h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I think just take it as read that they all do these things to one degree or another (and if they don't they really should!!) but as before they all have one particular purpose in mind. What is it? (Clue's in the title)

To try and get a good tip?

Is tipping illegal or not customary in China?

RF

I just rushed back to the computer to say what RF said.

Tipping is correct.

RF +3

Explanation and points to follow...

First come first served HD.

Tipping maximisation strategies, as they are called by those who study such things, turns out to be quite a popular thing for a spot of sociological and psychological research. Given it's vital function within the economy, knowing how it works, what encourages it and how to get more of it, is like bread and butter to the people.

Four examples of which include the thrilling "Tactile Stimulation and Consumer Response" - Journal of Customer Research (1992); the ever popular "Midas Touch and other tipping stunts published in the counter-intuitive European Journal of Cancer Prevention (2004); the tragic pathos of "The effects of tactile stimulation on Visual Experience." in the Journal of Social Psychology (1972), and the slightly risqué "The Effect of Tipping of a Waitress Touching Male and Female Customers" Journal of Social Psychology (1986)

In a study conducted in 1984 (The Midas Touch) it was found that in a study of over 100 diners that change returned to a customer without touching them generated the smallest tips. A touch on the shoulder added on average 18% more to the tips, whereas, briefly touching the customer's hand as money was returned garnered a 37% increase in tips value.

The results of this study has been reinforced time and again and with some Quite Interesting variations. The 1986 study of gender, discovered that when serving a couple of mixed gender, it pays for the waitress to touch the woman but not the man. However, although touching the man led to smaller tips, these were still higher than if no touch was involved.

in 1992, in Chicago, the rather unremarkable correlation was established as fact: the prettier the waitress the greater the tip. The surprise lay that the touching female rule still held true: highly attractive waitress who touched female diners could expect to receive on average a tip 41% higher than in a control group of ugly men who touched no-one. The "attractiveness" was judged by customer surveys carried out prior to the study.

Thanks to this tireless band of researchers we know have an exhaustive but ever-expanding list of things you can do to improve your tip.

These include

being pretty
being female
having a customer who is female
and touching them on the palm
introducing yourself
"being friendly"
kneeling down during interaction (if this has anything to do with #2 on this list, I wouldn't be at all surprised.)
smiling
repeating back a diner's order immediately.
wearing flowers in your hair
giving a gift of candy with the bill (if you've ever received an after-eight mint at a restaurant - now you know why!)
Using smileys or displaying prominent symbols of patriotism
showing up for work when either the sun is shining or it's a full moon.

One study of waitresses working in an Atlantic City Casino (where there are no windows)discovered it behoved the waitresses to inform her patrons it was sunny outside, even if it wasn't.


---------------

QI - Not in China.

"Tipping is not a city in China" , so goes the legend. (Often seen on collection jars kept on the counter.)

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/cityofate/tipping.jpg

QI - Not (a city) in China
------------------------




Correct (+3)
------------------------
Feisor (27) - "Working during a full moon."
Toybox (19) - "Scalpel-Scalpel, Forceps-Forceps" 'Echolalia: repeating back immediately words spoken as your own.
Beatrice (114) & Hygienic Dispenser (116) - "Waiter/Waitress/Barstaff"
ReadyFreddy (123) - "Tipping"


QI Bonus (+6)
------------------------

None Awarded


DGI Bonus (+1)
------------------------
Pebble (4) - "Lycanthropy."
Toybox (19) - "Echolalia useful in an environment where mistakes are common."
Argon (78) - "Repeating Directions"
Argon (78) - "If the patron doesn't know the state of the weather outside."
Argon (92) - "It's lovely out."
Argon (102) - "More of a people thing.
Beatrice (106) - "Air steward."




Klaxon (-5)
------------------------
Pebble (3) - "forecasting the weather"
Toybox (19) - "Actor"
Pebble (28) - "Anyone singing either 'Blue Moon' or 'Moon River'
Gandalf's Twin (38) - "Religion."
Today Mueller (78) - "Religion."
Argon (95) - "Tibetan Monks"
Argon (103) - "Ventriloquist"

Elf Bonus (+2)
------------------------
Clive.




Total to be added or subtracted.
------------------------

Beatrice +4
Feisor +3
HD +3
RF +3
Clive +2
Toybox -1
TodayMueller - 5
GT -5
Argon -6
Pebble -9


Dashing nimbly between tables, picking up tips galore with her graceful gestures and winning smile, it's Beatrice with +4

Sharing the bill and divvying up for the tip, it's the triumvirate office party, of Feisor, HD and RF, each with +3

Crouched in the corner, clipboard in hand, your humble QI researcher, cataloguing this eternal mystery we call reality and wondering why no-one is touching him or paying him 41% on top of than his basic earnings, it's Clive.

But stood alone in a deserted rice paddy somewhere in deepest, darkest China, the truck that dropped him off long since departed, still clutching dejectedly his battered copy of The Lonely Planet, (the one with the tragic omission of the negative), just as it starts to rain and wondering where it all went wrong, it's Pebble on a student Visa with -9.

That was a good one
Spring tides occur every 2 weeks. 2 days after the new and full moon. A lunar month lasts 28 days.

How did you know I actually spent one summer as a waitress, complete with broderie anglaise apron?

Thank ye kindly TM.


Have a go at my new one "Immortal" if you feel like claiming back your missing 5 points.

>>How did you know I actually spent one summer as a waitress, complete with broderie anglaise apron?<<


Lucky guess.

Wow, that's quite amazing. An everyday job such as waitress or waiter, and there you disguise it as something werewolves cannot do

Not just
Quite Amazing.
but
Quite Interesting.
Also.

What's Amazing is that you can turn a potentially Boring fact Interesting.

I'm trying to get a Bootlicker +1000 here

I like elfing for QI; I'm getting rather good at it.

It's looking for that little detail and turning it over in my mind until I can think of how I can come at it in such an oblique fashion that it's almost, *almost* unrecognisable then lettin' you lot tear apart my riddles.

I like my facts quirky.

"But stood alone in a deserted rice paddy somewhere in deepest, darkest China, the truck that dropped him off long since departed, still clutching dejectedly his battered copy of The Lonely Planet, (the one with the tragic omission of the negative), just as it starts to rain and wondering where it all went wrong, it's Pebble on a student Visa with -9."

How did you know that? You weren't the &*&^ that sold me that excursion were you!

I'm on good terms with the Chinese Interior Ministry.

>> Have a go at my new one "Immortal" if you feel like claiming back your missing 5 points. <<

I've already blown my positive points balance on that one!

RF