I had a couple of beers at my local watering hole, which I walk to, this evening. My tab came to $10.50. I gave the waitress $20 and she brought me back $9.00 in change. This has happened to me before in the place…usually with a relatively new waitress…but never at the bar. I called her back and asked her what the deal was. She said it was quicker to not return any "coin" change.
I was so stunned at her statement that I didn’t even ask her about the fact that she was cheating me. I did explain to her that I had planned on tipping her 2 dollars but since she had already cheated me out of 50 cents and since I personally had no change other than ones I was leaving her a dollar. That left her with a $1.50 tip instead of $2.00. In retrospect I probably should have just let her keep the 50 cents for her tip.
In the grand scheme of things that 50 cents is probably not significant to the waitress or to myself but where have people’s principles gone to? Since it was not the first time it happened, I expect they think they can get away with it. I complained to the manager about it on the way out. Perhaps the problem will be addressed… or perhaps the waitress will spit in my beer the next time I go in.