@somewomenarenicemaybe Tips are usually used to reward good service. Anyplace where you bring your own food to the table and bus your own table after you’re done doesn’t provide any more service than a cook, and we typically don’t tip the cook. We may tip the Maitre D’ to get us a table sooner than our place in line would warrant (though that’s more of a bribe), or a waitperson who is present enough to keep your beverages flowing without being intrusive, but it’s rare to get a tip for just putting food on the counter the way restaurant cooks or fast food cashiers do. .
@jca I think part of that is because we Americans are uncouth enough to have quite a large number of people who would tamper with food for whatever sick reason. That breeds a sort of low-level paranoia that you just won’t find in cultures where mutual respect is strong enough to lead to inherent trust.
Leave your purse at a table in Japan and someone will run after you to hand it back. Try that in the US and the best you can hope for is to see it without any cash in it. Try it in Israel and, given that they have good reason to be paranoid, they’ll call out the bomb squad. It’s amazing how trust levels vary so much between cultures and the effect that has on society.
@efnuttin Personally I’ve only seen that at sushi restaurants in the US, though I haven’t been abroad in ~20 years and only spent ~6 hours in Japan. It’s entirely possible that the reason it’s not more common here is that a lot of people balk at spending money to make money by investing in equipment even when they know it’s in their best interest; a couple decades in manufacturing taught me that. And since some of the machines I worked on cost many millions of dollars and even relatively minor repairs could cost more than an entire year’s worth of a worker’s salary, like $60k for a new spindle (just the part; installation was a few grand extra) when the bearings wore out, it’s easy to see why even if restaurants are cheaper than CNC Machine shops.
Then again, many places have a stronger social safety net so unemployment isn’t as bad a problem as it is here where those staff you replaced will have a much harder go of life. Again, it’s amazing how the little cultural differences can have such a big impact on how society operates.