I used a Levi’s for over a decade from high school on. Only got rid of it because I couldn’t stand the bulk of a trifold as I got older.
Looked at the saddleback’s. But again, don’t like bulk in my pockets. I carry a messenger bag or keep things in jacket pockets. And just couldn’t get into the stiff saddle leather with visible stitching that seems to define their stuff.
They’re nice and I can speak for their durability. Friend of mine has had a card wallet from them for almost 10 years. Still going strong. They make one of the slimmest wallets with a billfold. Which is how I ended up with one. Was bartending at the time and needed to mostly deal in cash day to day.
The faith some BB readers seem to have have in financial institutions is puzzling.
We use cash and checks for bills whenever possible because if there is a mistake it is easier to not pay then to yank back money they’ve taken from direct transfer. We also don’t like to encourage banks in their strongly-felt idea that they are the actual owner of all capital, and we only get to use it sometimes through their largesse.
If I could keep all our non-invested money in our mattress, I would, but it is foam.
If you have access to a fiber or CO2 laser, you could engrave whatever you want on it. That’s what I did, albeit not a Saddleback wallet (I do have one of belts and one of their bags though, exceptional quality).
I always carry a little cash for emergency purposes. Plus, my herb dealer doesn’t take plastic.
I also prefer to pay cash at restaurants. When the wait person retrieves the bill wallet or tray, I say, I’m paying cash, the rest is a tip for you. It can get annoying when they’re waiting to see a credit card sticking out of one of those bill wallets to retrieve it. So I carry an empty gift card to put in to lure them back to the table and then take it out and show them it’s cash. If they whisk off with it, they generally come back with the gift card decoy.
Yes, it’s a slight hassle, but it has two advantages. One, it’s up to them whether to declare the tip, and prevents unscrupulous employers or managers from stealing their tips. Two, my debit card isn’t carried out of my sight for an extended period and used on machines that anyone could put a skimmer on.
A manager at my workplace has one of their bags and it looks awesome. Not something i can afford currently but i always keep an eye on their wares on occasion,also fond of their belts primarily because of the thickness of the leather. Ideally though i’d like to replace some missing hardware on an existing old leather belt i have that i love. It’s missing the cross metal bit that holds the extra belt. Haven’t worn it in a few years but it has a lot of sentimental value to me, my mom bought it for me as a splurge/gift when i was in HS and it’s from an Italian leather goods company
When owners steal tips. It’s usually cash tips. Credit tips have a paper trail so it’s difficult for scumbag boss to hide that he’s garnishing tips. Which can come with large fines. The few times I ended up in that situation I was more likely to see me credit tips than the cash ones.
Cash is significantly quicker to deal with though.
You know you can leave the cash sticking out too, right?
Dick Butt is created by cartoonist KC Green. Just because something has entered the public sphere doesn’t mean its free game for other people to make a profit off of.
I think there’s a lack of integrity to advertising bootleg money grabs like this.
Also make sure you don’t leave the check book standing up. That:s restaurant for “the customer hasn’t touched this yet”. Leave it lying flat on the table l, push it to a corner that accessible to staff, with a bill dangling out. Restaurant people mark all sorts of things with position and placement so we know what’s going on and to communicate. It’s why your martini has 3 olives and your friend’s has 4. Or why some drinks at your table have a stirrer and others don’t.
If all I have accomplished today is destroy the fake gift card I’ve been more productive than I have in weeks. I can tell you that wasn’t making you very popular.
As for the rest of it. There is no action you can take that will protect restaurant staff from wage theft. The bosses have direct access to their social security numbers. Some one is much more likely to see a tip that has an electronic paper trail with a third party, than cash than can be physically forced out of their hands (yes).
If you have reason to believe that a restaurant is stealing from employees do not eat there under any circumstances. And report them to the labor department. Wage theft is the one thing they actually enforce in the restaurant business.
Making sure to hand cash directly to an employee can prevent a customer or other staffer from stealing it. And it’s as common for people to steal the payment as the tip. It’s really uncommon for customers to steal. Usually young kids who don’t understand, and parents bring it back. Co-workers stealng is more common. But usually quickly discovered. And those people usually have access to tip cups and registers anyway.
So making sure you hand cash to your server and only your server is usually more of an inconvenience than anything. It’s never once prevented anyone I know from getting screwed.
Yes, I know, and usually that’s enough. But every once in a while they don’t come back until there’s a piece of plastic sticking out; that’s the only time I resort to the gift card, but I will try the cash sticking out next time. As long as they don’t grab it and whisk away without looking at me - and that’s happen maybe once or twice - I pick it up and open it if I can and either way I explain I’m paying cash and the extra is a tip.
Good point.
I would, but there’s no way to know. I assume it’s rampant because shit rises to management.
You make excellent points about why it’s not helping the wait person, and I’ll take those into serious consideration. But this is one I’m not worried about. They have no electronic record of me. If they steal the payment as tip and claim I don’t pay, it’s going to be more their problem than it ever will be mine. Plus, I rarely tip less than 20% to 30% if it’s a small tab (such as a $8 sandwich) and 20% would be an insult.
I operate on the assumption that thieves are relatively rare, but common enough to poison the well. That’s why I never leave without making certain the wait person picks up the cash. I consider leaving it on the table nearly as bad as not paying.
Like I said there’s not really a reason to do that. What’s the worst that happens if you don’t? They come back with change and you say “no that’s for you” and they say “oh thank you”. It’s an entirely normal interaction.
Or do what I do. If I don’t need change I leave it on the table and say thanks on the way out. Worrying about these things isn’t your job.
Less common than you think. More common than you wish. And unless you’re travelling you’ll probably hear about it.
Like with pedophiles.
Then use a card.
But then you might run into something that happened at one of my accounts. The manager was running an entirely separate credit machine and merchant account through a shell company he set up. And using it to skim every other credit check.
Or you could get stabbed in the neck on the way to your car!
As a customer you’re unlikely to run into any of this stuff anything but rarely. Restaurant workers deal with them some what regularly because of how much time they spend in restaurants. And because making a living in the buisiness involves frequently changing jobs so you end up working at a lot of different spots.
These aren’t the sort of things that regularly occur in every restaurant. Sketchy places are easy to identify. And turds in the pool at better run places are quickly caught. Noones likely to connect you to a missing cash check to begin with. And the lovely thing about criminals is they aren’t particularly willing to call police. So even if they did, noones reporting you for theft.
It’s fine. Like I said you as a customer are pretty unlikely to ever deal with any of this. Any given restaurant employee will deal with it regularly. In terms of crimes you might end up involved with you are far more likely to have your identity stolen. And there is no way to predict or identify when it might impact you personally.
By assuming it’s a regular possibility at all restaurants all the time. You’re signalling to restaurant workers that you don’t trust them, and they are suspicious.
Like the way having your cart and receipt checked on the way out of a store makes many people pretty pissed.
This is the artistic equivalent to a backyard breeder selling lineage-free fad puppies while original works are sweet dogs that are economically euthanized by the truckload.
Only down side is then I need to wait for them to come back. If I’m alone I’m usually fine with that, but if I’m dinning with company I’d rather not make them wait.
It isn’t, but it still gives me anxiety. I want to make sure the money gets into my wait person’s hands.
That’s good.
Since I’d wish it to be never, yes.
Sorry, you misunderstand. I like the lack of a digital record of me. But the main reason I pay cash is to help the server. The convenience and anonymity are just fringe benefits.
Well, yeah, life is risk. But if I wanted to use plastic more often, I’d just carry a re-loadable debit card.
It’s not me I worry about. I don’t want the server getting shafted.
Everyone gets a baseline amount of trust. The rest is earned. Handing someone a debit card linked to my checking account without the charge-back protections of a credit card is of the earned variety.
I’m fine with it.
I’m pretty chill. I’m just realistic. A few assholes ruin it for everyone.
I’m curious about this, as my wife makes a big deal out of making sure we give server the cash in their hand directly, whereas I argue for just leaving it on the table, which she is convinced another customer might swipe. I’m convinced this happens so rarely as to not worry about it, but I haven’t worked in that aspect of the biz (my restaurant work experience didn’t involve tips).
Part of what I’m trying to get at is that cash is always preferable because it’s easier and more convenient.
But your vastly over thinking things. And as a result. Removing a bit of the convenience. Cheifly for yourself.
I get it with all the back and forth about restaurants and tipping a lot of people have become concerned with doing things “right”. Or trying to help. But from years in the restaurant business this isn’t really doing that. It was a huge personal pet peeve of mine. Because it often over complicates a simple transaction. And as the bartender and frequently the cashier my attempts to do my job in these situations, handling money, or helping out servers by handling their money turned into relatively involved conversations where I felt pretty damn well accused.
If your server is getting shanked there is little you can do to prevent it. Wage theft does not happen in isolation. If you unknowingly ate at a place like that the staff are also getting groped, verbally abused, forced to work excessive hours. Among other things.
And sadly even if everything is properly wrong and operating as it should. Those staffers are still getting screwed and screwed hard.
This over complicated etiquette around cash. Which many people picked up somewhere (imagine having the same conversation about why they can’t give you the check 20 times a night, even as regulars have you watch their kids). Doesn’t practically impact any of the things it’s supposed to.
All it really does is make you feel better. Sometimes at the expense of hassling the workers you’re concerned about (this behavior is almost universally hated in the biz).
If you are that concerned about the treatement of tipped workers. You’ll have a much bigger impact by like voting n junk. The problem is not that criminals are lurking in all your favorite eateries. It’a that there’s an entire secondary labor structure that actively incentives this shit.
I’ve registered to and voted in every election since I was old enough, and I trust you do and/or will as well. I still have to deal with the world as it is and not as I hope it will become. I’ll take your advice against the helpfulness of cash into consideration and bring it up with friends in the food service industry. My waitering career lasted two weeks. I’ve had a couple of friends who waited tables for much longer say they prefer cash, but it’s worth considering.
Now, we’ve gotten way off topic, which is as much on me, so let’s put this tangent to bed.
