We threw away so many unwanted components of “meals”, that we finally order a la carte. Typically I don’t get too much grief about this, and if I do, I just cede the point.
But when I ask for just chicken and 1 large side at the Colonel (not enough chicken to make a meal, and made up of pieces prepared differently), or just the fish at Long John’s, or whatever off menu combination we want wherever we are, then I usually give the counter server a buck or 2 for not making me crazy. Do you?
It would never even occur to me to order something that wasn’t on the menu at a fast food restaurant. That’s not how fast food works (in my mind, anyway).
The very notion of tipping at fast food restaurants is odd to me. Are the workers even allowed by the company to handle orders not on the menu? Doesn’t that throw off the till?
Well, it’s hot here, and sometime we like cold sides, but not theirs, but we don’t want to cook, so we kind of free lance. It always puzzles the counter people, but most of the time they try to do what I’ve asked, and so I feel like I should let them know I appreciate it.
Since the mainstream fast food restaurants never have a tip jar, in my experience, how exactly do you tip? And why does the counter person deserve it more than the kitchen workers?
My understanding is, like most mainstream businesses nowadays, that fast food workers can’t accept tips. If they are, they were potentially breaking rules and facing punishment if caught.
Most fast food employees can’t accept tips, by company policy.
So you could be putting them in a tough spot. Getting fired from a minimum wage job over a dollar would suck.
Rather than tipping, my recommendation is to be polite and concise.
Get your order placed with the least amount of fuss and wasted time possible.
and never, ever, make ‘joke orders’, mumble at the cashier, pretend to be deaf, etc.
I like this thinking. There is a place near where I work that does a vast array of Bánh mì, many different varieties, on many different breads that they bake. So you go in and ask for, “A satay chicken on soft wholemeal” or “BBQ pork on a crisp white” or one of the other offerings. Each is presented differently and they ask if you want fresh chopped chili. However, now that it is popular the buying process has been corrupted by people who think they are at subway - no coriander(cilantro), no chili, no onion, no soy sauce etc, etc,etc. Idiots!
I suppose I should add that in Australia you only tip if you have received extraordinary service. If you tip at a fast food place I think you can be committed as legally insane.
I’ve noticed people tip in fast food places if their food is brought to the table. In California, Farmer Boys not only has a server bring your food, but the server will stop by the table and ask if everything is ok. I’ve also witness this at two different KFC on very slow days. At Farmer Boys and the two KFCs, people have left tips, probably feeling obligated to do so since the server did bring the food and check up on it.
No because all they do is press a different button or at the most, two or three. If that was truly an inconvenience worth paying them for an extra ten minutes worth of work I’d consider it but I worked enough fast food to know roughly half my customers didn’t want meals, they wanted individual items.
Yeah, I’m not really seeing what the OP is getting at, since they aren’t ordering “off-menu”, they’re just not ordering the combo meals. Heck, when I go to McDonald’s, I always ask for no pickles/no onions, and it’s like two extra buttons.
I’m unclear. Are you ordering individual menu items that are listed as available separately or are you requesting things prepared in ways that are not listed as available on the menu? I can’t think of many fast food places I’ve visited where pretty much every menu item in combos was not also individually available.
I order individual menu items all the time. I not a big combos fan. I’m unclear why providing you with these individual items is big hassle or warrants tipping.