Welcome to the Melbourne Community Daily Discussion Thread.

  • bull⚡
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    1 year ago

    I just went and saw the new ninja turtles movie and it was pretty good, my grievances with it are minor. Gorgeous animation style.

    But beyond that I just walked into a cafe which had a special advertised outside and it’s just really nice to know that the price on the board is exactly what I’ll pay. No added tax and gratuity.

    We have this part right, Australia. If you see places trying to implement a tipping culture fight it with everything you have. Rage against it. It’s not impolite to say no tip if they try it on you here. You’re doing more harm than good to the industry and the country by indulging these parasites. By all means if someone shows exemplary service make it known but please, don’t let that US garbage fire of a system seep into this country.

    • NathA
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      1 year ago

      I can’t second this enough. Even our US friends hate the system, but they can’t seem to break free of it. The owners like it, because they can pay their workers less than $5 per hour. The workers like it, because they’re holding out hope for that rare super-tupper who gives them a week’s wages in a single order. But the customers hate it.

      Having to spend brain cells all the time on whether you need to tip and how much to tip is such a hassle if you don’t come from that culture. And the tips are significant - adding $10+ to an order after a meal is not unusual. We aren’t talking a couple of dollars, here.

      • bull⚡
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        1 year ago

        One thing I noticed this trip is that just about everywhere, they’ll tell you how much a 15%, 18% or 20% tip would be on the bill or on the screen if you’re paying via a console so you don’t have to do the maths yourself very often anymore.

        The thing which really stings is that their food and drink prices are starting to look like ours but it’s USD so with the AUD being worth ~64c to their dollar, meals and those tips are insane. I would not recommend Australians take a trip over there right now unless they’ve got plenty of money to spend, unless they eat and drink on the cheap by cooking for themselves or doing the cheapest fast food only rather than any sort of table service. I’ll give you our most extreme example, even though this meal was comped by the casino for us so we only paid the tip. That meal where I had Petunia the fancy steak… that was $70 for my steak + $10 or so for the mac and cheese side + $20ish (from memory) for my drink. All up our bill was $300 + $50 tip for 3 of us which was only like a 16% tip. I’ll do you the favour of converting it and tell you that it’s $543.61 AUD.

        Back down to earth, I could not go anywhere for a sit down meal which came to less than around $40 AUD for myself after tax and tip. Whether that was a basic bacon and eggs type breakfast or something for dinner. Another fun example is I took 2 short taxi rides in Vegas which cost me $70 AUD total. I think the amount on the meters were around $18 USD each but then add your tax and tips. Absolutely insane. I am lucky enough that I have plenty of disposable cash so I simply wasn’t keeping track of how much I was spending, but just being mindful of it. I don’t know and I don’t want to know how much that trip cost me, even though I could easily look and figure it out.

        • just_kitten
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          1 year ago

          Yeah the few times I ate at a place with table service in the US it would add up very quickly. Plus the tipping would add to the anxiety. Food truck/street food type things seemed more affordable than Australia though.

          Only reason I would consider visiting without stacks of cash is because I have several relatives over there (who all earn very well).

      • bull⚡
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        1 year ago

        Over there? Depends on how much I spent. Minimum 18%, often 20%, sometimes a little over that if it was cheap and they were great. Can’t punish them for their dumb system. Just can’t let it happen here.

        • useless_modern_god
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          1 year ago

          Yeah nah it’s not gonna happen here.

          So is there like a highlight of your trip ? Something that really stands out? (besides your love affair with lemonade)

          • bull⚡
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            1 year ago

            2 definite highlights outside of the lemonade. The first was when I first saw the view from Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park, California and the second was when I saw the view from Sunrise Point at Bryce Canyon, Utah. I have photos but honestly even the ones from professional photographers with real cameras I just looked at on google images don’t do these views justice. Loads of other highlights and incredibly impressive views (Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming including Old Faithful which is incredible how they know pretty accurately when it’ll erupt. I’ve seen a lot of man-made things like that and it makes sense that they know when the ‘show’ happens but this is completely mother nature doing her thing, so incredible… Arches National Park, Utah… Sequoia National Park, California… Zion National Park, Utah… the black hills of South Dakota… etc etc) but those are probably the two which gave me pause and took my words away, and I’ve been lucky enough to go to a lot of places around the world and see a lot of incredible things. Their national parks are absolutely spectacular and the main reason I went on this trip. I wish I was fitter and had more time to explore those places better on foot.

            This was my 6th US trip but the first where I visited for the parks rather than cities & theme parks but it was easily the most impressive I’ve seen that country be. They should be proud of what they have in those parts of the country, and they absolutely are and will tell you all about it. The USA is way better than their major cities. In fact, I’d say the cities bring the place down as famous as they are.

            • useless_modern_god
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              1 year ago

              That is fantastic news. I’m really glad you got to see the some of the natural beauty rather than doing the Disneyland/grotty Hollywood/touristy thing.