Long ago, when Norman Rockwell ruled the earth, it was customary to give one’s paper boy (it was always a boy, of course) a Christmas “tip”, which was usually five or ten bucks. “Gosh, Mrs. Goose!” he would gasp in grateful amazement. “Thanks!” Because he was saving up for a new bike, or college, or something. And you knew this because when he came around to collect every week, you sort of got to know him.
But nowadays my Chicago Tribune, which isn’t even a local paper, being the print mouthpiece of Windy City Plutocrats who profess themselves uninterested in late-breaking news from Downstate, such as the recent holdup of the Decatur Land of Lincoln credit union by two bandits in an SUV with vanity plates reading “GURLY”–anyway, my morning newspaper now lands on my front porch with a thud at 4 a.m., hurled from a car which then speeds away into the pre-dawn darkness, and it wasn’t until I opened this morning’s paper and had a Christmas card fall out of it that I learned that there is an actual delivery person driving this car, and not some Windy City Dawn Demon that the Tribune Plutocrats have enslaved through the One Ring and forced to deliver newspapers Downstate.
And this person apparently lives in Decatur, because there’s a Decatur return address neatly rubber-stamped on the back flap of the envelope. The card itself isn’t exactly signed–it’s got another rubber stamp inside, with two names, “Righty and Lefty Realpeople, Chicago Tribune”.
So all my instincts say to toss this thing in the circular file and forget about it, but since I am chronically out of the loop when it comes to social trends, I thought I’d better put it before the Teeming Millions.
Am I supposed to mail Righty and Lefty a check? Perhaps with a Christmas card enclosed?
When I was delivering papers in the 80s, yeah, I’d get tips from people. Usually when I went collecting for the money they owed.
But then newspapers squeezed out all the kids doing the delivery jobs, and gave them to contractors willing to wake up at 2 am and drive all over town. You can’t even pay by the month anymore-- it’s all by the credit card, up front.
A tip is in order if the service has merited one. Do they put the paper on your doorstep? Is it never wet, or never in the bushes? Are they good about getting a paper to you every day, and (more importantly, in my judgment) when they do miss you (or someone steals your paper) do they get a replacement to you ASAP?
If you’re receiving good service, reward them as such with 5 or 10 bucks.
I deliver a local paper, and many of my customers will tip…but then I do to-your-doorstep delivery by 6:30 a.m., never leave the paper in the flowers or under the car, put the damn thing inside the storm door when it snows, pick up the Wall Street laying on the drive and deliver it too, you get the picture. I also have gotten to know quite a few of my customers, and that makes a difference too, I think.
I do know a couple of customers who tip their Wall Street carriers, but I don’t know if that’s typical.
I agree with peepthis. If you feel like you’re getting good service and you can spare a few bucks, a tip can be very meaningful. I’ll probably collect over $400, and it will account for ALL of my Christmas shopping as well as paying for surgery for the NastysickdroolyCat.
(Gotta remember to get my holiday cards out this week!)
AH-hahahaha. Yeah, I get one of those terribly sincere “Chrisamas cards” from my paper-delivery person every year—complete with SASE and the heavy implication that if I want to see my papers next year, I better put a ten-spot therein.
Heavens. I’m just putting a card (making one on my computer this year) that says something to the effect of: “Thanks for being a great customer. If you’re going on vacation, please call the flippin’ office and TELL THEM so I don’t have to pick up all of your papers after they pile up for a week. Hugs and kisses, your carrier and her four young needy children who are counting on your kind tip for Christmas veggie soup never mind actual GIFTS.”
When I was a ten year old delivering newspapers, I got all kinds of tips for Christmas. Then again, I was a delightful little scamp that delivered the afternoon newspaper with a smile.
when I was a papergirl in the 80s, I got tips for christmas. But then, and I must brag here, I was a near perfect paper carrier.
If your paper carrier was a kid, I’d say yes. Since it’s an adult, if you’re getting the paper where it belongs, on time, dry, etc. every day - then I’d tip. (My paper shows up maybe 4-6 times a week, and if it’s wet outside, it’s pulp… he doesn’t get tipped).
I delivered papers for a couple of years in the late 60’s and I received tips at Christmas maybe 5 times. On the other side of the coin, a new person took over a local paper route last year and included with the paper after only a few weeks on the job, a preaddressed envelope and in big letters on the back “This envelope is for your tip to your friendly delivery gal, Thank you”. I called the paper to see if this was their policy and was informed that the delivery person can do this even though they thought it was tacky. I used the envelope to cancel my subscription instead.
Saaaaay, RTFirefly…you sound like one of my customers! Little pigeonhole thingy and all.
This particular guy also has a neighbor who has an enormous Rottweiler wandering loose a couple times a month. Whew. I should get hazard pay on that one, just for the scariness of running into a horse-sized, fanged animal at 4 a.m. (She’s sweet, I think–as nearly as I can when I am backing rapidly away.)
I don’t know how much other papers pay, but here we make about $4/month on each subscription. So a few bucks makes our jobs a lot nicer, not to mention that we (speaking for myself, at least) never EVER forget the folks who tip.
I vaulted a hedge getting away from a doberman once. Son of a bitch bit the corner of the paper bag off. Glad it was covering my ass at the time.
That guy got the paper thrown from the street for the rest of his subscription.
My Mom decided to give our newspaper carier $5 or so a couple years back. She put the money in an envelope in a plastic baggie in our paperbox (which is mounted next to the front door of the house).
Our family went on our usual Christmas pilgrimage to see all the rest of the family, and when we returned, we discovered the money still in the box. The carrier had been dumping the paper on the porch, or by the porch, an had never bothered to check the actual box where the paper was supposed to go.
The papers went to office payments because people shifted over to stiffing the paper boy. I may be being cynical, but that’s the way it felt. My kids delivered the local, afternoon paper for awhile and spent more time trying to collect than they ever spent delivering papers. It amazed me that folks had the gall to get nasty when a kid cut them off for being two or three months overdue. This from people who would answer the door and say they didn’t have the money on them, try back in three days, then in three days, then in . . .
When I started delivering an ‘adult route’ for the larger area paper, in the morning, I’d clear between two and three hundred a month and payments were the office’s problem. I’d deliver monthly payment envelopes to about six customers. The rest just paid directly. Shut-offs were the office’s decision. Argue with the office. If I delivered a paper, I got paid for the paper. And fewer customers are likely to claim that ‘the kid must have lost the payment’ when an adult was on the route. It also amazed me that people would claim this to the office when they had seen me at the door standing behind the boys and listening to them being put off.
As to tips. Blessed are the tippers. Whether you are tipping young folks having their first earning experience or adults earning about $2-3/hr, if you actually calculate it out. Big car routes may do a little better. But adults are not freezing their buns at four in the morning because they are too wealthy to be concerned with tips. Anyone squeezing in a little more work between 4 and 6 am could use a tip.
I even appreciated the little old lady who saved all her rubber bands and returned them each month as a tip. She knew that we had to buy the rubber bands ourselves, and that she was contributing to our income in a small way by recycling them. We also had to buy the plastic bags for wet weather. And the canvas carrier bags were either bought or had a deposit on them, depending on the paper.
Remember, delivering a newspaper means never having a day off. Ever. Holiday papers are bigger and heavier and more likely to have special add-ins that take more time.
I guess I’m in the minority.I haven’t even **Read ** a paper paper in about 5 yrs.or more.
When I can read every major daily in the world on the web,why would I need one? I mean,I need no amusement on the crapper,since I’m rarely on long enough to read more than a paragraph or 2,don’t use public transit,and that recycling stuff gets old after awhile as the piles get bigger.Save a tree,read the web.
