Good point, yes. If it’s a regular restaurant then I do tip a bit for the reasons you mention, you’re taking the waitress away from the customers from whom she makes her real money. (PS, not all states have the archaic ‘restaurant can pay whatever they want as long as the waitress is getting tips’ regs).
As somebody who used to bartend at a steakhouse where I had the unlucky job of dealing with takeout, yes, I always tip. It’s far more trouble for me to box up all your baked potato toppings, butter, bread, side dishes, sauces, salad dressings, etc. etc., than it is for me to simply serve you the plate the kitchen made. I also find that when I get food to-go and I pay for the order prior, and tip the person, my order is almost guaranteed to be correct and probably more generous than if I didn’t. (More chips/salsa/dressings/bread/whatever.)
What I tip depends on the tab, of course; if the order is, say, $35 bucks, I will tip $5 or $6. If I were to sit down and eat it, and the service was good, I would tip $10. Great service would get $12 to $15.
I know this shouldn’t matter to the consumer but tipped employees do pay taxes and tip-out on all orders they take, regardless of whether it’s in house or to go. And while I have heard that some places have designated to-go servers that get paid minimum wage, I have never worked at one; I was always paid $2.13 regardless of how much to go food I had to deal with. Not the customer’s problem, of course, but something to consider. To-go orders are the bane of most servers’/bartenders’ existence.
I tip the change from my order at a take-out place, about 10% if I’m picking it up at a restaurant. I’m glad California doesn’t have that ‘owner’s choice’ wage because of factoring in tips.
For delivery I gladly double the tax. When it’s 115 degrees and the guy has to find the nearly-invisible street number, combat the dumb damn security gate, and then schlep up stairs to be greeted by my adorable but enthusiastic pug; well, he’s earned every penny of that tip.
At a sit-down restaurant, I tip an absolute minimum of 20%. Having done my time waiting tables, I know that the server isn’t always in control of how and when the plates hit the table.
If it’s not delivered, no I don’t tip. But I’m Canadian.
Yeah, uh, I hope this is right. If I go to Chili’s and pick up the food, I don’t tip at all. I hope I haven’t been rude. They don’t look at me weird or anything.
Don’t tip for take-out. I tip at restaurants for the whole service experience and sticking my food in a bag (especially for places where their primary business is putting food in bags) isn’t doing me any special favors that I feel an urge to throw more money on the able.
Don’t get me started on “tip creep” since I was younger.
I took out from a sushi place a few months ago. The bill came to about $33 and I handed the girl two twenties. She asked “do you want any change?”
OK, first, that phrase infuriates me. Secondly, no, I’m not tipping you like 22% because you handed me a bag full of plastic and styrofoam. I felt stupid even giving her three dollars after that. I should have just taken my food and left.
That’s because they are polite and used to being shafted. Tip on to-go orders, esp from restaurants like Chili’s with servers. Working to-go is one of those hot potato shifts that absolutely nobody wants cuz you don’t make any money and it’s more trouble than just serving the food live in the building. Surely everybody who can afford to get takeout can afford to throw a few bucks to the person who had to babysit, package and deal with the whole order for you. (And yes, it IS more trouble to package up an entire meal to go than it is to just serve it to you. Trust me I know.)
I’m considering changing my habits on this because of this thread. Tell me, though… the Chinese place down the street… they don’t have dine-in as an option. They don’t deliver. All they do is carry-out. Tip or no? Are they paid like tipped employees or not?
In the future I will always make sure I tip if I’m at a place that has sit-down service.
Hell, they may not be paid at all. I always figure they are all held hostage in the restaurant owner’s basement between shifts.
I wonder about little places like that whether the server actually gets the tip or if it just goes into the owner’s pocket.
If I pick up the food myself then no Tip. However, I would reconsider if I was a regular at a certain place.
But how do you know which restaurants use the servers and which don’t? My local (at home) BW3’s has dedicated counter staff for take-out orders. The National Coney Island is unspecified (sometimes I see the waitresses help, but usually it’s the cooks and manager). How do I know that Chili’s doesn’t? How do I know the next place does or doesn’t?
This is weird. On Monday night, the 28th, I picked up Take Out at a restaurant that is mostly a sit down restaurant. I usually tip about a dollar because I feel someone did have to package it. As I was driving back with my food I wondered about whether other people tip for this and if they tip more. I thought about starting a thread here to ask about it and then promptly forgot about it.
If I get food from a place that is primarily delivery/takeout I usually just give them the change or some spare coins.
Another question relevant to this thread: it’s common knowledge that employers have to report 15% of a waitperson’s tab to the IRS and state governments, but does that also go for the carry-out tabs?
Yes. Well, usually.
In fine dining, they report on individual server’s total tabs. Also in not as fine, say like a Chili’s, where everything is computerized and they can pull up exactly how much each server served. In both of those types of places, there’s likely to be either a dedicated take-out person though.
The diner or family-owned non-chain place that doesn’t have that type of software tracking uses the older way; which is total sale volume of the year divided by total volume of servers. They come up with an average of X amount of tips per hour per server that way. Which means the servers with the slower shifts or that just aren’t tipped as highly for whatever reason are screwed. Granted, many of those restaurants rely on self-reporting, it only becomes an issue at tax time when the IRS counts up the reported tips and compares it to the average estimates. Then anyone who reported under that average for the year gets hit with extra and taxed accordingly.
Back in my time take outs were part of the grand total. I’ll ask a restaurant owner I know if it’s still the same and report back.
Me too - one place I stop at a few times a month only does take-out. And, I know for a fact that the staff makes at least minimum wage, not the lowered wage that servers at a full-service restaurant make.
This makes me wonder though - why is it customary to tip at Starbucks, but not tip the servers at BK or McDonalds, etc? I assume because Starbucks puts tip jars out, but why didn’t fast food restaurants ever get onboard with this?
Many Chinese restaurants (at least the ones I patronize) are family affairs. I tip because I’ve gotten to know the various “employees” (family members).
It’s not.
I’m that guy, and I do appreciate your tips.
I answer phones and take orders for take out. Also for deliveries. We’re kind of a complicated restaurant, and many of our regular customers have “special” orders off the menu that we get on a regular basis. Modify modify modify items off the menu. The computer system we use is a bit dated and lots of modifications are on sub-menus that you just have to learn where the buttons are buried. It can be a bit complicated. Time is the biggest factor here. If I’m on the phone and it takes me more than five minutes to input your special order, I can’t answer the other six phone lines we have. Our management is of the style that if a customer says boo about an error on the item, their entire check gets comped. This also comes out of the paycheck of whomever made the error. Anything for the customer.
So I take orders, input them into the 'puter, double check with the chefs to make sure they understand all the mods, bag up orders for delivery drivers (who aren’t allowed to bag food; I have to do it for them to make sure it’s right), bag my own orders and still answer the phones. It gets quite hectic.
I know it sounds like a simple job, but sometimes it is quite complicated. Just like any other job, the devil is in the details.
So, thank you for your tips.
I’d report this. It’s most probably illegal.