It's no secret some people are terrible tippers to the serving staff at restaurants. It's surprising how quickly restaurant personnel went from "essential workers" to objects of public abuse in the United States.
And sometimes a particularly unsavory, and quite frankly strange, reminder of our worst elements shows up on the internet. A waitress was left with no tip after a pair of men behaved strangely all evening and racked up an almost $100 dinner check.
The waitress, who wished to remain anonymous but appeared as "maman" (@MKULTRAMILF) on the social media site, shared her experience on Twitter.
maman wrote:
"Ummmm, so my customer just left me this..."
On the receipt, the total was just shy of $100 at $97.55.
But instead of including a tip, the customer wrote:
"$0.00. No tip crew!"
To make matters worse, the customer wrote at the bottom of the receipt:
"[hashtag] White Boy Summer"
ummmm so my customer just left me this...pic.twitter.com/RpREZRGL2q— \ud835\udcc2\ud835\udcb6\ud835\udcc2\ud835\udcb6\ud835\udcc3 (@\ud835\udcc2\ud835\udcb6\ud835\udcc2\ud835\udcb6\ud835\udcc3) 1621826018
maman later reflected that the men were pleasant enough to serve throughout their visit, but their behavior was also quite strange.
When they arrived, they were polite and overly well-dressed for the family-friendly restaurant.
maman recalled:
"One of them had some kind of weird-looking reflective sunglasses on."
The men then proceeded to order glasses of plain milk, chicken nuggets and milkshakes. Despite the low price of these items, they managed to order so many by the end of the night, their bill totaled nearly $100.
maman remembered there was something "off" about the men's behavior, including an odd joke about ordering a burger.
"They kept making some kind of inside joke about ordering a burger with onions, swiss cheese, and mushrooms, but they didn't actually order it."
With the specification of White Boy Summer, this might appear to be a racially charged incident.
The waitress, however, identifies as White, though she did mention her coworkers, who are predominantly Hispanic, were nervous the entire time the men were in the restaurant.
Adding to the strangeness of the evening, the men were also careful to clean up after themselves before they left.
maman stated:
"They even went so far as to stack their plates for me and told me to have a good day, so it was weird that they didn't tip."
The reaction on Twitter was fairly divided.
Some were disgruntled the men didn't tip...
don\u2019t be shy. what\u2019s his name— lala on temporary ban (@lala on temporary ban) 1621852501
Giving it a bad name. These men do not represent white boy summer.— Tweekin Man (@Tweekin Man) 1621837549
A tip is just that.. an extra on top marked price. Your employer should pay you a living wage within the price structure. (In a fair world). But you probably wouldn't want to eat there if that was the case as it would make eating out more expensive!— Shelagh Bennett (@Shelagh Bennett) 1621927020
I used to get \u201cno tip crew\u201d every now and again. There really are people like this.— Rick & Em (@Rick & Em) 1621884109
We need a tipping review board this nonsense has gone on long enough. #TipReform— Kalena Mackiewicz (@Kalena Mackiewicz) 1621883427
"White boy summer"? After the past couple months, I never wanna see that again— Mr. E (@Mr. E) 1621875484
...while others doubted the incident happened.
Really causes one to ponder pic.twitter.com/nxFqpiTw9O— J.R.R. Tokin' (@J.R.R. Tokin') 1621866377
Notice it\u2019s the customer copy, nice try for clout— Jackson Wilkinson (@Jackson Wilkinson) 1621869824
But others poked holes in the skeptics "proof."
all these ppl saying \u201ccustomer copy\u201d and i\u2019m just sitting here thinking i always just sign the top one and rarely look at which one it is— beth (@beth) 1621873280
The waitress later dismissed these suspicions, stating customers regularly sign the wrong copy of the receipt and either copy can technically be used for the purposes of the transaction.
She also confirmed these behaviors, overall, were not unheard of in her restaurant... but typically, it was teenage customers who acted in this odd way, not fully-grown men who also managed to make most of the staff uncomfortable.