The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread....

I found myself traveling across this great land recently. This creates the opportunity to participate in one of my favorite activities, truck stop diners. This of course runs the risk of the crabby waitress. Up until just recently, I found myself often at the whims and fancies of a chain smoking, post-menopausal, retired Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. They would give you that look, expressing their desire to be caressing that cigarette, left still smoking in the break room, and remembering the glory days when Bobby Quarterback use to shell the big bucks just to shake her pom-poms. Instead she in some dirt dive waiting on geriatrics spending their pension checks on senior discount coffee and French onion soup. But my brother and I think we have found a solution. We all know that every waitress is dependent on tips. I mean come on $3 an hour isn't going to get you very far in life. She already smokin' that money up, just to deal with the AARP fan club. So we have created an incentive. When we first find ourselves seated at the booth, we place a "tip counter" on the table in plain sight. The tip counter is a small device with a number amount printed on it, much the same way that an odometer would. The words "YOUR TIP" are printed huge right above it. There are two buttons on the top of the device, one reduces the amount and the other increases it. So the waitress rolls her eyes, I hit the button, you just lost ten cents lady. She doesn't fill my cup with everybody else, that's 20 more cents. I think this helps them visualize in a more tangible way how their behavior is affecting their pay scale. After just a few minutes all you have to do is hover your hand over the tip counter and, you can see an almost magical transformation. It has greatly improved my restaurant experience. If this sounds like something that you need, just drop me a line and we'll send you one for the paltry cost of $10. You easily pay that off in the benefit of improved restaurant service, I know I have.