Tipping when you pick up your food order

[whoppo]

I absolutley tip for restaurant take-out orders (not drive-thru type fast food places). There's a fair amount of work that goes into packaging a proper meal for travel and at the handful of resaurants that we frequent for take-out meals we know the folks and we're on a first name basis. They make minimum wage (if they're lucky) and I make... well.. more. I'm happy to thank them for the extra work involved in packing up a good to-go meal and they make sure I'm well taken care of during subsequent visits. (and yes.. I also leave tips for the housekeeping folks when I stay at hotels)

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[noway2]

In sit down restaurants, I will leave 15% for average service and adjust up or down accordingly. For takeout and other reduced service situations, I will usually tip a dollar or two depending on the total. I will tip pizza delivery and things like that.
I went on one cruise and at the end we were told to attend a mandatory pre-disembark meeting where they did nothing but tell us why we needed to leave a very large, insinuating several hundred dollars, for the crew. I was so offended by this that I left them nothing. Wouldn't go back to that cruise line either. After the cruise they also started calling me trying to get me to take another one. I told them what I thought of the first one and got removed from that list.

[GeorgiaDawg]

This subject reminds me of the opening scene of the movie Reservoir Dogs. I agree with Mr. Pink, but tip anyway.

I don't tip take-out but I do tip servers when I'm sitting down to eat at a restaurant or if I'm having something delivered. I see the argument for tipping a delivery person, since they are putting wear on their cars and using gas to get food to my house.

When sitting down at a restaurant, I'm seeing more and more that I could have one person take my order and bring the check, another person refill my drink, and yet another actually bring out my food. Why can't one person do it all like they used to and still do in many other places? Is it because they are pooling tips and it doesn't matter if one or ten people help with a table? I don't believe in tip-pooling, myself (seems a bit too Communistic to me), and the tip won't feed three servers as well as just one, if they are depending on the tips for their livelihood. Plus, tip-pooling has the potential to remove the incentive to provide the best service possible, but I guess this isn't about that as much as the take-out tipping, so I'll end my rant here.

[Pistology]

True that food servers' income is from tips since their below-min wage income is absorbed by taxes on it and their tips; but a tip is like a thank-you note: unnecessary unless someone goes out of their way as a personal service or includes something extra that has special value. As a rule, I'm not tipping my taking away from their store. And it's one of the rare times that I don't tip for service of a regular point-of-sale transaction.

[BigJon10125]

As a former waiter I can verify what Anglico said. It used to be that tips were not taxed. When I left the industry between 8-10% percent were automatically "charged" to my tax # as expected tips. Yeah that rarely happened. As it is a custom I tip the normal rate for good service, and more for exceptional service. The scale slides both ways though, bade service gets nothing and usually a talk to the manager.

[kapnketel]

The real conundrum I have is tipping at Starbucks. I vacillate between tipping and not.

[BigJon10125]

This subject reminds me of the opening scene of the movie Reservoir Dogs. I agree with Mr. Pink, but tip anyway.

I don't tip take-out but I do tip servers when I'm sitting down to eat at a restaurant or if I'm having something delivered. I see the argument for tipping a delivery person, since they are putting wear on their cars and using gas to get food to my house.

When sitting down at a restaurant, I'm seeing more and more that I could have one person take my order and bring the check, another person refill my drink, and yet another actually bring out my food. Why can't one person do it all like they used to and still do in many other places? Is it because they are pooling tips and it doesn't matter if one or ten people help with a table? I don't believe in tip-pooling, myself (seems a bit too Communistic to me), and the tip won't feed three servers as well as just one, if they are depending on the tips for their livelihood. Plus, tip-pooling has the potential to remove the incentive to provide the best service possible, but I guess this isn't about that as much as the take-out tipping, so I'll end my rant here.

I agree, tip-pooling is not a good thing. It is as you expressed because of the incentive factor, and it rewards mediocre work on the backs of hard work.

[kapnketel]

The problem with tip pooling is that many restaurants take a portion of the tip pool for themselves, especially on CC charges.

[goldshellback]

This subject reminds me of the opening scene of the movie Reservoir Dogs. I agree with Mr. Pink, but tip anyway.

That's EXACTLY what I've had in my head since reading this thread......

[Thunder71]

You have a choice to be a waiter/waitress... some people are great at it and do quite well, others should choose another career path.

Now if I order my pizza online, drive to the pizza place, pull up to the drive up window and get my food I'm not tipping. I've never done the Applebee's drive up thing, but don't think I'd tip for that either... I don't tip the Culver's person for walking my food out, why should Applebee's (or similar) be any different?

[Dadsnugun]

I'm putting a tip jar out next to the candy bucket tonight.

Happy Halloween!

[Sig35seven]

The cheap and greedy can always find reasons to remain cheap and greedy.

At my golf club here in Florida we get a large influx of 'snow birds' from Canada. These people are the cheapest I've ever seen. A worker gets their cart , loads their clubs, cleans their clubs after the round, cleans the cart..etc... The workers are minimum wage. Most all of the Canadians just walk away and don't even say thank you (they even want to avoid eye contact) as they consider this part of the service they paid for the country club.

The thing that gets me is they are an affluent bunch yet they squeeze the littlest guy at the bottom, you know, the 'little people'. Not one dollar will they give.

[Miamieddie]

Nope if they delivered it to me then yes.

[Chesafreak]

When I pick up takeout, I do not tip. Tipping is for service, not goods. I frequently pick up takeout from Applebees. If they were to bring it to my car I would tip. I have always had to go inside even though I sat in the designated parking spots and waited for them to come out first. They never have done so.

For service, I always tip at least 20%, frequently more than 20. The only exception is when the waiter/waitress does a horrible job or is rude. I'm pretty easy-going and have empathy, so it takes a lot to piss me off to where I don't leave a tip or leave a tip lower than 20%.

[Richard58]

I think it is good practice to tip eat in service to waiters and to tip also curb service like at sonic type eating places. I surely tip delivery food drivers. These people as times are now are trying to make ends meet and are at least working instead of sitting home drawing a welfare check which is so easy to do now. If you can afford too, tip well....I believe in karma. Good deeds do come back to you in lots of ways.