Tipping

[ShadiRoxan]

I’ve been waiting tables throughout college and have never seen any instances of servers spitting in the food or any of those other things. If some one is known to leave bad tips I’ve seen their quality of service go down but never anything that involves bodily fluid in food.

Also those of you who think serving is easy… Yes it only seems like I’m taking your order, refilling your drink and bringing out the food and the check. But all of that involves timing. Not only timing of your particular table, but the four others I have too. That’s not including the running sidework throughout the shift. Coffee and tea has to be made, the ice bins need to be filled, dishes need to be brought to the cooks, glasses restocked. These are just a few of the things that we need to do. And there’s always at least one person who slacks off in doing this.

If you think that including the service charge in the meal or giving the servers a set wage will make things better, then you’re not thinking about the quality of service you’re going to be getting. I know that my earnings depends on you being happy. I try to do everything possible to make that happen. If your food is taking too long, I’m back there riding the kitchen’s ass. I’m also trying to give you everything else possible to pacify you until it’s ready. Those little extras I’m giving you aren’t simply from the kindness of my heart. If you’re not satisfied with something you ordered it’s me begging the management to go and speak with you. I’m the one that has to face the wrath of the kitchen and their displeasure at having to recook something. Majority of these things would probably come to an end if servers had a set pay.

Also the mandatory tip out the servers have to pay… I pay 2.5 % of my sales to the hostesses. They’re making at least $4.50 an hour and getting 2.5% of the stores sales. This is suppose to be because she’s bussing my tables and seating me. I noticed a trend of the tables closest to the hostess stand getting cleaned more often and in turn getting seated more often. They don’t really care who the table goes to, they’re making the same reguardless. And tipping the bar… They tend to take care of their guests before they take care of mine. That’s why your drink can take up to ten minutes to make.

So your response to me is to get a job that doesn’t rely on tips. I’ve tried. For some reason employers don’t like to think of waiting tables as coustomer service experience, nor do they like to think of it as commissioned work. I’ve been told repeatedly that they can’t hire me due to lack of “experience”. I would love to have a job where I don’t have to see people at their worst. (Trust me, hungry people are not pleasant.) I go back to it because I simply have to to pay my bills. I make decent money, but I work my ass off physically and emotionally for every penny I make. I’m often treated like a nameless, faceless droid by most people. I get no eye contact and am often ignored when I say something. I have resisted the urge to breaking fingers when I see some one snapping to get my attention. I have to answer the same things constantly, often times at the same table simply because I’m tuned out. I have come home with knots so big that I can see them on my back. Is the money worth it, probably not. But what else am I suppose to do in an economy in the state of this one while I’m finishing up college?

Also for those of you who are against the idea of tipping, stop going to these places to eat. Even if you do write in complaints, they’re not going to care as long as you’re still giving them your money.

[JohnNSS]

Tipping is a lousy system that cheats nearly everyone and a stated percentage service charge is not much better. If a meal costs $20.00 to deliver to a table and clear away the used dishes, the menu (and the bill) should state $20.00, not $17.40 with the diner expected to determine to add 15% ($2.60) to the bill. The waiter’s wage should be a matter between the waiter, the restaurant owner, and the IRS. It should not be a concern of the customer. When you go into Barney’s to buy your latest trendy garment do you pay according to what the clerk needs to pay his rent that month or according to the pricetag? A restaurant should be the same. It is not a matter of cheap it is a matter of exploitation – of the customer, not the waiter!

And the practice that some waiters have started of deciding that a certain part of the customer’s change is too small to justify their attention is just purely dishonest. Convenience has nothing to do with the issue. If the bill is 19.65 and you give the waiter/cashier a twenty-dollar bill and the waiter does not return the .35 change, he has stolen that $.35. To hold otherwise is simply self-deception.

[Maggie_C]

*Originally posted by JohnNSS *
It is not a matter of cheap it is a matter of exploitation – of the customer, not the waiter!

Then, as I said before, complain to the corporate offices of any restaraunt you frequent. Tell them that you feel cheated because you’re paying one bill for food and another for service, and threaten not to return to their establishment. Get your friends and coworkers to do the same. Just, don’t be surprised if these servers that don’t have to bust your ass for their tip don’t really care much about you or your food.

If the bill is 19.65 and you give the waiter/cashier a twenty-dollar bill and the waiter does not return the .35 change, he has stolen that $.35. To hold otherwise is simply self-deception.

What of the day when your bill is $14.78 and your server/cashier gives you 5.00 in change because he doesn't have the coins to give you the change? It happens more than you think, if all you think about is piece of gum your .35 could have gotten you.

[scotandrsn]

Don’t have time to read the entire thread, so my apologies if I’m repeating points:

My father always tries to tip in cash, because he said a restaurant he worked for in college took a chunk off the credit card tips. Some dining companions of mine one night thought this was crap, so we asked our waiter, He said he hadn’t worked at the current restaurant long enough to know, but they did just this at his previous waiting job.

I have even known restaurants whose waitpersons’ policy was to pool recorded tips and divide them equally at the end of the night. In some cases, the restaurant would grant itself a slice of the pie as though it were an extra waiter.

Tipping in cash is a double-edged penknife. On the one hand, you pay your waitperson exactly what you think they deserve, and they can get away with not reporting it to the restaurant or the feds.

However, the feds use the restaurant’s stated income and the reported tips on the W-2 (which are generally based only on tips reported on charge slips) as the basis for reviewing a waiter’s tax return. If the waiter’s stated earnings in tips on their 1040 is less than 15% of the restaurant’s income, the waiter can get penalized (I used to live with a waitress and helped her do her tax return).

Remember when considering tip:

Federal law states that employees working an occupation that is traditionally tipped can be paid as little as $2.15 per hour in wages. Even the waiters at expensive restaurants are often paid this, relying on the larger tips rendered by inflated food prices for their living.

Also remember that, as mentioned previously, the bill often does not give a pretax subtotal, or a predrink subtotal. A certain amount of napkin math is necessary to reduce the tip in accordance with these items. The waiters know this, and are understandably miffed at your willingness to go to such efforts to “short-change” them.

If you engage is such practices at a restaurant you frequent, remember that the waiter who recognizes you as the one who took such pains to screw them has almost complete control over the contents of your plate between the kitchen and your table.

[cmos]

My first job was as a township summer recreation program counselor when I was 15. I got minimum wage while older counselors got paid more for doing the exact same thing because they supposedly needed more competative salaries. Did I get any tips in addition to minimum wage from the redneck white trash parents? Yeah, right. Was this fair? I didn’t think so, but I had the job because it was the best I could get and I didn’t complain and I did a good job.
After that I had jobs at Taco Bell, McD’s, BK, Arby’s, and Taco Bell 3 more times. All the jobs supposedly paid competative salaries, meaning they paid you the same 25 cents more than minimum wage that all the other fast food places paid.
Oh wait, I think one of them actually paid me 6$ an hour…and boy did I have fun at the casino with all that extra money! Was I ever tipped? Sure! Once I split a 2$ tip with 2 other people. Was this fair? I didn’t think so, but I had the job because it was the best I could get and I didn’t complain and I did a good job at my job until I found something better to do.
Once I had a job delivering pizzas. I made minimum wage plus tips. I didn’t complain about how much money I needed to earn to pay for rent, my car, my groceries, my mother’s 348 hip replacement operations, etc. Did the pay actually come out to enough to support myself and my car and my insurance? Probably by a hair. As much as a waiter would make? Probably not. Was this fair? I didn’t think so, but I had the job because it was the best I could get and I didn’t complain and I did a good job at my job until I found something better to do.
I read on a poster at work that your employer has to make up the difference if you dont earn at least minimum wage at a tipped job. So all these wait people are netting at least what I used to make. I rushed around and stood on my feet for up to 10 hours shifts in fast food from the age of 16. So why do I hear all this complaining from them? They should shut up and get better jobs if they dont like how much they make. I’ve got financial worries too, but I don’t complain about my pay as if I deserve more money than everyone else for the same work just because I think I’m so special. That’s what you get when you have the same type of unskilled job that every uneducated slob in America has. Wake up and smell the coffee. Take your head out of your patootie.
That being said, I do tip well when I get decent service, but I expect to get reasonable service even if I cannot afford any tip. When I showed up with a Pizza and the bums didn’t tip me I still acted polite and didn’t complain to anyone. Was I happy? No, but I sucked it up like a real man! ( or woman ) I didn’t act like a whiney little sniveller. I knew that if I wanted a job where I was guaranteed better pay I needed to go get it myself and that it was my own problem that I didn’t have a great job.
If you do the math, waiters at any decent restaurant shouldn’t have a problem making 10$ an hour. They get sent home early all the time? That’s not my problem! Have to tip out 16 people at the end of every shift? That’s not my fault! Have to support yourself with all your pay? That’s not my problem! Try working two jobs! I worked at Taco Bell and as a teller and didn’t have a single day off from boths jobs at the same time for 2 months straight. Did I go to some restaurant and start complaining to waiters about it? Do you have to support your kids with your pay? That’s your problem, not mine! I’m smart enough to not have kids when I know I have an outhouse of a job. Business isn’t booming and your not making enough money? Too bad, neither am I. Let’s have a pity party!
My friend and my sister both think that tipping a dollar per drink at the bar is what’s the norm. I don’t care if it is or not. 2 drinks per hour times ten customers means the bartender would be making 26 dollars an hour including his hourly wage. That’s insane! Standing around washing glasses and pouring drinks does not deserve 26$ an hour. If it did, I’d throw house parties 5 days a week and I’d be making 52 grand a year.
I think some customers and servers just become petty and/or snooty. I didnt consider my fast food jobs real jobs and i dont consider bartender or server to be a real job either - a monkey could do either type of job and you’re contributing nothing to society by doing either job. Maybe tipping low isn’t being cheap - maybe it’s just not wasting your money on a bum who’s too dumb or lazy to get a real job. At least I had the dignity to not complain about my horrible pay as though it was someone else’s fault.

[YerAceFromOuterSpace]

Ok, on a similar but slightly different note, what’s considered good practice when it comes to take out food. I’ve been told a pile of times ‘don’t tip on takeout’, and I’ve usually rounded up the bill to the next 5 dollar mark, or not tipped at all. Most people don’t seem to expect it, but I’ve actually had one waitress call loud attention to the fact as I was halfway out the door.

I tip between 15 and 20% on dine it, the couple of bucks means a hell of a lot more to the staff bustin their humps to please the crowd then it does to me, but I’m not sure that stuffing forks and napkins in my styrofoam to-go box warrants 20%.

[YerAceFromOuterSpace]

Ok, on a similar but slightly different note, what’s considered good practice when it comes to take out food. I’ve been told a pile of times ‘don’t tip on takeout’, and I’ve usually rounded up the bill to the next 5 dollar mark, or not tipped at all. Most people don’t seem to expect it, but I’ve actually had one waitress call loud attention to the fact as I was halfway out the door.

I tip between 15 and 20% on dine it, the couple of bucks means a hell of a lot more to the staff bustin their humps to please the crowd then it does to me, but I’m not sure that stuffing forks and napkins in my styrofoam to-go box warrants 20%.

[cmos]

Had you tipped her by rounding up, or not at all, OuterSpace?
You could always tell the manager or owner that you were haggled about how much you tipped for take-out. I bet that would get a talking-to.

[RexDart]

*Originally posted by Falcon5768 *
**Speaking from the experience of my girlfriend, very often your Waiter will make $2.50 or less minus tip, and YES they are taxed on that 2.50. and even with including their tip (which they must by law, but usually dont because of my next point) they make UNDER minimum wage. My girlfriend works for Romano’s Macaronni Grill, and when all is set and done, after 40 hours of work she makes only about 150 - 200 dollars including tips minus her insurance which is 50 bucks. And shes been there for 5 years while going through college and gotten a pay raise new people tend to make even LESS!!!

**

Wait a sec…does your girlfriend work in Soviet Russia? Communist China, perhaps? No? Well, in the rest of the world, nobody is forced to be a waitress. If she makes less than minimum wage, then why is she still working there? I bet Taco Bell is hiring. She’s going to college? There have got to be jobs a-plenty, and businesses all around, in a college town, including employers used to college-kid employees and familiar with the flexibility those employees require.

I said this in the other thread before noticing there were two of them (d’oh!)… the fact remains that people choose their jobs in this country. If you don’t like it, get a different job. If you take a job with a low fixed wage and variable bonuses (in this case, tips), you are taking a risk. You hope to make more than you otherwise would, but you are running the risk you might not. If the $50 insurance option is a good enough price for her to stay, so that she is getting overall a better deal than taking min wage and then buying insurance on her own, then she has nothing to complain about. Otherwise, she’s been staying in a job that pays her less than her services would fetch in any other line of work, even totally unskilled work. So again, nothing to complain about.

And demanding 20% is ridiculous. If what CapHill says is true, and I bet it is, then people are spitting in food over a 5% difference, which is a grand total of ONE FRICKIN DOLLAR on an average $20 bill. The only word for that is PSYCHOTIC. But that’s almost understandable compared to being that insulted over the 1% difference between a 15% tip before-tax and after-tax.

Look, I’m sure serving is hard, but eventually people are going to revolt at the escalating percentages you people are demanding as somehow your due. I’ve been tipping 20% to my regular waitresses at Old Chicago for two years now to make sure I continue to get decent service there. If 20% is the new norm, I suppose I’m supposed to tip 25% now to be considered a good customer? Perhaps in 10 years, 25% will be the norm, eh? At some point, are we going to be buying the same $10 dinners but paying %50 tips or else run the risk of having our food spit in by wacko vindictive waiters? There’s got to be a limit to this extortion racket of yours. Get a bloody union (I’m sure the IFCW would love to have you, or form one of your own) and demand better flat wages.

Oh, and I mentioned it in the other thread, and I’ll mention it here. Assuming that waitresses are like everybody else, they’ll figure your bad tip must be due to your being a “dick”, rather than any failing on the server’s part. After all, they can do no wrong, naturally. So I’m sure that tipping poorly or not at all for bad service won’t make a point, it will just tick off the waiter who, like all of us, assumes he’s perfect and everyone else in the world is an incompetent ass.

[RexDart]

*Originally posted by Maggie C *
**
Simply put, the majority of servers expect a 20% tip for giving average service (though, most restaraunts pride themselves on having higher definitions of “average” than all the rest) and higher tips for going above and beyond what the customer expects. Yes, we do wonder if we did something wrong when we get smaller tips. However, if someone comes into a restaraunt regularly and doesn’t tip well, it’s quickly realized where the problem lies. **

If you have regular customers, who seem to like you, tipping 15% routinely, perhaps they’re still under the impression (as are I, and apparently almost EVERYBODY ELSE IN THE KNOWN WORLD who was never a server) that 15% is the normal tip rate. Isn’t it a little unfair to presume that because you servers have decided to give yourselves an unofficial, and completely unannounced 33% tip raise, that everyone knows about it? I suspect you’re judging people a little harshly, but then it appears that there’s some neurosis inhabiting every present or former server I’ve known that causes them to take a 50 cent variance in tip amount as if they were punched in the face.

[Billowen]

Didn’t realize that the same person had authored the two columns that I had complained about. It isn’t that I think that those particular contributions were bad, and I certainly don’t have a problem with the fact that they are opinion-oriented (Cecil’s best columns are often opinion pieces). Rather, it is just that they seem to fit the profile for Dear Abby or Reader’s Digest more than the straightdope. I guess I am just saying that it seems that the column has strayed a bit since the advent of staff contributions, etc. I hate to see the column become a project by committee as the best thing about the column was always Cecil’s personal thumbprint on the material.

[Audrey_Levins]

*Originally posted by YerAceFromOuterSpace *
**Ok, on a similar but slightly different note, what’s considered good practice when it comes to take out food. I’ve been told a pile of times ‘don’t tip on takeout’, and I’ve usually rounded up the bill to the next 5 dollar mark, or not tipped at all. Most people don’t seem to expect it, but I’ve actually had one waitress call loud attention to the fact as I was halfway out the door.
**

This isn’t going to help very much, YerAce, but unfortunately a lot of it depends on where you are.

1.) At Chili’s, for instance, to-go is manned by a measly $2.13 an hour waiter…he has to take the orders, supervise them, package them, etc., and it’s a grisly shift b/c people rarely tip on to-go, yet he still gets taxed on his to-go sales. (This is called the to-go shift, and if he normally has a four-table section, on a to-go shift he has only two tables plus to-go, b/c to-go is such a high-maintenance ordeal. So he works just as hard and makes half the cash. Brinker, the parent company, SUCKS.)

2.) At other restaurants, there is a designated “to go” person who gets paid a normal hourly wage. Some places also have the hostess do it…and the host, of course, either gets paid an hourly wage or gets tipped out by the waitstaff.

3.) And then there’s me. The humble bartender, and designated To-Go Girl. Lots of places like to use me to man to-go orders. I don’t get paid any extra to take care of to-go orders, and they frequently cost me money in sales/claimed tips percentages and my absence from the bar, seeing to the to-go orders. (I don’t care what anybody says. Most to-go orders are a pain in the ass. I’d rather have you sit at the bar; it’s less trouble than packaging up all that crap. If there aren’t very many, it isn’t that big a deal, but some nights everybody wants to order to-go and I’ve been in the kitchen forever, trying to get it all organized, well aware that I’m losing money for every second that goes by.)

But this doesn’t really answer your question, does it? And I know the answer I’d like to give, which is “Tip the damn to-go person already,” isn’t going to satisfy you.

Here’s the best answer I can give:

If the person who is managing your to-go order is also doing other things…waiting tables, bartending, etc., and you are in a dine-in restaurant with tipped employees…assume that they are not getting paid a proper hourly wage for manning the to-go orders, and please tip them. 8%-10% would be lovely. When people pay for their to-go order immediately upon ordering it, and tip me on it, they are a priority for me. If they don’t, I’ll get to their order when I’ve got the time…and it’ll be when I can afford it. Everybody else at my bar will make me money; I’ve gotta go where the money’s at. (And people who tip on to-go orders get all those lovely things like extra ranch, moist towelettes, extra napkins, more breadsticks, more butter on that baked potato, etc…hey, I like to reward generosity with generosity!)

If the hostess or some other hourly-wage employee is taking care of your order, tip only at your discretion, if you’d like to be kind and/or they were particularly helpful.

Me, I tip just about everybody.

[Audrey_Levins]

cmos, wow. Bitter much?

Tell you what, your friend and your sister will get better, faster drinks from me than you will.

And if you’re not cool with that, drink at home. If you are, party on! I’ll get to ya…someday.

[YerAceFromOuterSpace]

*Originally posted by cmos *
**Had you tipped her by rounding up, or not at all, OuterSpace?
You could always tell the manager or owner that you were haggled about how much you tipped for take-out. I bet that would get a talking-to. **

In this case, I’d rounded up. I thought after the fact that if I’d not tipped at all, it might not have gotten a reaction. I think that because I tipped, and it was only a couple of buck, the girl was offended.

As for ratting her out, I don’t like causing grief for waitstaff. They are getting the short end most of the time. I’m only sorry I didn’t have a biting remark to shut her up.

[SeanDuggan]

Honestly, I hadn’t thought too much of the situation. I always tipped based off of the pre-tax amount because before tax, one tends to have a round dollar figure, something like $5 or $7.99. (As you might tell from the dollar amounts involved, I’m not much of a big spender.) Up until this year, I always meticulously tipped 15%, usually working out the actual amount if things weren’t round numbers, as much because I enjoy doing long division as anything else. This year, I learned that the amount had gone up to 20%. shrug Actually kind of made things easier because most of the lunch places in town charge approximately $5 for a meal, so this way I’ve got a nice even dollar tip. Considering how many people I’ve seen leave without paying a tip, I figured that simply leaving the proper amount consistently as well as treating your servers as people (I know the names of a fair amount of the people at places I go regularly, if not details on their life) was considered sufficient. shrug And if I didn’t have sufficient cash on me that time (I tend to be rather absent-minded and forget to withdraw more cash from the ATM), they know that I’ll be good for it the next day. wry grin Heck, I still feel guilty about the one chinese waitress I had where I had to skip a tip, then she never came back. I still owe here a dollar.
My impression from people I’d known in high school who did waiting jobs was that it was simply mandatory for the restauraunts to cover any difference between what they made and minimum wage. No matter what, one was guarenteed at least minimum wage and some nights, you’d get better. I do have some sympathy for people with this job. I’ve held two analagous jobs, albeit probably somewhat easier ones. I worked as a waiter for catered banquets for a year (all we had to do was serve, remove dishes, and clean the tables afterwards, no orders taken) and I worked in food services for my first year of college before I managed to secure a job in the computer labs. In both cases, I was paid an hourly wage (which was basically minimum wage in both cases. Even less in college case because they charged a certain amount to allow one to hold a university job) and wasn’t allowed to receive tips for the most part. I received one tip in the catering area, a George Washington while working in the coat room.
shrug And to the one person who asked if anyone was tipped other than wait-staff, I occasionally leave a small tip for anyone who does a service for me outside of their job. This has ranged from asking to use a phone for a local call to asking for directions at the gas station. I’m kind of spotty in my application of it though because I’m never entirely sure how people will react.

[Durchi]

• Service is prompt, Server polite, Drinks never empty: 20% Tip
• Not enough servers, service lacking: 15% Tip
• Service is prompt, Server polite, Drinks never empty, Server attractive female, wife in dinner party: 15% Tip
• Service is prompt, Server polite, Drinks never empty, Server attractive female, out with the guys: 25% Tip
• Server spits in food: Here’s a tip…don’t let me catch you doing it.

[ManiacalMike]

*Originally posted by JRR *
Of course, I’ve had waiters give me the hairy eyeball for ordering water with my meal. Yes, Pierre, that means your tip will be slightly smaller but I really don’t feel like spending $2 on a splash of Coke and a bunch of ice, now move along - I’ve got pennies to pinch. **

What’s up with the Hairy Eyeball anyway? I can’t drink sugary sodas and crap like that, and often in the evening, I’m not much in the mood for coffee (need to sleep eventually) and really don’t want to have any booze…so water it is. F##k them if they don’t like it. I tip in the 20% range and for them to assume that I’m not going to tip well because I order H20 is an insult. I would prefer that they add the tip to the check and save me the hassle. Let me know in advance and I’ll gladly pay you the 18% tip. I do, however, expect top-notch service.

[vbperry]

Reading through here makes me curious about getting food for take out. Should you tip on that as well? If so at the same rate? I’ve always been of the opinion that it was not expected but I would tip a couple of dollars sometimes as a thanks.

Course that may not become an issue since seeing so many waitpersons commenting that if they felt shafted they would do something nasty to the food or drink. I feel that I am a good tipper but how will I know if the waiter has the same opinion? Or if I look like someone they though was there before and tipped bad. There is a good way to really reduce your wages… scare patrons into not wanting to go in the first place.

It was mentioned before but something will have to change, if the rate of tip keeps going up I’ll simple stop going out to eat.

[Caerie]

*Originally posted by Durchi *
**- Not enough servers, service lacking: 15% Tip
**

I’ve seen a surprising amount of venom on this topic, but this one boggles my mind. You tip less when there aren’t enough servers working at one time? In essence, punishing your server because the managment failed? I understand bout lacking service, but it’s the part about “not enough servers” that catches my eye. That’s one thing I always try to take into account when it comes to tipping: whether or not the thing that I have a problem with was the fault of my server. If my food is bad or the restaurant is unpleasant in some other way the server has no control over that. The best thing I can do is tip what the server deserved for what s/he actually did, and complain.

Which may be one of the worst parts of the tipping system, now that I think about it. By leaving a monetary reward to communicate how you feel, your feelings don’t leave more of an impact than pleasure over the cash or a passing thought of “jerkwad!”

[RexDart]

*Originally posted by Audrey Levins *
**Here’s the best answer I can give:

If the person who is managing your to-go order is also doing other things…waiting tables, bartending, etc., and you are in a dine-in restaurant with tipped employees…assume that they are not getting paid a proper hourly wage for manning the to-go orders, and please tip them. 8%-10% would be lovely. When people pay for their to-go order immediately upon ordering it, and tip me on it, they are a priority for me. If they don’t, I’ll get to their order when I’ve got the time…and it’ll be when I can afford it. Everybody else at my bar will make me money; I’ve gotta go where the money’s at. (And people who tip on to-go orders get all those lovely things like extra ranch, moist towelettes, extra napkins, more breadsticks, more butter on that baked potato, etc…hey, I like to reward generosity with generosity!)
**

See, I can MAYBE understand this at a real dine-in restaurant, but I’ll be darned if I’m going to tip anybody when I pickup my pizza from Pizza Hut. But they do have a dine-in area, so would you tip them? To my mind, if I wanted to tip, I’d either A) eat in their dine-in facilities and enjoy the hot pizza served right out of the pan, or B) order delivery, and sit at my house while they take the pizza to me. When I order takeout it’s because I don’t want to tip, and shouldn’t have to because I’m the one driving to the restaurant and back, and I’m the one serving myself the food in my own home.

I mean, if you have to tip on carryout, why would you carryout? If I had to tip anyways, there’s certainly no reason for me not to just sit on my lazy butt and order delivery and give that guy the $1.50 per pizza I generally tip him, or to sit in a nice booth and let a lovely lady bring me the food and refill my drinks for me.