I’m a frequent (and quite pleased) customer of several local coffee shops. It recently came to my attention that our beloved CC’s coffee shop in Middleton Library, as well as several other University businesses, have lost their tip jars. This debacle is not without repercussions for the business owners.
I’ll start my explanation of why this is a terrible idea with an analogy.
Imagine that you and your smokin’ hot date decide to go to your favorite restaurant. You make a reservation a week ahead of time, you dress up, maybe you even go so far as to get a limo, ’cause that’s just how you roll.
You and your sweetie sit down for a bite. After a wonderfully succulent meal and attentive, kind service, you pay the bill, leave a generous tip and head off into the night.
Now imagine how the same dinner would have blossomed had the server known you weren’t going to tip.
For you active learners out there, try this: Go to a decent restaurant — Wendy’s doesn’t count. Despite what they say, it is absolutely fast food. Tell the waiter that you, because of religious conviction, lack of funds or general jerk-ishness, will not be tipping tonight and are not currently interested in debating the matter.
Ask any restaurant if they would still provide the same service without tips. Any upstanding (and utterly dishonest) employee would absolutely swear up and down they would. Lies and deceit.
Before I hear your plaintive cries about how servers should do the right thing and give equal treatment to customers despite socioeconomic factors, grow up. I agree wholeheartedly — everyone should be treated well at restaurants. I myself have received service so terrible you’d barely believe it happened, simply because I ordered a small meal.
I also realize the world is altogether unaffected by how I personally think it should be run. It happens.
Servers work harder to get high tips, and it’s because they’re human. Now the cat’s out the bag. Let’s talk about the implications.
What happens when we remove the tips? Well, this artificially lowers the price you’re paying for good service, so there’s no incentive for the servers to work harder for the extra cash. They get paid the same whether they serve you well or not. Life’s tough.
That means the quality of service is lowered. When the quality of the product is lowered for a good that’s elastic, meaning you choose how much you want,
demand generally lowers.
If you’re interested, toothpaste and toilet paper are usually inelastic. I dare you to stop brushing your teeth if they take away the free extra ounce.
So why should University administration and business owners care? Well, I know we don’t worry too much about money here at LSU, but if you want to make more money, you typically try to keep demand up for your product.
If you’re not interested in more money, just do whatever, and let the free market decide. It’s only the success of the University’s on-campus businesses we’re talking about — nothing big.
If you don’t care about student workers’ pay, which is drastically affected by tips, you should, as a student, at least be concerned that every employee on campus already knows you’re not going to tip them. This is dangerous if you’re hoping to get a favor.
To reiterate: Even if you don’t personally tip employees, you still benefit from other people tipping, though not as much as they do, and trust me — servers and delivery workers absolutely do remember who tips well.
In football spirit, let’s look at the highlights: With tips we have a higher quality of service for customers, higher pay for student workers, more demand for the products and thus higher profits. Without tips the students’ pay goes down and the quality of service lowers, causing demand to drop. On-campus businesses make less money.
No one wins.
This is a super-grande issue with an extra shot of insult. Take these tips from me — and not the CC’s employees.
Devin Graham is a 21-year-old business management senior from Prairieville. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_dgraham.
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Contact Devin Graham at [email protected]