That’s a bacronym. It never stood for that. The origins of tipping sit in older class structures where there were distinct servant and aristocrat/oligarch classes and wasn’t common practice outside of the upper crusts of society until quite recently. There was internecine ettiquette about how much was tipped to whom based on the class, role, specific work being done. And even race of the worker. And it was as much about enforcing class roles and showing off wealth as it was about providing additional compensation.
You shouldn’t buy that tips have any correlation to service level/quality. Numerous studies, nearly every one ever done on the subject have shown that’s just not true. And I’ve certainly seen that to be true in my many years in food bev.
More over you have to realize that thanks to the current state of our labor laws and disposition of our restaraunt business. That tip is not something extra you can pay or not as you please. It is the entire compensation that that server, bartender or bus boy will receive for doing the work of serving you. Their professional very hard work. So fucking around with the tip. You aren’t just telling some one they don’t deserve to be paid for the job they just did. You’re litterly not paying them for doing their job (or paying them less than the going rate for their labor).
And if you really don’t return to places that add a grat line you must have a terrible time finding places to eat. Nearly every restaurant that has a modern POS system does this by default for checks above a certain size (dollar amount or party size) and a large number of those running paper checks do it as well, at the discretion of the server.
This part goes for the both of you:
Automatic gratuities are standard restaurant practice. Unless some one is legitimately taking advantage (and trashy servers do) the suggested (suggested) gratuity will be clearly listed as a seperate line on the bill. Along with some explanatory text/disclaimer.
You are under no obligation to pay this gratuity. It is listed on your bill as a convenience. To help you with the math when the check number is large. Increasingly at multiple common percentages (15%, 18%, 20%, 25% are the most common). You do not need to have it removed. You do not need to have a seperate check printed. You are entirely free to tip however you wish right there on the original bill. Cash or credit. And there are commonly log lines in the total section for doing just that.
Noone is charging you a different price. No one is changing the terms after the fact. Noone is adding anything to the total of your bill.
Restaraunts and restaurant workers do this because it works. Large parties and parties with large checks commonly tip poorly. Most often because they fuck up the math after a heavy meal and lots of alcohol (sometimes they’ll even vastly over tip). But also because many people roll on the assumption that the 20 bucks you’d leave on a party for two is just as appropriate on a party of 18 despite it being vastly more work, and involving more staff. Or balk when they see the bill and get their savings on the tip side.
Unscrupulous servers will try to pull one over and get you to double tip. But that’s a shitty server, and while nearly every restaurant has one, its far less common than you think. More commonly servers and bartenders deploy this outside its normal use when they have reason to believe they will be stiffed. If you find yourself getting gratted in situations that wouldn’t ordinarily call for it. Commonly find yourself getting a bill with a grat on it that noone points out to you. Well then servers are commonly assuming you’ll be a bad tipper.
