LMFAO, have you ever been to a restaurant in Europe? The service is horrific. Sit down and wait 15 minutes for the menus, another 15 to place a drink order, another 10 for the drinks to get there, another 10 to place food order. Now you finish the meal, good luck getting the waiters attention to bring the check. European dining is the worst, every time I am back stateside I feel like im being waited on in the white house or something fancy.
I could say the same about US restaurants. I want to socialise with the people I'm sharing the meal with, not some random waiter. The servers are constantly interrupting, ruining the mood and you feel unwelcome like they want to get you out the door the moment your plate is empty (because that's exactly what they want). It's like being on a conveyor belt.
The waiter comes by about twice in a visit, asks you "Is there anything you need?". You say "No thanks". And you get upset by that. And then you complain about Americans and their terrible ways. What sense does that make? Can't you see how rude you are? The person simply came by to check, since that person is your waiter and the goal is that you have a tasty and pleasant time.
If I need anything, I will call for the waiter. I do find it intrusive and patronizing if they come and check if I need anything. I'm not "upset" about it, but it does make my dining experience worse. It also gives me the impression they are trying to get me to free up the table as soon as possible.
It is very amusing to me that in a different part of this thread people are complaining that the waiter doesn't come by enough, and here the complaint is the opposite.
The critical difference for me is if they ask while you're eating, perhaps 5 minutes after serving your table, that's OK it means they are genuinely interested in improving your experience and it's an opportunity to correct minor problems.
If they ask after you've eaten, that would be rude, from my British perspective.
The after-meal ask is to see if 1) you want dessert or 2) you want your soft drink refilled or to purchase an additional alcoholic beverage. Honestly, I think the "waiters keep pestering me" perception from Europeans is heavily influenced by the refill checks, which by-and-large aren't a thing in Europe.
Once early in the meal, and once to clear dishes and check for any after-meal orders is fine. But the several interruptions between those two is too much. I'm certainly engaged in conversation, and they're just interrupting it for no good reason.
While I very much agree with your sentiment and to be honest I prefer dining in the USA, it’s naive to think (in most cases) that they actually care about anything other than getting you out of the restaurant as soon as possible to work a new party.
Of course, there’s a bit of future optimization where they want you as a repeat customer, but that manifests in pretending they don’t want you out, not actually feeling that way. It makes sense - a rational revenue maximizing business does want you out but they need to pretend they don’t. The veneer is thin in many cases (though it varies by establishment). Personally, I’d prefer the incentives aligned with being a bit more straightforward, down to earth and without fake flattery.
I remember I had a meal once as a group of 5 about 10 years ago at a beachfront restaurant in Boca. At this group size a tip of 18% was added by default. Our waiter had been so cloying and over the top, calling us friends, etc. When the bill came and I didn’t tip anything other than 18% the waiter started shouting from across the room and made physical contact with me because he thought I hadn’t tipped. It was really a horrible experience, but very telling.
I've been in hundreds of not fancy restaurants across Europe in my life, in many countries. The service speed in like 95% of all cases is at maximum or vary close to it. It's between 0 to 1-2 minutes to get menu, then 0 to 1-2 minute to flag a waiter and order, and that all delays possibly induced by the serving staff. The rest is just how long it takes to cook and is not relevant here. So maybe USA shaves off a few tens of seconds of that, and pays for that with tens of dollars per visit plus suffers an annoying questions all the time, while I'm eating. No thanks.
Maybe you guys like your USA service model. Maybe Europeans are mistaken about USA service model. But one thing is certain - you USA guys have zero idea about speed of service on average in European cafes and restaurants, judging by your comments :) .
It’s possible that many of the Americans commenting here have gone to very different restaurants than locals have in mind, and are basing their experiences on a very different sample. Like touristy places with a patio on the main old town square of (insert European city here)
I didn't think of that, probably because when I'm in another country I do my very best to avoid touristy places. I want to experience the country, not the show it puts on for visitors.
Knowing to flag down a waiter is probably a big part of the equation. In the US waiters will generally come on their own to take your order fairly quickly and so we’re less used to flagging them down. And in a lot of places in Europe waiters won’t ask to bring the check, it’s on you to ask for it.
This is literally what the grandparent comment was doing.
> In the typical USA system...
> European restaurants typically...
But the interesting thing is that no one ever complains when people group things by continents like that if the theme is bashing the US and praising Europe. Only when talking bad about Europe it's suddenly an issue.
Yes, the dining experience in California and New York is just so, so different. One waiter might call it pop, the other soda, it's like being on a different planet!
It's wild the extents to which Americans overestimate the cultural differences between their states and literal entire countries with actual differences. Scandinavia and the Mediterranean are quite different, Americans speaking in a different accent and maybe being slightly friendlier or not is nothing.
I live in half Europe for the past 15 years and have been to more restaurants than I can count. Typical service is courteous and efficient. Of course there are outliers, too.
Repeat business is rewarded like in most places. I frequent many cafes and restaurants where I'm recognized and treated like family even though I have never once tipped there.
Not sure which destinations you're eating in, but as someone who lives in "Europe", that's not been a regular occurrence at all. Generally, the waiting times are not so long and service is reasonable. There are of course experiences at both end of the spectrum. I've walked out of a Vienna cafe once because I waited 20 minutes for someone to bring the bill. Three steps out the door the waiter chased me down and I paid the bill. Problem solved. However, I've also been in situations where I us want the wait-staff to bugger off and let me enjoy my meal and conversation in peace. Usually, the service is somewhere in between.
In the Netherlands this has been my experience many times. By the time they finally come to take your order (which is always "what would you like to drink?", requiring me to say "actually I'm ready to order the food as well") - I would have already been eating in many other countries.
The reason I think is a mix of things: firstly people really want to make a night of it, seeing the whole dinner as an experience, and secondly the amount of staff (both waitstaff and in the kitchen) won't support a faster process.
Edit: it's not a case of better or worse, just different expectations going in
Ah much generalisation. Europe is over 40 countries with vast differences in quality of service and restaurant culture. I have been to restaurants in many European countries and the only generalisation I can make is that tip culture does not exist in Europe.
Although in the UK, there is often an "optional" service charge tacked on for table service dining. (Yes, you can get it taken off but I'm guessing most people don't.)
My last trip I gave a $10 tip to a waiter in a Spanish restaurant. I apologized that I didn't have euros. The guy smiled broadly and thanked me. If tip "culture" didn't exist in Europe, he would have thought of me as inappropriate and would have given the money back. Like if you try to give a tip to a firefighter, he'd give it back, because it's not appropriate.
Of course you can tip and nobody would refuse one. The difference is tipping is not expected by default and you get same service regardless of your tip. In contrast many years ago a waiter in a NYC restaurant made my then girlfriend crying when the waiter decided that the tip was not big enough. Is this great American service people here keep raving about?
> a waiter in a NYC restaurant made my then girlfriend crying when the waiter decided that the tip was not big enough
That's certainly not the norm in the US. I've eaten in restaurants in every state and have never seen or experienced anything like that. It sounds like you just got a terrible server or restaurant.
He accepted it because he saw you as an American cash cow.
Obviously you will do as you please, but I wish tourists would try to get with the culture. As a European, one of many reasons I don't tip is that I don't want to encourage a class system where anyone who doesn't pay up is seen (and sees themselves) as stingy.
I have not been in a place in Europe where the tips would be rejected. However, universally they are not the norm or expected.
Also about the $10 - they would need to gather quite a few more dollar notes and spend time finding a cash exchange bureau. Else the note is just a memento of a weird American.
In some EU countries the tips have to be counted as salary and income (+social) tax paid, or even they have to be declared as revenue to the restaurant along with the VAT (19-25%) going straight to the state. Of course, when paid in cash - that rarely happens. The point is that the provision exists in the law (so the tips are not unheard of)
People over the Atlantic just have a better concept of social gathering as opposed to neediness of being served and staffed with food.
People come to a place to have fun and talk for a few hours or their free time. Drinks and food coming and going is just a small nuance. 10 minutes (often way less of course) for drinks to arrive is mostly okay. Nobody is busy waiting for them.
From the restaurant owner's perspective there is no benefit of slow or bad service. That means guests are taking up room without spending money. It makes much better sense to be speedy in giving your guests attention and service, as this gives you more sales, more margin for error, and most importantly much happier guests. They can still focus on the socializing and being merry.
It's just there is a difference between "slow service" and, you know, taking needed time.
Sure, some times it can be slow, at any place or country. But the thing described in the parent comment is just either a hyperbolization (my bet) or some unfortunate coincidence.
Nor should you argue a subjective point as though it’s objective. But if you’re passionate about the subject you should write a blog post or something.
People are used to that concept enough that changing a small item on the menu doesn't require a whole re-print, or sitting for an hour with a bottle of Tip-Ex
If you're upset that you wait then maybe something like McDonald's would be better for you. When you go out to eat, you're also going out to socialize and enjoy your time.
And if you say you're good, you'll get the check (assuming end of meal). If you don't pay it, they'll come back and ask you if you want something else. If you say no, they'll give you a few minutes and come back. They want you to get the fuck out of there as quickly as posible.
In the average place in most European countries (excluding places with a queue outside or highly sought after reservation only places), nobody would bat an eye if you stay talking an hour after you're done.
> In the average place in most European countries (excluding places with a queue outside or highly sought after reservation only places), nobody would bat an eye if you stay talking an hour after you're done.
That's because most European restaurants operate on a single sitting model when it comes to financial planning. Someone coming in later in the evening to fill an already vacated table is a nice and welcome extra income for the restaurant, but that not happening will not cause a financial loss either.
Your first book was my like my bible, used many of the concepts when building gomacro.ai, at the same time found it so easy to get sucked into non-lean methodology. Very hard these days to come up with a sound idea, so many people building things that nobody asked for to begin with and in the age of AI its even more so the case. Best of luck with the new one, will give it a read!
Or just used earplugs. They can take some getting used to, but are worth it noisy disturbances are affecting your sleep.
If the goal was to have fun, that's great. If the goal was to solve a problem, I'm reminded of when engineers build over-engineered solutions, when a simple solution is available.
"Yet, EU vehicle safety regulations have supported a 36% reduction in European road deaths since 2010. By contrast, road deaths in the US over the same period increased 30%, with pedestrian deaths up 80% and cyclist deaths up 50%."
They seem to think that the two are correlated, they are definitely not. The US is like the wild west compared to the EU, especially as it pertains to traffic. Americans take laws as mere suggestions, where in Europe the law is the law and you follow the rules, especially in Germany / Austria / Switzerland. We also allow people to drive on the roads with super old, broke down, and unserviced cars with missing bumpers or things clearly falling off, like its no big deal. Again, they are grasping at straws suggesting their auto build quality has lowered their death rate while increasing ours, its ridiculous.
This depends upon the discretion of the patrol officer. One can certainly get citations for crossing lines, failing to maintain a vehicle, and so on. The issue is, those tickets are not as lucrative for the municipality as drug enforcement. Typically, those laws are enforced to allow an officer to search a vehicle for contraband and/or apprehend someone who was suspected of a more serious offense.
Cheaper dollar boosts US exports. Makes imports more expensive even before tarrifs. Which situationally, some industrial sectors will want. The exporting ones. The ones reliant on imports, less such.
The US isn't self sufficient in food. Food imports are going to get more expensive.
Countries may be unwilling to trade with an increasingly belligerent US that slaps everyone with tariffs. In fact, many will just slap the US with tariffs and other barriers of their own.
> Which situationally, some industrial sectors will want
No major US export sector operates exclusively as an exporter without any exposure to imports or global supply chains. Even the largest US exporting industries (oil and gas extraction, civilian aircraft and parts, and pharmaceuticals) rely in varying degrees on imported inputs, components, or capital equipment... which companies are you talking about?
I was talking about oil and gas mainly. I'm unsure if US steel is competitive with any other producer, it's probably ring-fenced markets only. I hadn't thought about their exposure to imports on the production side, your point is good.
US doesn't just make weaponry but let's roll with that. You said there are two major markets now, I assume you mean Europe, that is the most wealthy continent, and Middle East one of the most awash with cash regions in the world.
You may be tempted to assume that only active participants in wars buy weapons, but that has never been the case. And especially now, you have many countries trying to restock and prepare.
Guns and missiles don't even make it into the top five U.S. export categories. The largest good exported is civilian aircraft parts, although it pales in comparison to business services exported (>$200B) and financial services (~$175B).
A lot of foreign customers are rethinking their dependency on American services, too. Not out of some ideology, just hedging against whimsical policies. Just a year ago, such discussions would have been idle crackpot watercooler talk, now it's a normal boardroom subject. The shift will take time, but that's it's even on the agenda is incredible.
Rheinmetall shares are doing well. They're in all kinds of JV worldwide. It's not Basil Zharoff spectacular but they're healthy. The world wants the blessed Mary of the javelin, and anyone who makes NATO 155mm has a market.
People who bought the F35 have mixed views. Awesome tech. Is there a remote off switch?
British arms factories are salivating at the prospect of NATO and EU spend. The French want to ring-fence them out but almost any complex materiel is made across Europe in the wider sense. Risk management drove there, I think France will stop being silly once their factories supply books are healthy.
> The model predicted COVID-19 could not be transmitted through the air. The model was wrong; COVID-19 is highly transmissible through the air.
I'm not sure if that's the best way to put it. IIRC, the controversy was if COVID could spread through the air in the form of an aerosol or if it could only spread in the form of droplets. Droplets can't travel as far in the air, and their limitations were the basis of the "6ft social distancing" rules. It turns out COVID can spread as an aerosol, even though that was strongly denied during the early phases of the pandemic.
