Do Holidays Make For Better Tips?

So as I've already mentioned in a previous post, I am a server at a restaurant here in town. As soon as November hits, we all collectively prepare for what is known as our "busy season". Colder weather, Christmas music, Thanksgiving, and Black Friday never fail to draw more business in, and I'm not sure if it's because it's the "season of giving", but we've all noticed that our tips get bigger around this time of year.

One might think that with the increase in consumption that takes place during the holidays, what with buying presents upon presents for our friends and family, that people would be a little stingier with giving out those 20% tips when they go out to eat. However, the opposite is true. Customers tend to give MORE than the standard 20% tip!

Now I'm not saying that on every table I'm pulling in 25-30%. Some people are just bad tippers, and don't understand that giving a 10% tip isn't cool. But overall, the holidays and the busy season brings out the generosity in the general public. Maybe some of those people are generous year round, but I think that a large majority feel that they owe a duty to themselves and others to spend more of their disposable income than they would in say, June or July.

This goes back to holiday rituals, and how Christmas is now a time of year where presents, generosity, and money come to mind more often than religion does. By default, most of us associate the upcoming holidays with saving our income so that we can spend it on others. Not that there's anything wrong with that- how could setting aside our own desires and selfishness for a few months of the year be considered wrong? Some may argue that we should strive to be more willing to give all year round, but if that were the case, I think that the "season of giving" would lose it's allure and "magic", if you will.

All in all, the holiday season is all about giving, which means that if you're a server like me, it's pretty awesome. And to be honest, I'm going to keep the generosity chain going, and spend taht extra tip money on presents for my friends and family.

❤❤❤

Black Friday..Already??

So I went Christmas shopping with my roommate last week, and everywhere we looked, we felt bombarded with sales promotions.

"30% Entire Store!"
 "FREE gift (with $75 purchase)"
 "BOGO! Entire Store!"

The list went on and on. It didn't matter where we were: the mall, Target, World Market... Anyone and everyone had some sort of sale taking place, almost as if each company was saying "Well XYZ might have a sale right now too, but we're having one and you should come shop with us instead!".

Even last Sunday's paper had Black Friday ads for multiple stores. With marathons, you train really hard for quite some time beforehand in order to prepare yourself for the big day. This is also true of Black Friday; you train really hard by comparing prices on that LCD flat-screen Sony, checking to see when each store opens, how many TVs each of the stores has, etc. In reality, Black Friday is just one huge marathon that consumers spend the whole month of November training for.

We as consumers are so greedy and eager for a deal, that we'll arrive at a store at 4 a.m., push and shove a horde of strangers around, and fight to the death (sometimes literally) just to get a discount. Sure, some of these deals really are unbeatable, but why do we become so materialistic? I think this goes back to the feelings of losses and gains explained in the class-required book, Nudge. The feeling we get when we have lost out on something is almost twice as intense as the feeling we get when we gain something. This principle would explain why everyone goes into an almost frenzied state on Black Friday- if they miss out on that deal on the flat-screen, they will feel an intense sense of loss.

So just be careful this year on Black Friday when the crowds go wild in order to satisfy the potential feelings of loss and of "what could have been".

SoundBot: Thoughts and Product Review

I'm not really one for gadgets, but when I saw the SoundBot bluetooth speaker on Pinterest, I decided to spend the $14.99 on Amazon and go for it. 

While I definitely saw the benefits of buying one, I also think that part of the reason I bought it was because I fell into the category that a lot of consumers find themselves in, which is that of "But if I DON'T buy it, am I missing out? What could I be missing out on?" The pain of a loss is often much greater than the feelings of joy that result from a gain, and I can testify to this.

One of the more obvious reasons that I bought it was because it was waterproof AND had the little suction cup to stick to your shower wall. Cool right?

Obviously I know that I can just use my phone to listen to music while showering, but with my last phone, the steamy hot air from the shower caused a layer of condensation to form on the top of the toilet tank where my phone was resting, and water seeped into my phone speakers. Needless to say, my phone spent the night submerged in a bowl of brown rice. Luckily, the rice sucked the moisture out, and my speakers worked normally again. I didn't want to chance it again though with my new phone, hence the SoundBot purchase. Better safe than sorry. 

So far, the SoundBot works really well! All I have to do is turn it on and connect it to my phone via bluetooth, so I can still listen to Pandora while my phone sits safely in my room. I have the option to turn the volume up or down, change the song, and even answer a phone call if someone calls while I'm in the shower. Kinda weird, but I guess it's nice to know that I have the option. One thing that I know I'll forget about is that you have to charge the SoundBot every now and again (duh). Having an indicator has to how much battery life is left would be the only feature I would add, because while having 6 hours of play time is awesome, I'll never be able to gauge how much of that 6 hours I've used. 

Overall, the SoundBot is by no means a necessity, but it is a nice "luxury" item to have.