“Takeout servers”? I hadn’t thought of the people who package up takeout orders as servers. To my mind, they’re way more analogous to the people who work the counter at fast-food or other counter-service restaurants.
That said, I didn’t get takeout from sit-down restaurants before Covid. And, in the Covid era, when I get takeout from a sit-down restaurant, I’ve been adding a tip similar to what I would give if I were eating in, not because I feel obligated to but because there are rough times for restaurants and I want to support them.
(Quoted section was from an article; not sure how to nest quotes or otherwise make that clear)
It sounds as though Ivy Mix should raise her prices by 20% if she can’t afford to stay open without expecting a minimum 20% tip. Also, it doesn’t sound as though the 20% tip is actually covering additional work or service or whatever but basically “We need your charity to stay open”. In fact, it’s not even a tip going to the underpaid servers but “…to support hospitality employers who have taken a major financial hit…”
Nah. No one gives my company extra money just because we otherwise might not stay open in hard times so why should I feel indebted to a fancy cocktail bar that can’t make rent?
Personally, I love the way tips are currently handled. I’m pretty extravagant with my tips. I tend to eat/drink at a handful of my favorite restaurants/bars/food-trucks, and it is comforting to know that the servers/bartenders/hosts will treat me as a valued guest. Once the pandemic is “over” it is nice to know I will be able to walk into a crowded bar, make eye-contact with the bartender, and have her hand me a draft beer as I approach the service area.
And by extension, the person not as well-off as you gets lesser service because they somehow haven’t cleared the ambiguous bar you are setting. The bartender, instead, fawns over you and your cash.
That doesn’t sound like a good system. That sounds like what you’d do if you wanted to escalate a race to the bottom in terms of guaranteed wages and clarity of prices.
Not everyone tips like you and if they did you’d probably be complaining about having to pay more to get the preferential you think you deserve. Also, you help perpetuate the system that introduces uncertainty about a living wage into the lives of those who serve you.
Not only that, but restaurants usually give servers a percentage of each order, so if a server is making only $6 an hour, he or she might additionally be getting 10% of every check, so take-out food, which doesn’t involve a server bringing it to a table, saves the owner the 10% that would go to the waitstaff.
Who packs it? the kitchen staff, or the waitstaff?
Maybe the staff doesn’t get the 20% you’d give a server, but 10% doesn’t hurt, especially if it’s ready and well-packaged when you get there. If it’s not ready to go, or you check the bag, and they haven’t given you napkins, utensils, or you’ve been handed to wrong order, then, of course, no tip.
Me too. I even tip people who are not always tipped, like housekeeping in hotels, because I know they work really hard. And I tipped Uber drivers before it was on the app. I overtip food delivery, because we have horrible speed bumps in my complex, and I want them to WANT to come here-- it really works. My son’s favorite pizza place decided to quit delivering here-- except to us.
I tip the mail carrier every New Year, and this is why oversized packages are brought to my door, instead of taken back to the office, where I have to go get them.
When I was in San Jose, I tipped waiters and cab drivers, and I think that even though most Americans abroad typically tip people who are tipped in the US, in the place I was in, most Americans were students, so maybe not so much. Anyway, I did get great service when I was a repeat customer.
I won’t add my voice to the ‘tipping sucks’ non debate, particularly as no country on earth can match the USA for extreme tipping culture, so I’ll just say what I do.
I have always tipped c. 10% in restaurants (in the UK), and am fully aware many people don’t bother or tip little, but doing less makes me feel like a cheapskate. Waiting tables is miserable and badly paid and I appreciate what they do.
During Covid, I have stuck to local independent restaurants (where the waiters can often be the owners or at least long-standing employees), and I’ll be devastated if they close or lose their jobs, so my tipping has increased to about 15%. Any more would feel weird, like I’m doling out charity.
Tipping in bars/pubs has kinda gone out of fashion here - I got tips from regulars back in the early 90s, but haven’t noticed anyone tip bar staff for donkeys years.
I still tip taxis about 10% but going by their general surprise/glee when I do, I think I’m a dying breed.
I am a member of American Society, where it has been decided, and even encoded into law, that a significant portion of certain people’s income will be tip based. The prices of certain goods and services I may choose to buy are based on that assumption. To accept those reduced prices while refusing to pay the customary tip, is… dishonest. I know that the prices are lower than they should be, specifically because the serving staff is largely paid outside of the restaurant’s cost structure.
You can choose to frequent non-tipping establishments. But if you DO choose a tipping establishment, don’t use effectively unpaid labor for your own benefit.
I don’t particularly like tipping and I never tipped for food I walked in and picked up before, but I do during the pandemic. Like at my local Chinese restaurant that I’ve been going to for years, I see the same staff there as before, and I know they aren’t making table tip money any more because they aren’t doing inside dining. So I’m happy to add a few dollars for a tip.
They’re not paid a proper, guaranteed wage. At least, today, the day perhaps you are visiting to use their services, they are not paid a proper guaranteed wage.
Tipping is a stupid custom. I’ve never worked a tipped job in my life and my service or performance at my jobs was fine. Now that said a stupid custom is still a custom and for sit down restaurants we follow the custom. It is fascinating to see the custom increase from 10% to 20% even though prices go up as well. A double increase so to speak.
For take out during the pandemic we tip as a symbol of appreciation for working near other folks during a pandemic and as a way, however small, to help with the economy but we generally don’t.
I don’t see tipping going away because I think too many enjoy the weird power dynamic.
This is not true, as pointed out upthread. The law (as posted on the wall in every employer’s building) is that tipped workers can be paid less than the minimum wage…if the tips make up the difference. If nobody tipped, the restaurant would be required to pay their waitstaff minimum wage. The tipped staff usually make more than back-of-house due to tips.