Richard A. Busemeyer - W.A.N.T. and Its Demise

W.A.N.T. and Its Demise

Busemeyer and the members of his W.A.N.T. organization received considerable criticism from wait servers for not tipping them, and also from the general public as well. The most common criticism from servers about Busemeyer's W.A.N.T. group was predictably about W.A.N.T. members not tipping them. Typical of server criticisms was author Debra Ginsberg, a one-time waitress who did not know who started W.A.N.T., or why, but was severely critical of the group's practice of leaving a card instead of leaving a tip. In her book Waiting: the True Confessions of a Waitress, Ginsberg advised whoever tried the group's tip card trick should "... watch your back on the way out of the restaurant because those who don't tip can expect unique repercussions from those they stiff."

But criticism coming from the other side of the table about W.A.N.T. members was not that W.A.N.T. members did not tip, or that W.A.N.T. was really all about abolishing tipping per se and not about decent wages, but that Busemeyer and his members were aloof, agitating for change from the sidelines. This type of criticism charged that W.A.N.T. members were putting the burden for change on the backs of the very employees they claimed they were working for. W.A.N.T. members had nothing to lose, the charge went, but employees who took their advice and went to their employers for an increase in wages stood a very good chance of losing their jobs.

Another — and perhaps more damaging — criticism leveled at Busemeyer was that he charged W.A.N.T. members for their cards. Possibly as a businessman he felt it necessary to recover the costs he was incurring (about 15 cents per card) on cards he was having printed at his own expense. Possibly as a humanitarian and philanthropist he felt that those espousing his cause should be willing to help shoulder the organization's financial burden — small as it was. In any event, it was apparent from audience reactions in his guest appearances on Bill Cunningham's WLW talk shows and The Phil Donahue Show on television, that the idea of him charging for his W.A.N.T. cards suggested that his cause was perhaps motivated a bit more by his commercial interest than by his ideology.