TikTokers up arms after ‘American bar etiquette’ tweet sparks debate
Twitter user Willy Staley ended up launching an international debate about bar etiquette when he tweeted about the differences between millennials’ and Gen Zers’ habits when it comes to paying the tab.
Staley (@willystaley) tweeted that he kept seeing Gen Zers close their tab after every round of drinks they bought at the bar and questioned their “behavior” because of it.
At the bar last night, the Zoomers were all paying with credit cards and closing out on every round. This is psycho behavior. Someone needs to teach these children how to go to the bar.
— willy 🌜💧 (@willystaley) July 14, 2023
“Someone needs to teach these children how to go to the bar,” he tweeted.
Staley’s tweet began to circulate around social media, receiving over 22,000 likes and even started a dialogue on multiple platforms.
TikToker Haley Horton (@haley.horton) was one of the people to interact with the post, saying that she didn’t see a problem with how Zoomers operate at a bar because she says that’s how customers act in the United Kingdom, where she lives.
“American bar etiquette baffles me,” Horton wrote in her caption.
“Newsflash. That’s how everyone pays for drinks in every other part of the world,” she said. “We had absolutely no idea it was a faux pas,” referring to her and her British boyfriend.
While not “every other part of the world” operates without tabs, as Horton asserts, in the U.K., it’s common not to open a bar tab but rather to pay for drinks individually. Many times, when drinks are purchased in large quantities, it’s because someone is buying a round.
Several of her viewers, who also live outside of the U.S., agreed with the tab customs she described.
“I’ve drank all around Europe, I am from the UK, I have lived elsewhere in Europe, I have not once encountered a tab; not *once*,” commented @whatsupmylennial.
There were some people from different countries that did use the tab method when going to bars, but they didn’t think it was a big deal.
“In Brazil is common to pay only at the end of the night. But we also know other countries exist, so we we’re not shocked if they do things differently,” replied @tony_dourado.
Opening tabs is a popular American custom, but there are different ways of handling them. Some places — even if you pay round by round — don’t fully charge you until the end of the night. Others are more traditional with their tab policy but have a contingency plan in case someone accidentally leaves without paying, which could cost more money for the customer.
Some bars will add an extra gratuity fee to the bill if a person doesn’t close the tab that same night.
“I have people that forget to close their tabs all the time that call me days later and are worried about if the bartenders got tipped,” Mary Ellen Angel, owner of Angel Share bar in downtown Houston, Texas, told Chron.com. She also said that her team is happy to close tabs because it means that everyone wins — the tab gets closed, and tips get paid out.
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