Streetalk: Are bar patrons getting stingier with tips?

Tips might be getting smaller — but there’s more reason to drink!

Pam: The bar tips are dwindling, but more people are coming out to drink. So what we might lack in quality we make up for in volume. Things are getting so bad with the economy, it literally drives people to drink. They can’t afford to tip as they normally would, but regular customers tip the same. I have to give the biggest props to the Emory kids. They come in droves and still don’t know how to tip — but what they lack in substance they make up for in sheer numbers. It kind of all works out.

Phillip: My customers love me. They’re not going to let me down. They wouldn’t come in if they couldn’t tip. I take care of them, they take care of me. If you’re strange and we don’t know you, we kind of really don’t care. Well, we care, but we don’t know you. People are drinking. People want to forget about what they’re going through. So they have a few extra martinis and next thing you know they got a $40 check. And they’re like, “Oh this is Phillip, tack on an extra $10.” I listen to a lot of stories.

Tammy: If someone is laid off, you’re not going to get as much. Folks are being good, but it’s tough. But I’m up because of football.  Football has definitely saved us. I love those tight ends, baby. You do a little extra now, be extra nice and work a little bit harder. You do what you got to do. You have to stay above it. Folks are getting laid off left and right, my family too. But thank god for football. If it wasn’t for football, we would be devastated.