I was reading this story this morning, and was wondering would you really be expected to tip on a take-away order regardless of how big it is? Don’t get me wrong I get tipping while dining in for the service, (I think it’s stupid but I get it within the US) but for take-away?
I’ve visited the US a few times, and think I generally do a good job conforming to local custom vis a vis tipping, but I’ve never tipped on take-away orders. Was I getting the stink eye behind my back?
Related aside, the ex-waitress mentions taking almost her entire shift. Unless they do things a bit different in Outback Steakhouse, why would a person whose primary job is presumably waiting tables spend so long on it? I can see a few minutes to check the order and walk it out, but her whole shift?
I don’t tip on take away. Why would that be a thing? Is it because sub minimum wage workers are pulled away from tipped work? If so, I could see a case being made for it.
Florida has a minimum wage of $8.25, with a maximum tip credit of $3.02, meaning that the employer has to pay at least $5.23/hr assuming tips, but must cover the full minimum wage for times when tips do not. But paychecks are typically over a one or two week span, so I can imagine that the averaging might get a bit dodgy. The waitress might have thought she would be getting stiffed for that job if her weekly tips would normally be enough to cover the credit for the pay period.
She had to work putting together a 75 item order, which breaks down to three items apiece for 25 people. I can see that taking a long time. I don’t know about her entire shift, but taking care of 25 people is like waiting on six tables, even though the order was phoned in ahead. She was wrong to go on Facebook and bitch about not getting a tip, though. It seems like a misunderstanding that could have been worked out if she had just kept her cool.
Also, while employers have to make each paycheck up to the minimum wage, fessing up to receiving so little in tips that the employer has to make up the difference is a good way to get a final paycheck.
I don’t know what the real custom is, and I expect most people don’t tip on takeout, but I usually try to add in about 10%. Most places I do takeout from are places that I’ll revisit, so I want to be known as one of the good guys. Same thing at one of my favorite places where, even if you eat there, you order at the counter. But I go there easily once a week.
I always thought tipping was for the person who was “taking care of you” while you were sitting at a table in a restaurant. Not for the person picking up a bag of food, handing it to you, and then collecting your money. You don’t tip fast food places for the same reason. They aren’t waiting on you, they are taking your order, collecting your money and handing you food. Nowadays some fast food places don’t even take your order or collect your money. They have a kiosk that does that. When I go to my local pizza place I don’t tip for take out. If I sit down and I am served a pizza that’s a different story.
I usually pay in cash and throw the coins (or a dollar, if the servers are pleasant) and into the tip jar. Doesn’t seem like much, but if everyone did it, it would add up.
I don’t tip for takeout but then I don’t order food for 25+ people either. 90% of the time, I don’t even see a server and whoever is working the register reaches down, hands me a bag and tells me what i owe. I assume the kitchen did the cooking the food and dropping it in a container part so there’s no real server to be tipped.
Edit: 25 steaks, 25 chickens and 25 potatoes? Was each person eating a steak, a chicken and a potato?
I tip some on carry-out orders, a few bucks extra, but not as much as if I had sat down. However, that’s for getting carry-out for just myself or myself and my wife.
If I were ordering hundreds of dollars worth of food, I’d add a full 20%.
Maybe I’m a sucker, but I usually tip 20% on takeout: we don’t eat takeout much, it’s not really all that much money, and I’d like the folks there to remember me well if they remember me at all.
Same here. I order Chipotle usually once a week online, and once the people got to recognize my name as “the woman who always puts a buck in the tip jar” I seem to get treated well. I can’t think of anywhere else I order to go, besides the occasional fast food, which I assume the OP isn’t talking about, but if it was somewhere I frequented, I would tip there as well.
I don’t tip at the fast foodish type places of course.
But if we do take out at our normal Mexican restaurant or a the normal Chinese place, or our normal Pizza place, I do tip. One I deal with the same people all the time. I want them to think well of me. And it is their living.
My wife usually does not tip if she is the one picking up at these places.
I tip 10%ish on take-out orders for sit down restaurants that aren’t dedicated to take-out or have a section just for take-out for the reasons talked about in the article. They pull servers away from their tables to handle packing it all up, adding silverware napkins, checking to make sure nothing is missing, etc.
For lunch, I used to always add a buck - throw it in the tip jar if I’m paying cash, or add it to the bill if I’m paying with a card. Now food has gotten expensive enough that a buck is starting to fall well below 10%, so I seem to be in a transition phase where sometimes it’s a buck, sometimes two, depending on how I feel. In a year or two, it’s probably be two bucks consistently. For dinner, we don’t do carry-out often, but when we do, I generally try to approximate 10% rounded to the next dollar.
Table service place like Outback that does the bulk of their business from dine in customers? I tip 10-12%. I usually order at the bar and have a beer while waiting so an additional tip for the bartender.
A place that does the bulk of their business from take out and delivery and might have a couple tables? Usually no tip unless it’s a large order or a complicated one. Of course, if I order delivery, the delivery person gets tipped.
A massive order such as the church’s? That would be a 15% tip and I can’t imagine anyone not tipping.
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The only takeout I get is pizza, which I pick up myself because I cannot stand the gall of Domino’s charging me a delivery fee and telling me none of it goes to the deliverers. So I pick it up myself, and pay myself both a delivery charge and a generous tip - with no extra going to the store.
The whole concept of tipping is really dodgy to me - the price of the service should be included in the price of the item. And when the only service I’m getting is “they cook it and hand it across the counter to me”? I figure it actually is.
I would definitely tip for a big orders. Restaurants don’t have staff dedicated to packing up food. Servers/bartenders usually do this. When they are packing up food, they can’t serve other customers–and this could negatively affect their tip earnings.
Yes, this. If I go to a sit-down restaurant and order carry-out, I tip around 10%. But holy cow, an order for 25 people? I’d expect to tip 20% or even to have it baked into the total cost (service compris, as they say in La Belle France).
I don’t want to comment on the specific situation in that story, it sounds messed up on several levels.
