Tipping And The Fast Casual Restaurant: Should The Fast Food Industry Take Notice Of This Emerging Restaurant Model?

• Jamie Mah @grahammah

Is there any difference between having an 18 year old serving me a coke at McDonald’s versus a 23 year old serving me a beer at brewery when both are done in the same fashion?

A few weeks ago my girlfriend and I were travelling back from a day up at the lake. It had been a long and fun filled afternoon in which we’d both developed sizeable appetites. We passed the town of Squamish where we stopped and visited a local brewery and had ourselves a snack and a beer. The place was lively and full of locals. How they operated was par for the course with us having to order up at the counter. We were handed our beers and a number while we waited for our food to arrive at our table. If we needed any water, a self serve station was conveniently placed just off to the side. This type of service, once an uncommon practice within the restaurant/bar scene, has become the norm as hospitality establishments look to the model as a way to keep labour costs down. Here in Vancouver, think Juke Fried Chicken, Meat and Bread, Tacofino’s Burrito Bar and Pizzeria Farina as some of the newer establishments which have adopted this model. Rather successfully, I might add.

Since most of us have experienced this form of service countless times before at any fast food restaurant, the concept doesn’t come across as novel or unique, but a smarter way to operate. However, this clever way to run a restaurant did prompt me to ponder how the tipping procedure had not changed despite the changes to the more ‘traditional’ restaurant model. As I sat and ate my pizza and drank my beer, I couldn’t help but notice how similar the experience was to dining at a fast food restaurant. This got me thinking: since you generally don’t tip at a fast food restaurant, the thought of tipping in this model would naturally seem odd don’t you think? Ironically, however, it wasn’t. The whole experience felt similar to sitting down and being served by a waiter, except in this format, your waiter was behind a counter, much in the same way I used to be when I worked up at McDonald’s when I was 16. Back then, I took your order, gave you your beverage and either handed you your food immediately or asked you to wait, where someone would bring it to you in a few minutes. Four years of doing that throughout high school (wow was it really that long ago?) have given me the insight into what both business models look like.

Fast casual is strikingly similar to fast food.

I’d like to emphasize that when I was 16 I never received tips and I’m rather confident had I stayed on all these years later, I still wouldn’t. Hence the question I’m about to ask: Why do we tip in this one environment but not in the other?

The idea of why this is happening is rather obvious if you really think about it. We’re used to tipping in “normal” restaurants but not in fast food restaurants. The accepted societal idea is that since you weren’t being waited on by a single or sometimes a few individuals over a lengthy period of time, tipping didn’t seem in step with what the stereotype originally called for. But as restaurants look to find creative and innovative ways to save costs they’ve lucked out and found a new and more profitable way to do business — they’re emulating the fast food model.

Much in the same way grocery stores started to roll out self-serve check outs, this new way of doing business in restaurants has transferred more of work to us, the consumer. I now get my own water and napkin versus a server doing it for me. The fast casual model has helped streamline many aspects of restaurant service. For most of us this change has been met agreeably. Why wait for a refill of water when I can just grab it myself?

But then what’s the difference here between fast casual and fast food? Have restaurants slowly been transforming into their fast food counterparts? In 10 years, will everything be the same?

I suspect not. Being waited on has it’s perks. Top notch service from a trained professional is hard to beat, and the reward has already been agreed upon by the general population: good service = tip. It’s this tip which is tantamount for many. It’s why education, attention to detail and commitment have given rise to the restaurant stars of today. But the reality for the vast majority of those who work in hospitality is this idea of tips. It’s why when I was being served at this brewery I still felt compelled to tip as I normally would have had I’d been waited on by my own personal server — the environment felt much the same. Less staff doesn’t mean those who do work should be punished because the business model their owner has chosen has changed.

But then isn’t that kind of unfair to the hard working 18-year old who just made my cheeseburger or served me my coke? The brass tacks of it all is that it isn’t, but since the model of fast food has been one and the same since the McDonald brothers and Ray Kroc took it mainstream in the late 50’s and early 60’s, our perception of what an employee in those establishments deserves hasn’t changed — we didn’t tip then and we don’t do it now. And I doubt we will anytime soon. Which is okay I guess. Or is it?

What I’m seeing here is a double standard. Two business models offering similar services, yet, one has a tipping structure built into it’s model while the other does not. In my opinion, either both should abolish tipping, which I don’t personally agree with, or fast food restaurants should start offering a tip line with every bill.

Now think about this with me for a second. If today you were to get in your car and drive to the nearest McDonald’s and order dinner for your family, then, when you were about to pay you were prompted with a tip option of say 10, 15 or20%, would you find this weird or par for the course? My hope is that for most of you it wouldn’t seem odd. However, I’m sure some of you would drive away scratching your heads in bewilderment and that’s okay. You might even bring it up on the drive home.

“What’s wrong hunny?” As your wife notices the look of shock you now show.

“There was a tip option on the pin pad when I paid.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, seemed kinda weird.”

“That is weird. What did you do?”

“I tipped. Felt weird not to.”

“I guess that makes sense.”

“That’s what I thought too. Still seemed strange though.”

It’s this kind of hypothetical conversation which might spur on a new way of thinking about fast food restaurants. Do they deserve a tip? Even if they do, there might be one small catch. The whole concept of fast food is that it’s cheap. Adding a tip option will change that. Hence why it will never been implemented. Sadly. But it does make you think.

As restaurants change the way they operate, their models are slowly becoming more and more like the one we’ve been driving up to for decades now. There’s a reason fast food has dominated the food landscape and still makes up the lions share of the overall restaurant dining sphere — simplicity and low cost. As breweries like the one I visited and the Meat and Bread’s, Tacofino Burrito Bars and Juke Fried Chicken’s of the world slowly start to dominate, asking yourself this one question should be at the forefront of your experience each time you visit one of their establishments: how is this different from going to McDonald’s? In a lot of ways, it won’t be.

I urge you tip whenever you deem it necessary, fast casual model or not. But this double standard is one that exists and for those who work in the fast food industry, their tireless efforts shouldn’t go unnoticed. If we’re willing to tip at a brewery, shouldn’t we be more than willing to tip at a McDonald’s?

I’ll let you make that choice.