Ooh, what a rebel. :rolleyes:
Huh, this thread has grown interesting. Do a lot of you carry out at typical sit-down restaurants? Do you mind if I ask what type of food/what you order?
Now that I think about it, only my Chinese place is sit down. Every other place has like, 5 seats and is completely geared towards take-out.
If you stand behind a counter and are legally required to wear a hat? No tip.
I’ve got a young kid, so if we feel like having restaurant food without making a big production out of it (i.e., babysitter), I’ll go have a drink at a typical sit-down restaurant and grab something to go. Type of food is just the same as we would order if we went there.
You really have chinese restaurants that order single-serving size soy sauce from two manufacturers in order to give the “good stuff” to good tippers?
I doubt.
It depends. My general attitude is that if a couple bucks is no big deal to you- as in you really don’t think about the difference between a $12.00 entree and a $10.00 one, or you can grab a cup of coffee from Starbucks on your way to work without budgeting for it- it’s worth it to plunk down a tip. You can be assured that it’s going to someone who is working very hard, and could use the money. We have very few chances to do good deeds in this world, it’s hard to pass one up that’s just right in front of you. That’s just my personal belief.
I think most hostesses make minimum wage, or near to it, and are “tipped out” by the waiters. It’s generally consider a training position for people who are hoping to wait tables. It’s a tough job because neither the waiters nor the customers are going to be entirely happy with you how you are doing it.
It’s the done thing nowadays, and no matter how much you personally believe it isn’t / shouldn’t be necessary, it doesn’t make you look like any less of a cheapskate/asshole when you don’t.
Do you tip the clerk at 7-11 when you buy a sandwich or a chocolate bar? And yet they had to work to stock the shelves. About the same amount of work stuffing your food into a bag at the local take out window, imho.
Same way paying someone $2.15 an hour is legal. That’s how it works when you wait tables–anything you make over $2.15/hour is purely the largess of either your boss or your customers, and you pay income tax on your wages plus either your actual tips or 8% of your sales, whichever is higher. That last, btw, is not a policy set by the restaurant; that’s the IRS, baby.
At a fast food place that is set up for to-go orders, yes.
But putting together a to-go order at a regular restaurant is a fair among of work, especially if that restaurant does’t get many to-go orders and the supplies are not handy. Counterspace is at a premium, and a to-go order can have you running to and fro all over the restaurant looking for the ketchup packets or the little plastic cups you need to carefully fill with salad dressing, especially if it is harming your ability to serve your probably full load of tipping sit-down tables.
No it isn’t.
If I’m getting carry-out, it’s almost always Red Robin. I order at the bar, have some free fries while waiting for my food, and tip the same as I would if I were eating there.
It definitely is - I worked in a restaurant that also did a lot of carry-out business and had dedicated carry-out people. Those guys sometimes made as much in tips during a shift as I did waiting tables. Although they also did an optional “curbside pickup” thing where they brought the order out to people’s cars, so I guess they put in slightly more effort than average.
I do Tips on Carry out, but certainly not 10%, like the OP- unless my order was super-complicated. Dinner for two @ say $40, so I leave 2-3 bucks. In the OP’s case, I’d say a ten-spot would be generous.
Interesting. I’m often accused by friends of being overly generous on tips to servers and I tip even mediocre service, but it’s a fact that I only rarely tip on takeout and then usually only a token tip to round out the bill.
I had no idea this had become a new paradigm :).
I’m lazy. My rule of thumb: if the credit card slip has a tip line, I tip. I can’t be arsed to figure out when I should or shouldn’t put down a couple extra bucks.
I’ve done take-out from casual dining chains before. Sometimes you just want something better than fast food, and I dislike dining out alone.
I’m lazy too. If they deliver food to my house or office, they’re getting a tip. If there’s a waiter or waitress bringing food to my table, they get tipped too. And bartenders. Everyone else can pound sand.
I tip 15% - 20% whenever I get carry-out.
nb: It’s always the same sushi place. My “While I’m waiting” beer is on the table for me before I’ve finished ordering. I used to tip 10%* for carry-out, but I absent-mindedly left my work laptop there (right beside the front door) a couple of years ago and found it waiting for me when they opened in the morning. I am still grateful for that.
10% or a little more would be the norm, otherwise.
I am not sure if it is yet the done thing, but I do think you’ve got a point.
Much like pajama pants in a sit down restaurant (as I saw Sunday morning, good god fellow Minnesotans!), tipping for take out is becoming the trend. Especially as traditional sit-down restaurants are increasingly offering take-out, it is more likely that a server will be under minimum wage and will be taxed for handling your food.
The whole reason I order take-out (instead of delivery) is because I don’t want to tip. If I’m spending my gasoline and time to go get it, I’m not tipping. But I don’t order take-out from places who don’t deliver, too. Chinese and pizza and a local sandwich place, and that’s all I take out from (other than fast food, to which this debate is not applicable).
I guess if I was going to go to a nice sit-down place and get take-out, I might consider tipping. But if I’m going to go to a nice sit-down place, I’d rather sit down and get their dishes dirty than carry out… since I’m tipping either way.