Restaurants could offer separate checks to groups in exchange for automatic gratuity
By Doug
When I go to a restaurant with a group of friends, I always feel guilty about asking for separate checks, mostly for fear of annoying the waiter. But when I think about it, it's pretty annoying that restaurant patrons—who, unless they are a family or a couple, would tend to prefer separate checks—are by default expected to calculate how much each person owes. It's always a fiasco: no one ever has correct change; no one wants to ask the waiter to change a 20; some people (but not all) want to pay with credit card; one or two people inevitably end up overpaying, or at least thinking they did.
Some restaurants are starting to modernize their technology in ways that make it easier for people in a group to pay separately. But for restaurants that can't afford an infrastructure update and don't want to make life hard for their employees, maybe they could start by encouraging customers to ask for separate checks, while charging automatic gratuity in exchange for the convenience. I, for one, would welcome the chance to be told exactly what I owe. Post-meal arithmetic always gives me indigestion.
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