Partly inspired by the tipping thread that’s currently here in IMHO and partly by some recent events in my own life (first pedicure, first massage, first time moving with real movers), I’ve realized that I don’t know who’s supposed to get a tip and who’s not. So please help educate me - and other young or youngish Dopers - on the proper etiquette of tipping.
Who do you tip and how much (based on what)?
(Aside from waitstaff… the other thread covers that pretty well. I mean like manicurists, massage therapists, maids in hotels, etc. and especially situations we don’t run into every day or ones that our parents may not have thought to teach us about.)
I tip my hairstylist, the gals at the nail salon, and usually leave a few bucks for the maid at any hotel I’m staying at. I usually deal with my own bags at airports but have occasionally used Southwests curbside check-in and it’s standard to check the porters who help you check in. Oh, and I’ll usually throw fifty cents int eh jar for the sandwich guy.
Before I cut my own hair, I tipped the barber. I tip people who carry my bags for me. And I tip a little bit (~5%) for to go orders from restaurants I would otherwise tip at.
How much does everyone tip the aforementioned people? Hairstylist? Is that still ~20% like in a restaurant? I’ve been cutting my own hair for a couple years just to avoid this issue.
How much for the curbside check-in person or the person who carries your bags?
These are the things that keep me awake at night before traveling! I don’t want to appear cheap, but I just don’t know what to do!
Sometimes I’ll HATE what the hairstylist I got that day does to my hair but I’ll still tip her the 20% mainly because I’m really fond of the twat waxer and it’s the only Aveda salon down by where I work. I don’t want word about undertipping to get around to my twat waxer…for obvious reasons!!!
Taxi drivers: usually give them 5$ but I rarely have to take a taxi and when I do it’s never over 10$. If I’m taking a over-10$ taxi ride chances are likely I’m billing it.
Airport shuttle driver: 2$ per bag (other than aestheticians and waitstaff, this is the tip I pay out the most)
Valet parking attendant when I have to valet park
That’s about it from memory. I carry my own bags into hotels and I guess I don’t tip baristas because I’m assuming they make minimum wage. I can’t think of any other type of tippable service I take advantage of other than waitstaff/barstaff, airport shuttle people and salon-related people.
One thing that used to irritate the hell out of me was when my sister and brother were renting in Streeterville prior to purchasing their condo and I used to visit them and had to park my car overnight in their building to the tune of 25$ per night and pay tip on top of that (it was a forced valet situation). I always paid out about 2-3$, except the time they dinged my bloody car. Also, apparently the going rate there was 5$ (I would only park overnight). For WHAT? One huge dent in my car + several scratches over the year they lived there?
I’m happy to see this thread. I’ve been wondering about tipping the people who help bring my groceries out to my car. At my grocery store, the baggers load your groceries onto a cart and bring them out to your car. I’ve never seen anyone tip them, but I often feel like I should. What does everyone here think?
I definitely used to tip the people who used to deliver groceries TO my apartment (standard practice to get groceries delivered to your house back when I used to live in downtown Montreal, no car, crazy winters) but I carry my own groceries to the car here.
My parents usually tip 1-2 dollars, but if you don’t need assistance, you can tell them that too. I’m not sure if that’s standard, though and they don’t have that service here.
Personally, I tip all of the people mentioned above but make sure to overtip my hairstylist and the waxer (around 30-35%). The overtip for the waxer is to avoid rushing, which causes pain. The hairstylist because she has the power to totally screw up what people see everyday. Plus, I’ve noticed she throws in all kinds of extras because of it. I get full highlights and pay for partial, she’ll blow out my hair and not charge for the extra service.
I tried once, and the bagger said they weren’t allowed to accept tips.
I tip my hairdresser 20% and wait staff 15-20%.
I won big (for me) at a casino last week (nickel slots) and wondered if I should have tipped the clerk who cashed me out. I’ve seen it done but only in movies, and nobody else was pushing cash back at the cashiers so I didn’t either.
When we canoe/kayak local rivers, the shuttle driver gets a five. Interestingly, I have never noticed anyone else tipping him. Also interestingly, ours are always the first craft in the water.
taxi drivers, to-go, and hairstylists are the only tippable services I ever use. I tip the taxi driver just a few bucks, usually 2 or 3, 5 if he/she was intelligent and interesting as opposed to gruff and scary. to-go people, 10% and up, depending on the to-go setup of the restaurant: 10% is for bartenders and host-types, but I tip more when it’s obvious that doing to-go is the person’s only job. hairstylists I used to tip 5, but now I’ve begun tipping 10 (my haircuts are usually around 50, sometimes less). I guess if I had a long & involved hair scenario I’d tip more, but it’s never occurred to me to use a percentage model… I hope I’m not the only one.
then there are the services I’ve had to use infrequently that I know are supposed to be tipped, but have no idea how much, like horse-and-carriage drivers, bag carriers, and valet people. if I’m not sure I generally start at 10 and go up from there based on time/effort.
I don’t generally like tipping people whose pay does not depend on sales. I hate that there are tip jars all over the damn place now; I half expect to see one every time I get on the bus. I still most of the time drop my change in the damn things.
I’ve had one tattoo, and I was quite young, and had no idea tipping was even done. I feel quite bad that I did not leave anything, and if I ever have occasion to go back to that same parlor, I’ll probably give the guy a 20.
I suspect that might be the case here too. At my grocery store, you can’t take the carts past the checkout unless it goes on the cashier’s side, so you can’t load your groceries back in the cart yourself. They use a different, upright cart to take your groceries out to the car. Does that make sense? If I just have a couple of bags, I always grab them off the counter and carry them myself.
I consistently tip anyone who does some kind of a service for me, who doesn’t work for themself (i.e set their own prices). I do occasionally tip people in the latter category, but only if they actually went above and beyond what they had to.
For example, I wouldn’t tip the self-employed plumber who comes to my house to install a new sink (unless he does a well-above-average job), because I figure if he wants more money on a regular basis, he can raise his rates. But I will tip the technician from the phone company who comes out to install a new line.
