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But a table twice the size only need to be rotated half as often in order to generate the same revenue for the waiter. We're not even talking about complex math here Bard.

Yes. Larger parties often take longer, but not often twice as long. Not on average. Twice as many people means twice the bill, which means twice the tip (again, assuming the same tipping rules apply). The busiest time for the waiter is when the party first arrives. That's when you have to make sure they're all seated, say hi, get their appetizer orders, come back with drinks, take their food orders, deliver appetizers, then come back with soup/salad courses, then come back with main disk. The time after that is relatively easy.


Let's even take the extreme case. You have a choice of waiting 2 tables with 4 people back to back, or one table with 8 people who stay there for the whole time. You are serving 8 people during that same length of time, right? You are generating the exact same tip revenue during that length of time, right? Which is easier?


Obviously, the single large party. Duh.


You have a choice of working one table with 8 people, or 2 tables with 4 people, all at the same time, over the same period of time. Which would be easier?


The single large party wins again!


Are you sure you work in the wait field? Cause it seems like you don't really understand the smart way to do your own job...

Keep the kids distracted and the parents are often so grateful, they'll give you their wallet.

I'm sorry. It was the bartender (they were there for happy hour, right). The manager just offered to comp them a free meal (allegedly). Presumably, if the manager is claiming he made this offer, he was informed that they were not going to pay for the food. It's not like they just put less food on the table than required and walked out. They stuck around to discuss it with the manager, and while discussing it, the police arrived and arrested them.

Did you even bother to read the article?

Probably, considering that I was pointing out that you're drastically twisting facts and situations around to make a point. There's a vast difference between what the article says and you saying the manager stalled to get the couple arrested.

I have no clue what you think you're calculating here.

Let me make this *really* easy for you. You're a waiter. 8 people walk into the restaurant. Which is the bester way for you to make money? If all 8 people are together and sit at one table, or if they are two separate groups each sitting at two different tables?

You're doing some bizarre math which makes no sense. It's really really really simple. 8 people will on average result in the same bill whether they're all sitting together or separately (technically, larger parties are more likely to order appetizers, but whatever). Those 8 meals will generate the exact same amount of tip potential for you. But it's easier to manage them if they're in one group than in 2, or 4, or 8.

You're getting caught up in numbers which don't matter. Yes. It may matter to the restaurant in terms of how efficiently they're utilizing their tables, but to you as the waiter, the larger the party, the more money you make in the same amount of time and as a result of the same amount of effort.




Again. I'll admit to never having worked as a waiter myself, but having been a patron of many restaurants, and knowing a whole hell of a lot of starving college students who did work in that field, I call BS on this. Large parties are going to take a little bit longer if for no other reason than it takes more time to coordinate their meal orders so you can deliver them at the same time. But I can't believe that an 8 person party spends on average twice as much time at a table as a 4 person party. Maybe 20% more time on average, but not twice as much.

The only size party which isn't likely to loiter is a single person. And that's a rarity at most restaurants. I've been with one other person and loitered, I've been with groups of 3-5 who loitered, and I've been in larger groups who loitered, and I can't even remotely suggest that one size loiters more often than another. I'd tend to think couples would spend the most time of all, since whether romantic or friends, they're more likely to spend a long time chatting or something. Larger groups tend not to have conversations, and more people typically means someone has somewhere they have to go. Most of the large parties I've been in are either a large group of co-workers, or a large family group. Family groups rarely loiter because there are kids to get to bed (assuming we're talking about prime table time).

Honestly, the longest loitering times were in my youth, usually with a small group of friends hanging out at a Denny's all night or something. Probably doesn't really count of course, but that's about it. In terms of nicer restaurants, the longest loitering I've done has still been with a small group (2 or 3 people tops). Larger than that, someone inevitably has somewhere they need to go, and that tends to be the sign which sends everyone else off as well.


Sorry. I just don't believe you.

I'm tickled that Gbaji "knows some waiters" and is going to argue with people who've actually waited tables about how it goes

It's a good thing none of you are neurosurgeons.

Your argument was that it doesn't matter which table seating you have, since you will always get an average percentage of tips. I'm disproving that. Let's assume that each person tips the same percentage, and the actual amount is $2.50. That nets you $20 for a table of 8 and $10 for a table of 4. You can easily get two rotations of tables of 4 on the same table in the time that it takes a table of 8 to leave. Get it now?



makes perfect sense, you just don't get it.



If that larger party is taking up two of your tables, then it does matter.




They do. 8 person parties are generally special occasion parties. Special occasion parties aren't just there to eat, they are celebrating something and as such stick around for several hours.

That's because your sample size isn't big enough. You don't have enough experience in restaurants to know.




I'd put on my sad face, but I really couldn't give two *****.

Technically, I'm arguing with *one* person who's worked tables. No one else has chimed in and insisted that Bard is absolutely correct, even though there are presumably a whole lot of other people here who have.


Bard is making some pretty ridiculous claims. If he were speaking of some specifics within a reasonable range, I'd defer to his professional knowledge. But he's saying things that are at complete odds with everything I've ever heard about the business and everything common sense and basic math indicates.

If a rocket scientist insists that you can launch a full satellite payload into orbit using nothing but a single Estes motor and a balsa wood tube, I'm going to call BS on him too, no matter how much experience he has in the field. Bard's claims are just that far out there...

No, they're not really. Every waiter is different and excels at different things. Most don't like larger groups and don't milk them as well as say, I would. But then, maybe he is better than me at serving the 4 tables of 4. Wait! That last one's impossible, but he might be better than most others.

This is pretty much Japan. Australia and New Zealand have similar tipping policies as well, but they dont mind if you do tip.

Lol... Maybe. I don't know though... ;)

1. That a party of 8 will take twice as long on average as a party of 4.

2. That a longer turnover on a table is necessarily a bad thing (depends on whether they're ordering desert and drink, which are great bill stretchers for relatively little effort on the waiters part).

3. Your continued inability to realize that 8 people ordering 8 dinners will generate approximately the same amount of tip revenue for you regardless of seating arrangements.

4. Your inability to realize that two groups of 4 takes up two tables, so having to use up two tables to fit in a group of 8 isn't really a valid point.


I could go on, but those are just the most recent and obvious examples of nonsensical and mathematically questionable statements you've made.

Edited, Nov 19th 2009 7:20pm by gbaji

We (my fellow waiters and I) literally timed the sit down time of parties and it was about twice as long for parties that took multiple tables. True story.


small tables that get out quick also order drinks.


yes, but you ignore the time variable, among others.


Go look at that "silly math" that I wrote earlier to see why it does matter.