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I'm not sure if it's more expensive in the US than in Australia since I've never been to the US, but I'm not aware of either country having unusually high prices.
I was out with my partner at a Malaysian restaurant and we got an all-you-can-eat deal ($18.50 each) and a jug of lemonade, and I think another drink or something. This place wasn't fancy, it was just a family-owned restaurant with their high-school aged son waiting on us.
The kid was really nice and helpful (when he wasn't leaning on the cash register playing his Game Boy), but that dinner struck me as interesting compared to another night at a video store recently.
We were looking for 'A Night at the Roxbury' and asked the girl if they had it in since we couldn't find it on the shelves. She went to the computer, came back to us and said 'It's in', and then started walking. We assumed she was leading us to the right section to help us find it, but instead she walked back to the registers and just stood there looking at us. It may not be the same in the US, but here it's pretty standard for the video store clerk to help you find it on the shelf, especially if there are other staff manning the registers.
Anyway, the customer service got me thinking that perhaps tipping is the right way to go, as an incentive for staff to actually help you instead of do the bare minimum. It doesn't help if I tip at the end, because they wouldn't try if they don't know they'll get a tip. I wonder how Australia would react to a trend to tip their wait staff?
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