offer, settling for something like toilet attendence work.

 

[petergunn]

in Britain no-one starves because they don't have a job

herein lies the difference...


re: criminal world and it's rewards... yeah, but it has it's downs too, like jail time, hence the idea of taking of crap service jobs...

 

[mos dan]

randomly, i got interviewed for the music section of that ny mag london vs nyc issue - i thought i'd copy and paste the q's they sent me, as they were pretty peculiar and/or retarded:

>> -- What bands will be on a NYer's iPod next year?
>> -- What are the most exciting music scenes right now?
>> -- Are there specific London neighborhoods tied to specific music scenes?
>> -- What are common misperceptions NYers have about London music?
>> -- What NY bands are most popular in London?
>> -- How would they track the back-and-forth of influences b/w the two cities?
>> -- Have there been any notable skirmishes among critics recently?
>> Which music scene, in terms of everything, is better right now?
>> What can you hear in London that you can't in New York, and vice versa?

i'm not gonna post up my answers, except that to the 'common misperceptions' question i said "that lady sovereign is deserving of a record deal". ooh get me and my acid tongue

obviously when it came to the final piece they quoted one line and took it out of context. obviously. http://nymag.com/guides/london/29436/

 

[luka]

London's the most ethnically and culturally diverse city on the planet, the most cosmopolitan place ever to exist in the entire history of the world. We speak over 340 languages, compared to New York's 170.
FACT!
I PERSONALLY SPEAK OVER 340 LANGUAGES!