For clarity, I don't support eliminating tipping or the tipped minimum wage. I think the solution is you make the tipped minimum wage not be total garbage.

I know $15/hr is not the ideal benchmark anymore, but if that is the regular minimum wage, the tipped one should be closer to $7-10 or something. If it's high enough where it makes more people not tip or tip less, you'll have a scenario where service-industry staff work more hours for less money.

Sure, Providence does not resemble a war-torn city! That’s a completely ignorant statement.

The PVD food scene is pretty good and it def punches above its weight in the food and arts scene. What restaurants are you eating at where the frozen food aisle tastes better?! You can made a good faith argument like the city has bad politics and infrastructure and I’d agree with you. Instead you’ve engaged in repeated hyperbole which comes across as obnoxious.

The line about needing "an infusion of cash to get to a place of greater stability" is what made me get that way.

El Tesoro right down the street (the big yellow building) has an excellent produce section and meat counter if you eat that as well as plenty of staples. Their prices are also very competitive. Even after moving to Cranston, we still return weekly to pick up things that we'd otherwise need to get by visiting more than one big-box grocery store.

There is also another smaller one on Union that has an entire refrigerated room of produce, similarly well priced and a well-rounded selection.

You wont see the expectation of constant tipping in societies where tipping isn't normalized by the tipped minimum wage - that is the root of it. If bosses paid workers fairly and workers were able to work with dignity, we wouldn't have such a culture of tipping spreading to other businesses.

Yes I understand that part, it was just shocking to see at a mechanic shop. Most of the places I've seen have these payment platforms also have a prompt for " no tip " in which I didn't see . But at a mechanic shop give me a break and they didn't explain or turn it around

>I'd also probably considering businessees linked to the RI Hospitality association, many of whom are business owners. They've actively fought against this.

Yup, anything with reforming tipping, the Hospitality Association and chamber of commerce fight it tooth and nail. They want customers to pay their workers wages. Don't get mad at workers for needing tips to survive, get mad at these bosses who don't want to pay fair wages.

The subject was not about tipping but the type of establishments that practice this outside of a normal bar/restaurant.

I wouldn't want to oversimplify it too much but Trader Joe's opening and splitting the hipster market share probably was a part of it.

I'm not assuming this was anecdotal experience based on the same establishment just outside of Providence. I understand a lot of teens work in these places but the basic service level from Providence to parts further out is night and day.

Why don’t you explain it to me boss

Sounds like you're the one who hasn't been anywhere else, certainly not to any "warn torn cities."

You could rent a uhaul pick up or small van ahead of time. It’s 20 bucks a day plus 99 cents a mile. As long as you don’t put a ton of miles on it, it is cheaper than Uber.

I'd also probably considering businessees linked to the RI Hospitality association, many of whom are business owners. They've actively fought against this.

I don't understand why they're in such rough shape. I'm sure Covid was stressful in many ways, but business-wise it feels like it should have actually really helped them. Every time I go it feels like there's plenty of people there.

I want them to exist, sure-- it's super convienent to have it there and I'm supportive of coops. Everyone wants a feel-good local market. But they're so expensive that it doesn't feel like they're really addressing the food desert issue for the people most affected by it. And if they're not really serving a community purpose beyond being a bougie grocery store it's hard to want to prop them up. Idk. I wish that the call for donations included more more transparency around what is wrong and what the plan is.

came to say this.

"Maybe it's just the tone of this sub, but I see a lot of self-deprecation here and I wanted to see what everyone really thought about living in Providence."

From this, I knew you weren't originally from New England, but from the way you ended your post I understand that you've been here long enough to get it. There's a lot of that self-deprecation of the city you live in and love. See also: Worcester, Fall River, Boston. Often it takes the form of "No one is allowed to complain about or make fun of our city but us."

To answer your question, I loved living in Providence for a decade before I moved last year. The good and the bad are all part of it. I lived in Worcester for 5 years and loved that too but there was also PLENTY to make fun of. Conversely, I lived in Westerly for a few years and had nothing really bad to say about it but couldn't wait to get out because it was so boring.

Your comment about how your daughter pronounces drawing warms my heart. I was told that I say it weird when I was in Alabama on business.

Why do you assume every fast food worker must be a "ding dong from Providence" exactly?

peter pan bus fills in some gaps to the train tables.

I mean if it’s JUST retail and there’s no food involved whatsoever, then yeah I wouldn’t tip. Those positions aren’t tipped positions. Legally idek who the “tips” would technically go to? Probably straight back to the business as profit? Idk.

This. And in the mean time, pay a tip and don’t stiff workers.

I don’t remember how expensive the selection was at Briggs Garden Center in Attleboro but they have a great selection and location. You can stop at a cafe inside the greenhouse and I believe it was more affordable than Jordan’s jungle.

sounds like a homeowner complaining about home-ownership.

everything youre describing is exactly what renters deal with with their landlords.

Essentially, pvd is the landlord to your property, which, i mean, is fair? imho

Nobody it talking about $3 an hour server tips. The OP and me explicitly talked about paying tips for take out and other not traditional tip based roles that are showing up literally everywhere even at one personas mechanic.

I’m not talking about huge establishments. I know on a grand scale, on average, it wouldn’t affect prices that much. I’m saying at individual small businesses.

The business I worked for barely made a profit and many years actually operated at a loss.

Restaurant wages is just a lot different than regular wages. Raising minimum wage from the $3.89 minimum that is set for restaurants up to $22 would cause that huge spike in prices at restaurants. Of course a ton of restaurants that are actually paying their tipped employees $3.89 can probably afford to absorb some of that cost and be less greedy before raising prices, it’s still a big jump.

So I’m not necessarily talking minimum wage vs livable wage. Minimum wage should definitely be raised to livable wages.

I’m just saying raising $15/hr (base pay where I’ve worked) to oftentimes $27/hr (on average with tips) is next to impossible at a small restaurant business without raising prices a lot more than 4%. A small restaurant like that could maybe absorb the cost it would take to raise wages from $15 to say $16 or $17 without raising prices. But a $12 wage increase would require prices to go up those 20% being lost by tips.

Of course they wouldn’t HAVE to raise wages all the way up to $27/hr in this alternate reality, but then the workers get the short end of the stick without tips.

This is often why a lot of tipped workers are actually against getting rid tipping. Cus in the end they would make less.

Edit: also in my mind I was actually thinking closer to $2.50 but just rounded up for simplicity’s sake. So apologies there!