Day 29 - "we accept tips here"

I have one crazy story for you that happened to me before I even made it into the stadium on Saturday night.

I went to go park in the usual parking garage on 7th and Pine. It's only $4 when only a baseball game is going on and it is $5 if there is something else going on downtown. I don't mind paying $4 and walking a few blocks to the stadium instead of being closer and paying $10...that parking money adds up quickly when you're at nearly every home game!

So I enter into the parking garage and there are usually two ladies working in there to collect money. One is tall and skinny and the other shorter and round. The taller one is very pleasant whenever she collects my money and always says hi and actually engages in the 20-30 seconds I'm sitting there before entering into the garage.

The shorter one is very rude whenever she collects money from me. She usually has a blue-tooth headset on and carries on a conversation with someone on the phone and hardly ever says anything to me. Occasionally she complaining to me that I purposely drove into the lane that she wasn't in and how I made her get up to walk over to give me my parking pass.

Well this afternoon I pull into the garage. I see the shorter one walk over towards my car and she takes my money, hands me my parking pass and then she says something to me that really just was a surprise. She said, "you know we accept tips here."

ACCEPT TIPS!?!?!

I just looked at her with a blank look on my face and said, "ok."

She looked back at me with a pissed off look as if she would find me later in a dark alley...

I just looked back with that blank look on my face showing that I wasn't going to tip her and then I into the garage. I thought to myself, 'you sit on your butt and collect money and push a button to allow people to enter the garage, why should I be tipping you?!?!?!?!?'

You tip valet drivers.
You tip waiters/waitresses.
You tip delivery drivers.
You tip beer men.
Last time I checked, I've never heard of tipping a parking garage attendant who sits on their butt, collects money and then pushes a button!?!?!?!

I was dumbfounded. I still am actually. I'm rather still pissed that she would say that to me. Does she do anything to help me in any way to where I should be tipping her?!?!?!

NO!

I couldn't believe it! I shared the story with the other beer men in the commissary and they used some choice words I won't repeat about what I should have told the parking garage attendant when she told me that. They hadn't ever heard about tipping a garage attendant, but then again, us beer men aren't the classiest people on this earth either...but we have a sense of tipping. Anyone who has ever waited tables, been a delivery driver or has done any kind of 'service' jobs has a better understanding of when and how much you should tip...for the most part.

I've been parking in that same garage for any home cardinals game last season and have been parking there for nearly every single home game this season and have never EVER been asked/informed to tip.

Am I in the wrong? Should I tip a lady who already is collecting money for me to park my car in a garage and pushes a button to allow me to enter into that garage????

Oh yeah...as for the game, I sold a solid 3 cases of beer.

Had an overall good day. Too bad the Cardinals didn't. They lost to the Rockies. Last time i checked, the Rockies are in LAST PLACE of their division!

One quick story from while I was working:

I understand that I don't look anything like my age. I've hardly ever had any doubts when I card people that they are actually 21. I have had a few people who did surprise me and were over 21. Well on Saturday, I was at the bottom steps of a section when I noticed a guy (who looked like he was maybe 15) holding a beer in one hand and was staring at me the whole time I was in that section. When I caught him looking over at me, he quickly looked away. When I noticed him, I thought that he was incredibly way too young to be drinking and he was probably worried about being caught by a worker that he actually had a beer. I kept catching him looking back down at me and then as I was walking up the steps, I noticed he was on his second beer, since his current beer cup was in his first one. I informed the usher for that section that he looked very suspicious and she said that they already had others say the same thing and they have checked his ID and he was 21.

Sometimes I get "card" happy and just say "I.D. Please." without even thinking about it and get several people who are well over 21 (like in their late 40's) a bit thrown off about it.

I have had a few times when I couldn't sell beer to people because they didn't have their I.D. on them. They looked like they were in their mid-20's, but once I say, "I.D. Please" and they don't have it, I can't sell them beer.

Oh yeah, I also took Sunday and Monday off. Sunday, because I wanted to have a day off to relax. And Monday, cause it's a day game and I start working as a contractor at Wachovia. Check back this week as I blog about some interesting stories I have while being an STL beer man.

Totals thus far:
33 Bottles of Water
56 Bags of Cracker Jacks
118 Bags of Peanuts
1618 Bottles of Beer