I tip. Usually about 10%. I like being nice to people and it’s a small price to pay to help someone out who probably doesn’t make very much.
If I am calling in an order and then going there and picking it up, I’m not tipping. This week, this topic came up on the radio and apparently some restaurants do take out where you pull into a spot and someone comes out to your car and gives you your food. I have never seen anything like that but in that case I would tip.
No cite but I read someplace that a company had $ 170 bill at a food truck and didn’t tip on it. A food truck worker tweeted it or Facebook that the company who ordered the bill were cheap. And called them out on the no tip thingy. The company called the owners of the food truck, who the apologize and fired the worker.
I would tip on takeout because if it’s a restaurant and not a drivethru, it’s a huge pain in the ass for them to make it up.
I’ve never had food from a food truck, but if he was fired for that, I’d wonder if maybe the company gave him the money for the tip and he pocketed it…or maybe they were just looking for a reason to get rid of him. It just seems like a ‘we’re missing something’ story.
I often order food from sit-down restaurants that I take back to my desk. Most of these places recognise me, so I like to have a good relationship with them. But since ‘being served’ is just putting the stuff in a bag, and not bringing plates to a table, making sure my water glass is full, asking if I’d like another beer, and other things that ‘add value’ to sit-down dining, I tip less for take-out than I do for dining in.
I write ‘take-out’ or ‘t/o’ on the tip line, and add a dollar or two (basically 10%). for the tip.
This.
At Chinese restaurants, the takeout order is usually prepared by cooks, waitress and counter person. It takes time and effort, just like serving and they deserve something because their basic salary is predicated on being augmented by tips.
Here goes – if you call up and order dinner to-go at Outback, Chili’s etc the person who brings the food to your car is making the restaurant minimum wage ($4.65/hr) so probably nt a bad idea to tip them. OTOH, at Starbucks, etc employees make at least federal minimum wage, and often times more depending on the store.
Tipping at an pizza or Chinese place brings up the old argument of “should you tip the owner?”
There was a story in today’s paper. Here is the link;
I generally tip a couple bucks if it’s a place I plan to take out from in the future. I want them to remember me and remember my napkins/ketchup and get me out the door quickly.
I never tip on takeout. I cross out the tip line–I just assume it’s there because the same receipts are used for dine-in and carry out. Otherwise, I tip 20% for table service.
I usually give a dollar or two. I have been a customer at my main takeout place for about 10 years and they know me and my preferences and my kids’ names and all. I give $7-8 on a delivery and 20-30% dine in. It’s owned and operated by a fairly young husband and wife and I don’t feel weird at all tipping the owner.
I tip for take-out, and for “counter” service where you order at a counter and they come bring your food to you.
One time, I was at a counter-service wing place in Portland, Oregon. There was no tip jar, and no place on the receipt to write in a tip. I asked her if there was any way I could tip her. She was like, “Excuse me? You want to tip me?” I said, “Yeah definitely! Can I just give you the cash” and she was like “well… I’m not going to say no!”
It was kind of sad but made me realize that I guess most people just don’t tip for that kind of service. She was probably making at least Oregon minimum wage though, but still, I feel at least a small tip is appropriate in those situations.
I also kind of want to tip fast food people when they are extra friendly and nice, but I know that they are not allowed to accept them.
I guess I’m just a generous tipper in general, and often tip in situations I don’t need to. But yeah, I do tip for takeout, at least 10-15%.
That’s how I decide whether to tip or not.
If you’re being served by waitstaff who are only paid a few dollars an hour and have to get tips to survive, then I think it’s fair to give them at least $1 or 10% of the order total for takeout. Not giving a tip in that situation makes you look like a jerk in my opinion.
At places like coffee shops, ice cream parlors, or “fast casual” places, the staff are getting paid at least minimum wage. They aren’t living large, but they’re not relying so much on tips to get by. I think tipping is a NICE thing to do and they will surely appreciate it, but I don’t feel guilty for not doing it.
No tip unless I eat it there. I don’t give a crap what you get paid, if it’s not enough, work someplace else.
And if the peasants are hungry, let them eat cake!
As mentioned, it’s not expected. But making a take out order is not less work than a waiting a table (often its more- those containers are a PITA and take out orders are on top of your other work) nor do counter staff generally make more than waitstaff.
Here’s a post by Brendan O’Connor, fired by the Milk Truck food truck after he tweeted that employees of Glass Lewis & Co. placed a complex order that cost $170 but left no tip. He said, “I asked some of the group as they were picking up their orders if they had intended to not tip. They hemmed and hawed and walked away.” Personally, I think Glass Lewis ought to apologize.
If I were a customer of that food truck, they’d lose my business if I saw that tweet. I’m not going to shop at a place that’s going to write about me if I don’t tip them well enough. F that. And the owner was right to fire the employee. He made the business look bad. I know the employees work for tips, but the owner needs that business coming down for $170 lunches every day/week/month/however often and now it’s gone because of a disgruntled employee…plus, we don’t have the whole story. Maybe the order was wrong the first time they made it, maybe the employee was a jackass, maybe a million other things (maybe none of these are true and they just stiffed them on the tip for no reason, like I said earlier, I didn’t know you tip food truck people, maybe they didn’t either).
But, still, for an employee to publicly shame a customer, that’s terrible. If I found out one of my employees took to Facebook or twitter (especially if it was our official feed) and did something like that, over, what, thirty dollars), I’d be effing furious and they’d be out on their ass too. Especially considering it was a group of 12 customers that might be regulars.
On top of everything else, this guy didn’t seem like he really cared that he was fired which (in my experience, and I have a lot of it) means he probably didn’t really care about the job and maybe that showed and maybe that’s why he wasn’t tipped…think about that.
You are not obligated to tip, as has been pointed out already, but a couple things to keep in mind:
I worked at a restaurant that had take-out as well as table service. I was paid the same – $2 and change per hour – whether I was waiting tables or taking and packing up to-go orders.
I worked at a pizza place that had a dining room but officially was counter-service only (although we would still bring your pizza, plates, and silverware out to your table for you). In this case we actually made minimum wage, but $8 an hour really ain’t that much relative to how physically demanding the job was.
A little compassion costs you little but means a lot to the person on the receiving end.
But somebody has to do that job…