According to the lemonade pros at Howtostartalemonadestand.com, a good lemonade stand can cost you anywhere between a couple of bucks to a few thousand. Depending on how intricate you like your citrus levels that is.
But why spend even one dollar on a lemonade stand when you can get your own personal lemonade stand at any-given restaurant table, for free?
Splenda. Lemon slices. A Cup. You got it all in the palm of your hand, what else would you ever need?
Now while this may seem like the most innovative, state-of-the-art idea a person could ever have, TikToker Nicole (@ayo_wingo) advises the exact opposite. In a TikTok posted on Feb. 28, receiving thousands of views, Nicole shares just how to get under a server’s skin in her town of Tampa Bay, Florida.
“Just teaching you restaurant manners, one post at a time,” Nicole states in her account bio.
Coming on to the platform a few times a day, Nicole explains different ways customers can make a server’s job just a little easier. As part of this mission, Nicole sits in the front of her car and tells viewers the “easiest way to annoy” waiters as a part of her now five-part series.
“It is so annoying when people order water, hella lemons, and then Splenda,” Nicole says. “Just so they don’t have to pay for lemonade”
Apparently, at Nicole’s restaurants, customers have been coming-in, ordering lemonade ingredients, and making it at the table to save the extra $2.61 that an average fountain-drink lemonade costs.
With a slowly-rising voice, Nicole looks directly at the camera and questions her audience.
“Like babe, somebody has to clean that all up, OK?” Nicole says.
This isn’t the first time someone in the service industry has expressed their grievances via TikTok or another social-platform. It’s actually become quite the trend. Both regular users and content-creators alike are coming across the platforms, ranting to their viewers in multipost series they refer to as “storytimes.”
@ayo_wingo #fyp #foryoupage #serverlife #serverproblems #servertiktok #bartender #bartenderlife #bartending #bartenderproblems #resturantlife #bartenderproblems #content #tipping ♬ original sound – Nicole
And though many of these “storytimes,” spill the behind the scenes gossip of what it’s actually like to work in the service industry, many of them can be pretty serious. Posted on Feb.14, the Daily Dot just covered another storytime about a Pizza Hut employee who got robbed at gunpoint.
Much like Nicole, the attacked-employee simply talked to the camera and told her perspective of the incident. Thankfully, Savannah, the Pizza Hut worker was OK, and was able to make it back to the store after the event.
Of course, cleaning a patron’s tablemess is incomparable to being held at gunpoint, but this doesn’t take away just how difficult it can be to be in this industry. Especially when the patrons don’t tip.
“It just gives ‘You’re not gonna [expletive] tip me,” Nicole states in reference to the lemonade-making.
With tipping allegedly becoming less popular with Americans, situations like this remind Nicole that particular customers can be difficult to satisfy. Therefore proving that servers, like Nicole, deserve monetary gratitude.
“And generally speaking, the people that do the DIY lemonade at a restaurant, they’re not usually the nicest of folk,” Nicole states.
Yet, after publishing her video, commenters met Nicole with a less hopeful response than she may have desired.
“Wait imma try this, u smart,” one commenter said, thinking that this out-of-the box lemonade may actually be a good idea.
“But how do you get lemonade w no sugar. Restaurants don’t have it. I don’t do this but i’m just thinking,” another said.
And with the average cup of MinuteMaid lemonade having almost 28 grams of sugar, it seems reasonable why some customers may venture toward the idea of DIY lemonade. But, that does not mean it should be left on the table for a server to clean
It’s unclear just how common it is for restaurant customers to make their own drinks at the table, but it seems as the odd trend may not have an end in sight.
The Daily Dot reached out to Nicole (@ayo_wingo) via TikTok Direct Message.
