Paying for the bus home

So I guess Jenners is a little swanky, a little up market for most people, some tourists come into the cafe...I watch their faces and notice that as their eyes scan over the prices their expression, indicative of a hopeful pit-stop, suddenly vanishes and they decide to find "a nice pub instead". However there are the few people brave and brash enough to spend £3.25 on a large Cappuccino (we do make them pretty damn fine too I will add!) and £2.50 on a scone the size of the old £5 coin my dad has hidden away in his coin collection, or for those of you less familiar with vintage rare coins, the size of a 'mini' American doughnut. As I hand them their 5p change and they stick it into their tweed jacket pocket or hurry it away into their Prada purse, they don't care about the explicit tip jar (shaped like an elephant) in front of them, or the eager to please young server behind the bar. I finished my 9 hour shift today with a total of 8p tip, almost, and I must stress ALMOST, a penny an hour! I decided to look up tipping online, since at minimum wage, I really rely on my tips for my bus fare to and from work. I even tip taxi drivers or hairdressers myself, I usually stick to around 10% even if I do spend £50 on a hairstyle, I think people deserve tip for doing a good job! But since most of the people that shop at Jenners can afford a few grand for a new Persian rug, it might come as a shock to know that hardly any of them ever tip, in fact most of us on the cafe get our tips from the regulars, the old couples that come in everyday and spend their pension on a cup of tea and sit hand in hand together listening to the Sinatra music. It's a little like the parable of the widow woman who goes to church and gives only 2p (culturally adapted) to the collection and gets sneered at by the rich man who donates a whole £1 to the collection bag. But the morale of the story is that the woman is a better person because she gives all she has...she gives out of her poverty and not her abundance...so weird how you see modern biblical stories in everyday life sometimes, or I guess try to see them so as to keep yourself going and make it a little better for yourself. In America there's this thing where you don't get a say in the amount or even choice of gratuity - it's 'mandatory'...Wiki says that "Some economists have argued that tipping is economically inefficient, and suggested that mandatory gratuity might solve some of this issue"..."The BBC has reported that some find the practice bothersome; particularly those who are not aware that the tipping is used to subsidize the sub-standard pay at the workplace"....I even heard of TGI Fridays arresting and chasing people down the streets when they refused to pay the mandatory gratuity, but I'm not sure if forcing people to pay is the answer - especially if the service isn't what they expect it to be (I am a customer as well as a server!)...Plus it makes people resent the tip instead of it being a good deed that also makes the tipper feel better...choice makes it so that appreciation and kindness and I guess, sympathy can still exist in the world...Maybe tomorrow I will make it to a round number...10p would be nice!