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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;VistaCruiser69, post: 25466470, member: 107016&quot;]That&#039;s exactly what they&#039;ve been doing in Japan for many decades.&nbsp; When I was stationed in Japan and shared an apartment with my girlfriend, we would eat out almost every evening.&nbsp; Very seldom would we eat at home.&nbsp; But in Japan they do not tip, especially back then.&nbsp; It was actually rude to tip, as if saying that the food/service was so bad, they need a donation to stay in business.&nbsp; Now however, they will take your tip if you leave one in Japan.&nbsp; But they will look at you like you&#039;re just a stupid foreigner so why not take it if you&#039;re dumb enough to leave it.</p><p><br /></p><p>Back in the late 80&#039;s and early 90&#039;s, I was telling that to my mother about this since she was still a waitress at that time.&nbsp; Her question was:&nbsp; &quot;if you don&#039;t leave tips, how do the waiter/waitress&#039; make money&quot;, because in the US (back then) a waiter/waitress usually made at or slightly over minimum wage.&nbsp; Mind you, back then minimum wage was well below $5.00 an hour, not like now where it&#039;s like $17 to $20 per hour.&nbsp; And back then your cash tips would make up for the low hourly wage.</p><p><br /></p><p>It was simple, in Japan you don&#039;t give tips, the business pays their servers much more than they do compared to America.&nbsp; My mother then asked, then why doesn&#039;t people just eat at home most of the time.&nbsp; Fact was, back then, it was actually more to cook and eat at home compared to eating out and not giving a tip.&nbsp; Groceries were very expensive in Japan.&nbsp; A square watermelon was almost the equivalent to $40 US dollars back then.&nbsp; Steak?&nbsp; Lol.&nbsp; The only time we ate steak was when I first bought everything at the commissary on base and then spent an hour on the train carrying it all back home.&nbsp; What a pain.</p><p><br /></p><p>It was cheaper in the long run to just eat out every night, no lugging a bunch of groceries on the crowded train, or paying very expensive price for groceries out in town at the local Japanese grocery stores, and the gas/electric bills going through the roof because of cooking meals at home very day for a month.&nbsp; Easier &amp; cheaper just to eat out.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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