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"Instead of handing your payment to the clerk, or setting it on the counter by the cash register, here you are generally expected to put your payment into a tra

by Yizahi 11y ago

"Instead of handing your payment to the clerk, or setting it on the counter by the cash register, here you are generally expected to put your payment into a tray that is presented expressly for the purpose. The clerk takes it away and returns it with your change." Either I'm missing something from the context or author is mistaken. Trays and boxes in multiple forms and sizes are used everywhere in restaurants in Europe and ex-USSR countries. In banks and similar facilities people usually hand over cash via some special trays built in the counter because of the glass separating customer and clerk. In fact I don't remember a single restaurant in 20 or so countries where I could go to the counter pay there directly or leave cash on the counter. In every case when I tried this (I wanted to speed up things) I was told to go and wait for the waiter, who will bring a tray where I will put cash or card (in cases when card terminal in not wireless).

drostie 11y ago
I think you're confusing things a little: we're not talking about restaurants per se here. I don't know whereabouts in Europe you are, but you have to imagine a store like H&M where you generally place goods on a countertop to purchase them. In Japan, those countertops usually have a nondescript tray also lying on them, and it is considered impolite to hand your payment directly to the cashier--instead, while putting down all of your goods for purchase, you simultaneously put your payment into the tray. There are of course restaurants where they'll hand you a bill and you bring it up to the counter -- at least in the US. For example, in the Kansas City, Missouri region you'll see this both in the sit-down tex-mex chain-restaurant El Maguey as well as smaller sit-down cafes (the one that's coming to mind is City Diner, which is by the River Market). But that's not quite what we're talking about here.

by Yizahi 11y ago

drostie 11y ago

I think you're confusing things a little: we're not talking about restaurants per se here. I don't know whereabouts in Europe you are, but you have to imagine a store like H&M where you generally place goods on a countertop to purchase them. In Japan, those countertops usually have a nondescript tray also lying on them, and it is considered impolite to hand your payment directly to the cashier--instead, while putting down all of your goods for purchase, you simultaneously put your payment into the tray. There are of course restaurants where they'll hand you a bill and you bring it up to the counter -- at least in the US. For example, in the Kansas City, Missouri region you'll see this both in the sit-down tex-mex chain-restaurant El Maguey as well as smaller sit-down cafes (the one that's coming to mind is City Diner, which is by the River Market). But that's not quite what we're talking about here.