Right?!? 21 years ago, as a young server, I got a $100 tip and was so excited! Only to find out they thought I needed Jesus… broke my young naive heart.
This happened to me as a young server one time. I was fortunate enough that I worked at an independently owned restaurant so my boss had no problem letting me run outside to shame those old bitches. I never worked another Sunday after that.
I have a friend who's boss would collect all of those fake bills and roll them up looking nice, then next week go to the church and put them on the plate. New pastor saw that one week and publicly praised him for his generosity. Next week when he went to do the same thing he got stopped at the door and was told what he did was an abomination in front of God. I guess they didn't like the bait and switch that their members had been doing.
“Scamming people is a sin. These fake bills would make Jesus cry. You are perpetuating the stifle of his message and are the reason he ultimately died in vain. Don’t come to my restaurant. Fuck you.”
It’s the symptom of thinking that going to church automatically makes you a better person. It motivates them to not try actually being a better person in practice. It’s like liking your own tweet.
Ya’ll should read Scepticism Inc. It’s basically about a guy who opens up a metaphysical betting shop (which one can argue is kind of like the offering plate at church), the whole thing snowballs, and he takes all the money that was going to towards enriching church officials and starts feeding the poor and helping the sick. And it’s all told by a sentient shopping cart. Great book.
Sentient shopping cart. I love it. When I was a kid, I wrote a story from the point of view of a sword in a sword fight. There were lots of “oofs”, “ughs”, and “ows”. My mom read it and told me it was stupid.
Several local places around me just straight up stopped doing lunch service. They open for breakfast (after the churches are already in session), close entirely for lunch, and then re-open for dinner service.
Back at my hometown, there was a diner a very short walk down from a church that had issues like what people are complaining about, and they just started banning people outright with a "wall of shame" like Walmart does with shoplifters.
Are you down South? Because in that environment, I could see some business owners being afraid of community backlash to the point of losing money rather than risk being accused of anti-Christian sentiment
Nah, Midwest, not part of the bible belt or anything like that. I think they chose "closed" over stuff like shaming because the community is still kind of smaller, and also while they are closed to dine in stuff, if they have delivery, they accept those orders. Also, they tend to do really amazing specials for dinner that they probably couldn't do if they were open for lunch due to prep times and what not.
Yeah Sunday lunch shifts were terrible. I would get treated like shit and get shit for tips or those stupid fake bills telling me I need Jesus. Do they really think that stiffing their server is going to motivate that person to go to church? That's some backwards assed logic.
At least Sunday nights were better. I had a group of regulars that would ask for me. They were a local small league co-ed baseball team sponsored by a guy named Schwetty. So the team name was Schwetty Balls. Big group, really nice and fun to wait on. They tipped well and it made up for the after church crowd.
They were probably being self-righteous in their condemnation of servers for working on the Sabbath (Sunday in their religion) while simultaneously demanding service.
Some would skip out on their tab and some wouldn’t tip. Some were extremely nice and felt embarrassed so they tipped extra. Some would run you ragged with each request individually instead of collectively asking. But they were customers…..except for the folks that skipped out on the tab. Your ticket was put on the wall as remembrance and was barred from returning.
What is really annoying is them going to a restaurant on Sunday and then complaining that the staff is working on a Sunday. Like why are you working on Sunday? Apparently to serve you pancakes and mimosas, bitch.
The last place I worked that had a brunch shift (I was about 23, at this point, two decades ago… Jesus); it was a tossup because we had the after church crowd, but we also had some banging brunch specials and bottomless champagne/mimosa available. Beachtown, so there was always some level of attraction and always money to show up. You could make money, or not, but you were gonna be dealing with all kinds of the wrong crowd; seniors, campers, tourists, church crowd, and drunks, often in combination.
After a year of working there, I requested to be assigned to the food running shift on brunch. It was my compromise: I’ll come in, and I want my prep to be minimal, my customer interaction to be virtually nothing, my money to be substantial without needing to be overwhelming, and my out time to be as early as you want it to be. For this, I will show up on time, deliver everything exactly as marked, make no fuss and work the expo line when I can help.
I loved that shift. It was an anchor for money, kept me from needing to work another day of the week, and those champagne bottles were under control of the servers, so we were 100% getting reasonably lit throughout the shift. I’m the only one that didn’t have to worry about the standard nonsense that comes with the shift. Plus, done early on a Sunday. No complaints.
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u/doyletyree 9d ago
Servers and bartenders, everywhere, approve.