HYPOTHESIS: CAN YOU POSSIBLY LIVE WITHOUT A SMARTPHONE?
Going out for dinner has become a very complicated affair compared to the days of my youth. During the Golden Age of Elvis, you dined out at your favourite coffee shop and feasted on a burger, fries and a drink. Life was simple and uncomplicated. Today, that simple action has become a whole new adventure.
The other day, Darlene and I were in Saskatoon as part of our summer travel tour of Saskatchewan and decided to stop for dinner. Of course, in a new city the restaurants are all unknown and we needed a plan of action. Step one is obviously to google Trip Advisor or Yelp to see the most popular eating establishments recommended by previous diners. It took several minutes to select one from the dozens on the list and then we needed to find its location. Of course, google maps solved that dilemma and directed us by GPS to the restaurant. The miracle of modern technology, in the form of a smartphone, raced to the rescue again.
We arrived at the restaurant, donned our masks, sanitized our hands and headed in. Although the restaurant was practically empty, the hostess reluctantly seated us even though we did not have a reservation. As she directed us into the bowels of the restaurant I wondered if the empty tables by the windows at the front were only used to seat the young and attractive, with the intention of luring in other young diners. I am still pondering the issue.
We were seated in the back under a dim light and the only item on the table was a three-square inch piece of laminated cardboard with a squiggly pattern of black marks. I recognized it as a QR code which may surprise some of my readers who think I am technically challenged. The QR code contained the secret information that we used to call the menu. You needed a QR code app reader on your smartphone in order to take a photo and then read the menu on your phone. For the old geezers who might not understand this modern technology a paper menu was also available. When one couple asked for one of these archaic food selection charts, I noticed the younger hip crowd pointing at them and snickering quietly, so I was very proud of my prowess.
The menu was of course very diverse and sophisticated. It did not have an entry simply entitled “burger, fries and a drink” but was far more exotic. Instead, I ordered a Grade AAA ground buffalo sirloin meat portion on a toasted brioche bun garnished with garlic aoli, dijon mustard and roasted Vidalia onion. My “burger” was embellished with sweet potato fries cooked in a healthy air fryer. My beverage was an unsweetened lemonade made from fresh squeezed lemons with a hint of mint leaf. And the best part was it only cost $21.95 plus 5% GST and 9% PST.
When it came time to settle our transaction, the waitress, giggled when I extracted a fifty-dollar bill from my wallet and she exclaimed, “We don’t take dirty money, anymore!” I assured her it had been sanitized but she insisted that I pay by credit card. As I wangled my way through the directions on the credit card machine for payment, I paused for a moment when my options for awarding a tip read 18%, 21%, 25% or other. When I reflected that the waitress had brought us our food and drinks and then took away the empty dishes, I had a hard time processing any special service that I had received. If I had known that providing this kind of exhaustive service was such demanding work, I would have volunteered to walk to the kitchen and pick up and return our dishes myself. I wonder if I could have reduced the bill by 25% if I did all of the work?
The waitress didn’t even say, “Have a nice day,” when we left the restaurant. I don’t know if she was upset or speechless when she picked up the two toonies that I had left as a tip!
CONCLUSION: If you don’t have a smartphone you will starve to death!
5 comments:
I hope you keyed in 0% tip.
Interesting that those machines no longer show other for a tip.
Totally agree with your comments and if these figures come up for a tip they can stuff it! If they don’t take dirty money I hope she used her sanitized rag to either clean off the toonies or flipped them into the garbage.If establishments don’t accept dirty money it should be posted that they only accept plastic which would allow me to make the decision to leave. If I wanted to pay cash and no notice was posted they would have had to supply me with a manager to discuss the issue as well as the % . I hope you left these comments on the website where you read reviews. I don’t mind leaving a tip if have a cheerful happy to have a job wait staff but irks me when you get the vibes that they just about resent the fact you showed up. We had one of the most pleasant young women waiting on us in Medicine Hat & when I mentioned it she said” we have the greatest bosses and we all get along so well is hard not to be laughing and happy”.
We have totally lost the meaning of "a tip for service". It is now considered a requirement of dining out. I don't think with the prices charged by many restaurants that they can not pay their employees a decent wage. It is not my responsibility to subsidize salaries!
It is probably the owner who has decided the % of tip on the machine as well and is why the manager & I would have a discussion and would write it up so he knows how I feel about it. When we were in Rosetown we went out for Chinese Food and George tried to give her a tip she said “ oh no you no tip” ! We left her a tip under our plate as it wasn’t an expectation!
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