During the pandemic, I used a lot of grocery delivery services, and kinda got hooked on them-- and came to realize that that the only real added expense is the tip-- aside from whatever monthly membership I might pay, which isn’t a lot-- but I save money using these, because it eliminates my impulse buying-- I stick to my list, period.
I also indulge in meal delivery occasionally-- Uber Eats, and Grubhub. Someone gave me a card for $100 worth of Grubhub when I was home recuperating from surgery, and OMG, it’s so great. I try to limit it to times when I feel like I really deserve something, though-- like the time when we got surprise bonuses at work for summer attendance, and I maxxed out, with perfect attendance. So I spent $25 of my unexpected $600 bonus having breakfast delivered during my week off.
Here’s my question, though:
What does one tip these people?
The grocery people, I usually tip 10%, unless I ordered something difficult or heavy, then I give more-- a really big order with jugs of water and milk, and a big bag of dog food, I might tip 25%-- especially if they do a really good job.
Kind of at a loss with the food people. They are kind of like servers, except they just come once, and don’t take the order. It doesn’t seem that they’ve really earned the 20% I usually tip table servers. 10% seems like a enough on a small order, but I never know whether they are taking several order at a time, or making a special trip out to my place. I also know they probably pay for their own gas. Maybe I should be tipping 20%? on the other hand, I don’t know what they do get paid, nor any way to find out.
They take a tax deduction for their gas and milage if they are using their own vehicle.
Still delivery people are just getting by and depend on tips. I give at least 15% to any type of person that does a service for me. More if they provide exemplary service like bringing the groceries to the kitchen counter and or have a pleasant attitude.
For prepared food delivery, I tip between 10-15% depending on the size of the order. If the order is small, the percent is generally higher. Once it goes over $60 it tends to be 10%. Part of the lower tip amount is that I order from places within 2 miles tops. We’re lucky to have many options in that radius.
Another consideration is weather. I tip higher in crappy weather. Only seems right.
I don’t do groceries deliveries, only tried it twice. I’m not sure what I tipped those 2 times. A large order is a lot of work, but can easily be approaching $200 so even a 10% tip is pretty good there. You generally have to tip before you see if they picked out decent produce & meat, so even more confusing.
For delivery, I generally go with a standard dollar amount rather than a percentage. I was a pizza driver in my youth (early 1980s) when it was $1. By the 1990s I was tipping $3. It was $5 for a long time and since the pandemic I’ve been tipping a flat $10 no matter the size of the delivery (although I can’t remember any bill over $100.)
I don’t do grocery delivery, but I do curbside pickup, and it never occurred to me to tip for them. I sure hope it’s not expected: the pickup is done by wage employees of the store, and if they weren’t rolling the cart out to my car, they’d be stocking shelves or running registers or the like.
For restaurant delivery, I tip about 20%. We don’t order delivery very often, maybe every two months or so. I briefly worked a food delivery job back in 2006, and the pay was so terrible that, if you figured government rates for vehicle wear and tear, I sometimes lost money on a night’s deliveries. Based on that experience, I figure I can be generous to the folks doing the job.
I’m not claiming total consistency, but usually tips are for some type of personal service; not doing a day-to-day job.
So, for Amazon/UPS/etc. I don’t tip at all.
For people doing yard or tree service, usually a $20 to each worker, along with a supply of cold drinks and the assurance that the downstairs bathroom is open for anyone. A lot of people don’t do this, but I think it makes their day much easier.
Carpenters, electricians, welders, or anyone working a multi-day job at my house will usually leave with a bottle of really good whiskey, or similar.
Pizza delivery is the only food service I’ve ever used, and they get 10-15 bucks depending on order size. Not sure what I’d do with Uber eats or the others, but I’d probably tip them as well, since it seems like a personal service.
We occasionally get take-out from a restaurant several notches above fast food. Since it’s sort of “personally” prepared, I tip there as well. I’m still not sure what is appropriate in that instance.
I get delivery 1-2 times a week. But the Pizza place is .7 miles and the Chinese one is 1.3 miles away. I don’t do the Japanese orders, my wife does. Even they are only 2.7 miles. I’m not sure what she tips.
I’m pretty sure none of the wear tear rates for these deliveries amount to much and they’re almost always making multiple deliveries and thus the wear is divided over a several to many orders typically.
I know way back when I was 18 and delivering for a Pharmacy, I never went out with less than 8 orders and I always pre-plotted my route for best efficiency. Food service is more likely to be less orders, but still.
Most of the time the minimum 10-15% when placing the order. Then I have some dollar bills I can pull out if the service was exceptional.
One of my coworkers works for door dash on the side and apparently picks and chooses on the tip amount and told me my way guarantees shitty service. I said why would I pre-pay a good tip if I have yet to see the quality of the service?
During the pandemic, our family replaced eating out with delivery from restaurants, and we got in the habit of tipping the drivers the same percentage as we would have tipped our server - typically 25%. We don’t order in quite as often nowadays, but we’ve kept that up on the theory that delivery drivers don’t get paid enough to live and we can afford it.
Our food almost always arrives quickly, hot and right-side up.
I’ve been doing pickup almost every week since 2020. I tried going back inside to shop and was reminded that I always hated doing that and didn’t have to anymore. I didn’t tip at first but since it’s not as popular as it once was, I do now. I figure it sort of disrupts their regular duties. Plus the pickup spots are pretty far away from the front door. It must suck to deliver in the pouring rain (which only happened to me once).
For the last 4-5 months, the same woman has been fulfilling my order and bringing it out to me. She is very nice. She gives me upgrades with no charge and sometimes substitutes items I didn’t request because she thinks I’ll like them. Again, with no charge. Depending on the weather, how big the order is and what cash I have, I usually give her $4-6 and always tell her how much I appreciate her for doing this for me. I don’t think it’s expected or something most people do but it is worth it to me.
This is where I’m usually at. Though my 10-15% is based on the actual food cost and I don’t include or tip off of the service/delivery fees. Just because Ubereats wants to tack $7 onto my bill doesn’t mean I’m going to tip another 15% off of that.
I can’t remember a time I’ve had anything else delivered as a gig service (i.e. not mail/package delivery).
I always tip $5. We have two kinds of delivery. One is we make an online order at the market and drive over where they deliver to the car. They are often surprised to be tipped and twice the tip has been refused (I think by the same person). Clearly tipping is not expected here. The second situation involves a local rooftop farming operation. You order from them and load a truck with dozens of orders and they follow a delivery route. So it is not a one-off situation, but one of dozens of deliveries, not unlike an Amazon truck. Also $5.
I go to the bank for a load of $5 bills every couple months.
We live pretty much outside all delivery zones - near as I can tell, there’s one local pizza place, one Chinese place and one small local deli that will deliver here. The nearest Domino’s is about 6 or 7 miles, and they don’t come this far. I never looked into Door Dash or other services like that.
Back when I would get delivery, I’d tip $3-$5 per order, maybe a bit more if the weather was particularly awful. I always tried to make it in cash at the door, but if I’d used up all my folding money, I’d add it to the credit card.
There are just 2 of us in the household, and the minimum orders for delivery are now for way more than we want - $35 from the Chinese place!!! And post-Covid, the pizza place raised their prices so much that with delivery, it’s just ridiculous. So we’ll pick up our own, or forage in the pantry if I don’t feel like cooking or driving.
$10-15% or $5-$10-$15 depending on the total and the amount of food. I try to give cash instead of putting it on a card so they can just pocket the money.