It’s that time of year again: This morning, I got my annual “gimme some money or you’ll never see your NY Times again” card.
How much money are we expected to fork over to the folks who deliver our papers? I might add, all he does is drive by and fling the paper in the general direction of my house. He’s usually on time, but NEVER gets it anywhere near the front steps.
Five bucks? Ten?
Either would be fine, and infinitely better than zip. I, the original cheap-ass polock, habitually avoid tipping anyone I do not physically come in contact with. But this year I seriously thought of tossing a tenspot towards the paper guy. We got a new guy, and he was coming to our house after I left for work. So we asked, and he put us earlier on his route.
Now, I didn’t actually send him anything. Old habits die hard. But I thought about it. Maybe I’m geting soft in my dotage (in places other than my head.) At this rate, next year I may actually keep his address around a few days before “misplacing” it. In a decade or so the paper guy may actually see some green from me!
Anyone else get a christmas “tip” from you?
About a year back I wrote a message here asking if you should tip your trash guys. About 75% said no. Those guys still put an envelope on the can each year.
I’m not tipping the paper deliverer or the letter carrier or the trash guys… I pay for a service and they provide it. Why should I pay more to people I never see for doing a job that they chose and that they are paid to do?
Then again, I have a basic problem with tipping in general… sanctioned extortion, that’s all it is…
Uh, this is sort of a dopey question, but does the paper delivery guy leave his address in the card? Cause my guy just hurls the paper onto the stoop, so it’s not like I can leave my tip between the doors (as my parents can - their guy actually comes to the door.) At my last apartment, the delivery person left me a Christmas card with no address in it. He did not get a tip, but I guess that’s his fault.
I have never tipped a paper delivery person. I didn’t know I was suppose to. The only envelope I ever get is the one with the bill. I just pay the bill, with a check so I can prove it.
Does that make me a bad person?
I’ll be tipping my paper guy or girl - I’ve never actually seen the person - $10 cash and probably a gift certificate for the local cinema.
My paper’s delivered right to my front door, well before 6:00 every morning, and lately the temperature’s been -30 to -25 at that time of day (it’s also pitch black that early in the morning.)
That’s easily worth an extra $20 or so. This person’s making minimum or less, would be my guess. It’s the least I can do.
When we receive our annual bill for our subscription to The Denver Post, there’s a handy little spot there for you to add a tip.
I’m not quite sure why I do, but I always an extra $10 for the delivery person. I wonder what happens if they change delivery people in the middle of the year.
A week or so back our paper came with a photocpied sheet he stuck in it saying “Best Wishes” from your news carrier, Joe Blow, and included his address.
I buy my Times and News on the way to the subway. On the weekends, I walk down to the corner newsstand and pick them up. And throw away the fifteen pounds of advertising supplements, sports pages, and automobile news on the way back home.
My entire senior year in college, I stole the NY Times the guy one floor down from me had delivered. Well, three or four times a week, anyway, on the way to breakfast, depending on my mood.
So I’ll probably never subscribe to a newspaper, at least not as long as I live in NYC. Why give the Karma a chance to bite me back?
Oh, how I weep for this new generation of newspaper carriers. They come and go in anonymity, tossing their bundles on our front steps (if their aim is decent) and disappearing like the wind, their presence only noticed if we happen to hear the “whump” of a well-placed paper hit the door. The “whumps” around here are few and far between, as most of my papers wind up on the walk and never make it near the porch.
When I was a strapping lad of 12 years old, I had a paper route and we did things differently, dammit! There was none of this pay-your-bill-through-the-mail nonsense. I had to go door to door every month to collect from my customers. They would pay me for the past month, and I would give them little perforated receipt tickets, one for each week of delivery. I got to know every person on my route and they got to know me.
I cleaned up at Christmas like nobody’s business. The holiday tips were what we carriers looked forward to all year. Mostly I got $5, ocassionally $10, and one person always tipped $20 every year. And this was over 20 years ago, so that was a HUGE tip, especially to a 12 year old.
Nowadays, I couldn’t even tell you who my carrier is. I pay through the mail, I never see him/her when the paper is delivered in the morning, and I don’t even think about tipping. And I don’t feel guilty about it either. Why should I tip someone whom I have never met? Delivering papers these days is ridiculously easy. The carriers only have to put in an hour or so per day, they never have to collect door to door (which was usually a two or three day process), and they are paid automatically. They don’t have to handle all the money, don’t have to keep going back to customers who couldn’t pay on the first visit, etc.
Ahhh, things used to be so different…(cue stirring music).
I would gladly tip my Denver Post delivery person if said person made any effort whatsoever to get the paper to my porch. I don’t even think it’s an option. In the summer, I figure I’m lucky if it hits the driveway as opposed to the grass, where it will promptly get soaked by the sprinklers coming on in the morning.
In the winter, I get to put on my boots to go search the gutters for my paper.
I’ve often thought that it would be a good way for an enterprising kid to make money to go around the neighborhood and pick up papers and put them on the porch in the mornings. I’d gladly pay $10-$15/month or so for such service, and I’m guessing a lot of other people would, too. I see lots of kids out walking their dogs in the morning - for a little more effort, they could bring in a couple hundred a month doing this. And I’d tip 'em at Christmas.
Those halcyon days aren’t quite so long gone. I went through similar experiences delivering a local paper from when I was 10 until I left for college at 18 – 1987 to 1995. And I didn’t have a car, damnit, so this was REAL trudging through snow. Up the driveway, paper on the doorstop, or the plastic bag hung on the doorknob, or wherever, depending on the homeowner’s preference, then back down the driveway, down to the next street, and back up. I got to know everyone in the neighborhood. There was a house over on Loring Lane that had three different families while I was still delivering on the same route…
I loved the generous people who would let me cut across their lawn- I wouldn’t do it unless I was specifically told that it was okay, since it did shave a little time off of the route.
One of the best experiences I had while delivering papers was collecting in December of '89 or '90. It was cold, it was frigid, the snow was blowing and the windchill was horrific. I had put off collecting, hoping that weather would improve, but it got to the point where I had to go out and round up the cash. Out of roughly 80 houses, nearly 60 invited me in to warm up, or for cocoa, or gave me a bigger holiday tip because of how pathetic I looked.
Yeah, maybe that was unwitting extortion, but I deserved it, damnit.
To return to the original subject, $5 is a good way to show your approval, unless the paper carrier has gone above and beyond the call of duty. If you’ve requested earlier delivery, special treatment, or anything that makes the carrier go out of his way while you pay the same amount, it’s probably best to give a little extra.
Ike—I have to subscribe; there’s exactly ONE drugstore in town and they get exactly ONE copy of the NY Times. And no way am I rolling out of bed at 8:00 on weekend mornings to grab that copy! Besides, I read it before I go to work, with a cat sitting on my lap.
My paper guy tucked a card in my paper this morning with his name and return address, and the unspoken message is, “you think my aim is bad NOW? Tip me, or you’ll never see your paper again!”
Whaddaya think, a five or a ten? Shall I write a little note thanking him for his promptness but asking him to work on his aim?
My delivery guy gets about 90% of my papers to me–on other days, there’s nothing there. This is especially ludicrous considering that I live in a HIGH RISE APARTMENT and the damn fool walks up and down the halls plonking papers down.
That said, 1) he lives in the bad side of town [he left his address and a “Season’s Greetings” card] and 2) my delivery will probably get even more sporadic if I don’t throw him a bone. I’m giving him $5.
Hey, Eve, you think you have trouble? I live in an apartment building with a staff of around 20, plus the paper delivery guy, two mail guys, a UPS guy, etc. Everyone expects tips, and frankly I want to give them more than I can afford. My wife comes in handy for reminding me that we’ve got over 30 people on our list so we’ve got to cut them all back. For the doormen, etc., we tip some during the year, so I don’t feel so bad at the holidays. As for the paper guys, I sent $10 in the envelope last year; it came back undeliverable, so I won. I’m going to do the same this year - these people deliver my paper on time, in rain, sleet, etc.
YMMV, of course.
Eve darling. Tip the dear boy. Be generous. Its Christmas time. For any poor sod who delivers newspapers for a living, the tip will mean much. Five or ten is quite reasonable.
Merry, Merry.
Dave
Eve, this is just us, but here’s what our guys get for Christmas:
Mailman: $20
Paper Guy/Chick: $20
Garbage Guys (there are 2): $20 and a case of beer.
The thing is, though, we have “relationships” of a sort with these people.
For instance, my mailman, whom we have gotten to know pretty well, has, in the past, called us on the phone before going on his route (yes, I know this is strange, but there is a history there that is too long to get into) to let us know when a paycheck hasn’t arrived if it’s more than 3 days late.
The Paper People - they have to get out of their car, walk a ways, and physically put the paper on my porch. They do this through the snow, they do this in the rain - they have left the paper balanced on the railing of the porch when it has been raining hard so it won’t sit in a huge puddle (gutter problems - I know - we have to fix them).
Garbage Guys - they are just all around cool, and Mr2U and I talk to them every week - they have always taken stuff for us when we’re SUPPOSED to call for a special pick up - and they don’t make fun of the unbeliveable number of Old Style cans they pick up each week. 
So Missy, how ARE things back in Mayberry?
Damn! Sounds like you have a better relationships with your garbage men than I do with my best friends. And your mailman is more considerate than my siblings.
Eve, slip the guy a $20 and a photo of you in a negligee, and then see how outrageous you can be commanding your new lapdog.
(Oh yeah. Don’t forget to send me a copy of the photo as well!)
Put an envelope out with their name on it, with a card saying, here is $20, merry xmas; but don’t put any money in it. rip the top of it. That way they think you gave generously but someone took their money.