Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 24, 1993 TAG: 9303240049
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
LET'S DEMYSTIFY THAT ANCIENT RITUAL, GREASING THE PALM
A Roanoke bartender said if he mixes a round of drinks and gives the customer some dollar bills in change, he'd like to see at least "a one coming at me."And it would be nice, said a Yellow Cab driver, to get a little extra, above the normal 10 percent of fare, for carrying someone's groceries or bags to their house.
But both wanted to stay anonymous so as not to insult regular customers.
So did the hair stylist and the waitperson who were asked their tip expectations.
Tipping is another of those things people feel forced to do but don't always know when or how much.
Robert Farrington, a retired advertising executive from Ashland, Mass., has spent more than 30 years advocating that a tip should be treated like what it is: a reward (T)o (I)nsure (P)romptness.
He started Tippers Anonymous in 1960 "because everybody was organizing something then" and because of experiences when eating on the road. Time after time, he said, he'd ask for coffee to be served with his meal, only to be told by the waiter or waitress:
"Catch me on my next time by."
Farrington rates service on a scale of poor to excellent. For example, Friday at lunch he tipped 75 cents on a $4.75 meal, about 16 percent. For excellent service, he normally gives 20 percent; 15 percent for good, 10 percent for fair. He even gives 5 percent for poor service, "because I don't want them to think I forgot the tip."
The same percentages don't apply to other services, however. For a $10 haircut, Farrington tosses in $1. He said hairdressers make more money than food service people.
Besides, he said, there's no need to expand the number of services that demand tips.
Fast-food servers and drivers of rental-car shuttle buses generally don't get tipped unless they perform some unusual service, according to a survey of 432 Consumer Reports Travel Letter readers.
The readers split down the middle on whether drivers of airport and hotel buses and vans, hotel concierges and bell captains, headwaiters and hotel maids and porters should be tipped.
The pressure for tips is too great, two-thirds of those surveyed said. "Too many employees expect tips for doing nothing." Travel Letter readers said service "should be included in the base price" of travel services.
But there are peculiar circumstances that it would difficult to cover that way.
Like having a pizza delivered in blizzard - 30 percent would be a nice tip.
And this one from a Roanoker who recently traveled to Egypt:
"The bathrooms don't have toilet paper, but there are men and women waiting right outside the door to hand you a piece of very rough paper in exchange for 25 piastes - about 8 cents." Food-for-the-needy funds Sure, it's a way to get a company or product known, but the results are beneficial.
Food Lion customers donated $13,377 to the Red Cross in the first week of a checkout donation program that runs through the end of the month. Shoppers who want to donate fill out coupons and have the donation added to their grocery bills.
Customers of some Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. have donated more than $403,315 since 1988 in the "Even It Up" campaign, in which customers instruct that their bill be evened up to the next dollar and the difference given to needy Sunbelt families.
Americans have eaten away $40,000 of the national deficit in two weeks of the Eskimmo Pie "Eat the National Debt" program, in which 5 cents per box of pies sold by the Richmond company is donated to the government. The effort runs through April 4. New products
Sharp Electronic Corp. has begun shipments of a\ home communications center that integrates hook-up capability for a phone, fax, copier and answering machine. The NX-1 Home Fax, with a list price of $495, is Sharp's first created for home use. It takes up about as much room as an 8-by-10 photograph and can be wall-mounted or placed on a desk. It hooks directly into an existing phone line.
\ The Posse, another new car-protection device, allows an owner to make a call to an 800 number and disable a vehicle, activate a siren, turn on the car horn or flash the lights - in other words, encourage a thief to abandon it. The car cannot be restarted until the device is reset by the owner.
A\ computerized garbage truck, one of six $160,000 supertrucks operating from Waste Management of Illinois West in Elgin, Ill., is part of a $3 million project to track how much waste a driver picks up in a day, how long it takes and whether the system can become more efficient and cost-effective. A computer near the roof of the cab greets the driver, who scrolls through a list of waste-collection stops for a day. The computer also allows a driver to record times at each stop and any problems, such as blocked access to a container.