What? No.

No, dude. The owner usually DOES have a problem with that. When somebody pays you to trade their product for money, and you're "giving" the product away in exchange for better tips, that is called stealing.

How much are you tipping them? Just tip a little less and I'm sure you can afford that 4th or 5th Budweiser for about the same total cost...

Simple math here folks. The profit margin on alcohol is far above that of food. That's why some bars don't even offer much in the way of food. Yes, the owner/manager should be the one making the decision to comp drinks, but affording a little leeway to a trusted bartender shouldn't be considered stealing. It should be considered customer relationship management.

There should come a point when the business has profited off a single customer enough to justify handing over 50-60 cents in beer or liquor for free. Generally, the bartender will be tipped accordingly, and the customer will be happy too.

Making minimum wage + tips has made many bartenders in this city pretty greedy. If they moved to another city that didn't afford them the minimum wage + tips, they'd be far more open to handing out a couple free drinks to regular customers. That's the only way they'd make as much as much as they do here in PDX (even before tips).

Used to be if you were a regular you'd get comped every third or fourth beer, but it's been years since that's been routine in any bars I've frequented.

Buybacks are not generally part of the culture here. Sorry. If you're a regular in a neighborhood bar in NYC and some other cities, you can get every 3rd or 4th draft "free." It's nice, but the beer's typically way cheaper here anyway, so don't lose too much sleep over it.

Steal from your boss! Get fired! I want to feel important!

I'm so down with this i could almost have written it myself...

You should GET paid to drink Budweiser. Blech. But no, I don't think your bartender owes you any comped drinks. That happens if they fuck up, not if you're just an alcoholic.

"I drink pay say thanks and leave."

The english major in me wants to let out a barely audible sigh, stare at you, and QUICKLY shoot my glance away the second you turn at me to make eye contact.

nice use of commas there lyle. That really helps the retarded among us not get all tangled up on the clauses in your sentence. Good job!

OLCC would fine them more than the're worth for giving out free booze. All alcohol servers know this.

You get a free beer and the bartender gets fired. Makes perfect sense, why doesn't that happen more often?

Holy shit the level of entitlement with drunks in this town is unreal.

HEY HOW COME YOU'RE NOT GIVING ME FREE SHIT FOR DOING NOTHING BUT ORDERING CHEAP SHITTY BEER THAT COST ME NOTHING TO BEGIN WITH???

The guy gets an extra 15 minutes in the booth free at the porn shop, and now wants everyone to settle the same?

Sorry Man Boobs, but uh, that's consider stealing.

Huh. I've been drinking and tipping for nearly fifteen years, and I've never felt entitled to a free beer. Because I'm not a huge fucking baby.

You could just go rob a convenience store and get all the free beer you want

Hi, I've paid for every beer I've ever been served. Therefore, I think I'm morally superior to anyone who's ever thought, "hey, I come here all the time. Why have they never comp'd one of my beers?"

To all those in this thread that consider this stealing or the drunken musings of alcoholics, GO FUCK YOURSELVES!!!

I think three drinks is about your limit.

Although not as common here as, say, New York, as someone mentioned, I've gotten plenty of buybacks here in Portland. I don't hang out in bars very much these days, but it seems that the times I do I often get a buyback.