Saturday, March 26, 2011

A little bit of Blondie's background.

I've been working as a server since I was 16, and have been at my current job for 4 years.
It's a sweet little family-owned diner on the East Coast, and I do mean diner.
Handwritten checks, massive servings of food for low prices, and less than 15 servers, about half of which only work one to three days a week.

Some pros and cons to this: No corporate bullshit like 'the customer is always right' and 'turn and burn.' Sure, we are there to make the customers happy, but I feel it's not as unfair as some of the horror stories I've heard from chain restaurants.
However, we seem to breed spoiled regulars because some of our waitresses have unique (read: they don't give a fuck or they kiss ass so much you'd think L'Oreal came out with a chocolate lipstick) service. Customers who need specific coffee cups, certain things on certain plates, this split that way and that split this way, expect a free dessert because someone forgot to charge and no one corrected it for three years, etc.

Now, I'm all for giving great service and giving my customers all I can, but all our "regulars" are demanding, self-important, and shitty tippers. Why do we have to kiss their ass because they are "regulars?" They often don't request me because when I hear "Oh, so-and-so does it this way for us." I tell them, "Whoops, I guess I'll have to remember for next time!" and walk away. There is rarely a next time.

4 comments:

  1. I always worked at privately owned restaurants - and after reading the horror stories of the corporate owned ones I think I am glad I dodged that bullet. :)

    I liked my regulars too, but there some just like yours that I would avoid if I could - like begging off of a particular section on certain days because I knew they were coming. There was one pair that started to request anyone but me because they took offense that I couldn't keep a straight face every time they ordered Courvoisier and diet Coke and insist they had to be in brandy snifters [mixed!] This was at lunch too.

    Yeah, don't miss them and their 5%.

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  2. @SkippyMomHaha, why is it that the 'regulars' are always assholes and bad tippers? I much prefer the ones that come in and leave twenty percent!

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  3. http://www.sockpuppetarmy.com/?p=1054

    ...this, basically

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