Tip Differential

• Phillies: 10
• Nationals: 6
• Sold: 156 beer, 38 peanut/Crackerjack

Back at Nationals Park from Philadelphia, it was as expected: a smaller crowd, late arriving, plenty of visiting Philadelphians, and lower beer sales than two and a half hours up 95. What I'd forgotten was exactly how good the tips are in D.C. Just last night in Philly, the numbers worked out this way:

Philly: 10.5 cases of beer sold / 122.75 = $11.70 tips per case
D.C.: 6.5 cases of beer sold / 135.25 = $20.80 tips per case

And these numbers skewed inward: Philadelphia's tips sometimes average out to less than $10 a case, and D.C.'s sometimes get as high as $23 a case. Maybe it's D.C.'s wealth (and to be fair, some of it is the extra nuts and Jack that adds to the tip rate), or Philly's working class fan base,*** but Washingtonians say "keep the silver" before reconsidering and handing over an extra dollar to top it off, while in Philly their hands are out without prompting, ready to receive full change -- and that stray quarter -- off a $6.75 beer. It's more fun to get in the flow by really moving product in volume, but I gotta remember that the pay difference between the two isn't as great as it seems when the relative cheapness of Philadelphians is considered.

*** Also baffling geographically, when thrifty Philadelphia is to be found wedged between tip-thick DC/Baltimore and New York City, a real tipping town.