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  • Question for waitstaff

    It's summer, it's HOT, and that leads to thirst. At "full service" truck stop restaurants, soda/iced tea/lemonade normally has free refills. Which is less sucky?

    - Order the drink, and get refills to slake thirst. Pros: only one type of beverage to deal with. Cons: calories, the stuff costs the restaurant money.

    - Order the drink and an ice water, get refills on the ice water. Pros: lower in calories, ice water hardly costs the restaurant anything. Cons: server needs to deal with 2 separate types of beverage.

    I've been leaning toward the second option, but I'd like to get a professional opinion. Thanks.
    Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

  • #2
    Well, if you wanna get technical, sodas and the like don't cost all that much -- When I worked at a (non chain) full-service Italian joint a decade back, our TOTAL cost for providing a 20-ounce drink in a reusable glass was six cents. That's including the cost of the glasses, water, refrigeration, drink syrup, CO2, washing the glass, and payroll for the server and dishwasher. I doubt it's soared astronomically since then.

    As for multiple drinks...? Sucky would be getting an ice water ONLY, if it's free to begin with

    Also, the water they bring you normally comes from the fountain machine (it's all Chateau Municipal anyway), so it's not much of a difference, IMHO. As for me as a custy, I normally take the latter option and get refills on both at once after I drain both glasses, so I don't need refills nearly as often...It usually ends up having me drink half as much soda, as a result, as I am a big "drinker".
    "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
    "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
    "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
    "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
    "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
    "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
    Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
    "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

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    • #3
      As someone who's been in the food service industry most of my working life, I can honestly say that if I was your server, I would want you to go with whatever option would make you happiest.

      While it's never good to be an asshole to a server, it seems some people forget that their job, our job, is to serve the customers. Neither of your options are asshole moves, so it comes down to your preference.

      And in my personal opinion, any server that would have a problem with either of these options should not be working in food service.

      "The Customer Is Always Right...But The Bartender Decides Who Is
      Still A Customer."

      Comment


      • #4
        When I was a server/hostess, either option is fine. We kept pitchers of ice water made up and would go around the room doing mass refills with it. It was no more effort than getting a soda refill.

        Comment


        • #5
          Quoth Jester View Post
          While it's never good to be an asshole to a server, it seems some people forget that their job, our job, is to serve the customers. Neither of your options are asshole moves, so it comes down to your preference.

          This. I wrote a post last night and deleted it after it got ridiculously wordy. It's not sucky to ask someone to do their job.
          Last edited by Ree; 07-18-2013, 11:10 PM. Reason: Trimmed quote
          My webcomic is called Sidekick Girl. Val's job is kinda like retail, except instead of corporate's dumb policies, it's the Hero Agency, and the SC's are trying to take over the world.

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          • #6
            Whenever I eat out I usually only drink ice water OR unsweet ice tea. Sometimes I'll get a cocktail.

            Comment


            • #7
              I usually warn the waitress that I drink a lot and if it would be easier to please bring me a couple glasses of water as well as my drink of choice. Many of them are good with this but a few have grumbled over this and it always confused me, why grumble when I'm *trying* to make things easier?

              When I'm in buffets I usually get a few glasses at one time just so I don't have to keep going up myself to refill multiple times.

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              • #8
                I wouldn't worry about the price you pay for the drink. As already pointed out, it is not expensive. You would have to go through a lot of it for them to loose money there.

                I would be more concerned about how long I have occupied the table/seat. You prevent your wait staff from getting another customer if their section is full (possibly missing out on a tip). If the restaurant is full, you prevent the restaurant from serving another customer who may leave instead of waiting.

                I think back to when I use to hang out at a local 24 hour restaurant with my friends (about 30 years ago). We had our "rules". Never stay if they were busy. If we took a booth, we ordered at least a large Nacho. Minimum tip was the greater of $1.00 for each of us or 20% of the bill. Then we would throw in $.25 for each refill (we were drinking coffee or ice tea). There were times that I paid $1.25 for the ice tea and left a $2.50 tip.

                I still do something like that, adjusted for inflation.
                Life is too short to not eat popcorn.
                Save the Ales!
                Toys for Tots at Rooster's Cafe

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                • #9
                  Quoth Aethian View Post
                  I usually warn the waitress that I drink a lot and if it would be easier to please bring me a couple glasses of water as well as my drink of choice.*snip*
                  My husband is the same way, he'll actually ask for a pitcher to make it easier. One waitress laughed until he needed his third refill in 5 minutes (he's been riding his motorcycle), then she just brought out a pitcher. Now when we go there she just starts out with bringing one out (other side of restaurant is a sports bar so they have plenty)

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                  • #10
                    kp - Something similar happened to me about...yeesh, two decades ago. I was eating at a place that specialized in "free range" grub (I had free range chicken and home fries with ground beef and fresh rosemary mixed in *drool*)...Anyhoo, somewhere around my third refill on my Coke, the (rather cute) Waitress brought me a pitcher of Coke with a straw in it ^_^
                    Last edited by EricKei; 07-19-2013, 03:58 PM. Reason: a type-oh
                    "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
                    "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
                    "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
                    "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
                    "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
                    "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
                    Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
                    "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Quoth Jester View Post
                      it seems some people forget that their job, our job, is to serve the customers...

                      ...And in my personal opinion, any server that would have a problem with either of these options should not be working in food service.
                      Exactly! As much as we complain about them, that is our job to serve them.

                      (I still laugh from time to time about the member who posted here years back before being banned. She complained with all kinds of hatred and contempt about the customers who kept buying bread and emptying the shelves she had just filled. )
                      Too tired of living and too tired to end it. What a conundrum.

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                      • #12
                        Quoth EricKei View Post
                        mixed in *drool*
                        ewwwwww

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Quoth EricKei View Post
                          ... somewhere around my third refill on my Coke, the (rather cute) Waitress brought me
                          ... an IV needle attached to a fresh bag-in-a-box of Coke syrup from the back room.
                          I am not an a**hole. I am a hemorrhoid. I irritate a**holes!
                          Procrastination: Forward planning to insure there is something to do tomorrow.
                          Derails threads faster than a pocket nuke.

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                          • #14
                            Quoth CoffeeMonkey View Post
                            It's not sucky to ask someone to do their job.
                            Not calling anyone out specifically, but I've seen quite a few posts in here that forget this basic premise. Stop worrying about how much you may be "bothering" or "inconveniencing" someone when you are merely asking them to do what is their job. There's a huge amount of real estate between being an SC and being a reasonable customer. So stop worrying about it, enjoy your life, and let people do the job they signed up for. If you still feel like you are bothering them, there three possibilities:

                            1. You're overly paranoid about this. Relax.
                            2. You're actually being a jerk without realizing it. Stop that. Figure out what you're doing and stop it. If upon further reflection you realize you aren't doing anything jerky, see #1 above or #3 below.
                            3. The employee is a lazy little shit, and/or has a bad attitude. Fuck 'em.


                            As for taking up someone's station/table for a while, if you tip commeasurately, it's all good. Perfect example: while in college, I would often do homework/studying at a local Denny's. I'd get food and a soda (even when I was of legal age, I didn't drink alcohol while studying), and do my work. I'd often be there for three hours or more. My tip reflected not only the price of the meal, but my time spent taking up that table. And I never got bad attitutude or dirty looks from the servers, who slowly came to recognize me and my MO.

                            "The Customer Is Always Right...But The Bartender Decides Who Is
                            Still A Customer."

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              I also think there's a big difference between normal job bitching and insufferable whining. Like the aforementioned bread girl? Shaking her fist at the sky because gaah, I just filled that, and now I have to do it all over again, will it never end?! I can totally get behind that. Actually thinking the customers shouldn't buy the bread because it's an inconvenience to her to do her job? Different story.

                              Then again, most of us can grock the difference between wishing the customers would leave us alone for just a minute, and actually not wanting to do our jobs.
                              My webcomic is called Sidekick Girl. Val's job is kinda like retail, except instead of corporate's dumb policies, it's the Hero Agency, and the SC's are trying to take over the world.

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