I’ve noticed the new payment systems at fast food places often make me chose a tip (no tip, 5%, 10%, etc) when I’m checking out. Is it customary now to tip for ringing me up? Am I just an old fogey?

Question:
Do you tip for taking an order?

Choices:
No.
Yes, throw a buck in the jar.
Yes, 10%
Yes, 20%
Here’s a tip, wipe till the brown is gone.

 

The places that use that system up here take your order, you pay at the register, then your food is brought to your table. So I tip.
If no table service, no tip.

If I place the order at the counter, and pick up my own food, no tip.

If I order at a counter, and they deliver the food, a tip of 10% seems about right to me.

I do occasionally, I don't like tipping before the service though. Panera and Jersey Mikes here do this.

If it is a sit down/bar type place where a waitress takes my order over the phone, I tip a couple dollars.

If it is the local chain pizza place, no. Ours has a habit of printing a second receipt even after you sign the digital pad as if they are expecting you to tip on a pickup.

I tip a buck or 10% on carry-out, whichever is greater.

What some people fail to realize is takeout is often checked and bagged by a wait person. It takes time out of their schedule just as waiting on a table does.

The downside to tipping on takeout is you don't find out until you get home whether or not they got it right--sometimes resulting in a tip when it was not deserved.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:The downside to tipping on takeout is you don't find out until you get home whether or not they got it right--sometimes resulting in a tip when it was not deserved.

Lots of places down here have started "showing" you the takeout order while they bag it up.

Or I look in all of it before I leave.

Because they screw it up all the time.

Depends on the place, fast food no, restaurant take out yes usually 10-15% this is because a server or bartender has to take time away from their customers to take my order and ring me up.

There are mom and pops where I'm a regular and know the folks doing the cooking and running the register. They get tipped more than 10%. I get service that's exceptional. Extra food, cuts when there are long lines, credit at cash only places if I'm short, etc.

I might throw a little in the tip jar at other places but everybody makes $15/hr and while that's tough to live on around here I'm under the same budget constraints. Bagging my order at a counter service place ain't worth much especially when I get home and find out the order is wrong.

Depends on the place but I will tip a little most of the time, not because I have to but because I want to.
Not usually a full 15-20% but "a little something for the effort" [/Carl Spackler].

No. They are not servers and therefore aren't excluded from minimum wage laws.

Its a social issue they are capitalizing on. If people see a tip jar a segment of the population will be guilted into to. Basically the same principle beggars subsist on.

I think too many people expect a tip anymore. I just don't understand why I would tip someone because they took or bagged an order. It's 30 seconds worth of work...a minute max. A tip in my eyes is for service, and even those that wait my table are not guaranteed one. Fuck something up or ignore my empty tea glass, and you'll find nothing added to tip portion of the bill (exceptions for obviously new or horribly overburdened waitstaff).

There was a local pub where I used to get wings for me and the wife. I'd place my order, ask for the total, and I show up with cash- exact change.
No problem, quick in and out, until a new bartender was hired. After taking my exact change a couple of times, the guy started acting dismissive and kinda surly when I picked up my order. I asked one of the regulars at the bar if he knew what was bugging the guy. He told me that the guy expected a tip. A tip?? For taking my money, putting in the register and then handing me a plastic bag?? A tip?? No CC transaction and he didn't even have to make change. I'm not going to tip for that.

So, I just stopped doing business with the place.

Not going to say much more than this, but doing takeout means more than just handing you a bag. Just because someone isn’t a “server” doesn’t mean that they’re being paid a normal wage. From my experience (actually doing the job, not just assuming I know what goes on), a lot of those workers make $5-$6/hour if they’re dedicated ToGo employees. Food for thought.

Just don't write anything in the tip space, or make only a slash mark across it, then fill in the total as rung up at the bottom. That's it. Sometimes when they have "tip jars" (for example, Moe's Southwest Grill, a place I frequent, they call it "gas money for the crew") I might throw a buck in if service was exceptional and/or I'm in an exceptionally good mood.

Speaking of tipping (though this was not a fast-food joint):

Ran into a restaurant over this last weekend that put a flat (and unannounced) 3% "service charge" on the bill...the bill suggested it was for all the folks in the back other than the server, but I've also heard more restraunts are doing so these days to subsidize employees' medical insurance. Either way, I don't like being REQUIRED to tip (though I get the requisite flat 15/20 percentage for large (8+) parties, but in this case it was just my wife and me having a late lunch) -- and our server was a bit of an a-hole as well -- so it was an easy bit of math to substract the 3% they'd already taken from my typical 15% tip and leave 12%. I suspect that's what many folks do, though maybe I'm just a bit more surly about tipping on demand than the average diner.

quote:

Originally posted by Spiff_P239:
Not going to say much more than this, but doing takeout means more than just handing you a bag. Just because someone isn’t a “server” doesn’t mean that they’re being paid a normal wage.

The career choices of other people are not my problem. The day will never come that I tip someone for taking my money and handing me a bag.

You want a tip? Sure, here's one- don't breathe underwater. You'll get water in your lungs.

All set? Good

I tend to see that those who have done "that job" are much more empathetic (read: generous) to those who presently do "that job."

Not unless it's some crazy special/large order or something, hell no.

Go above and beyond in your job...whatever that may be, and I'll gladly give you a tip. Otherwise? Yeah...no. You are already getting paid to do your job.

Last night I was staying out of town in a motel. I ordered a small pizza from a local joint and it showed up an hour after I made the call in a town that it'd take about 15 minutes to walk from end to end. It was cold.

The delivery boy seemed quite offended that I gave him exact change. I gave him some advice...get an education.

This topic comes up from time to time and I'm usually vilified for my opinion on it but I don't really care. I don't care that waitresses aren't subject to minimum wage laws. I don't care that it is a thankless job. I don't care about any of it. Those employees put themselves in their position, and good for them...at least they are working for a living. But, it is not my responsibility to reward that choice just because I'm supposed to because...whatever reason.

Low paying jobs are a way of life. Suck it up. I've had many of them. Sometimes I got slipped a little extra, sometimes I didn't. Then I got an education and moved on from those low paying shit jobs.

If you do a great job and treat me well...I'll happily slip a little extra your way for the effort. Otherwise? If you want a job that pays more, get yourself an education and a career.

Sorry to be harsh, but I've lived on both sides of the spectrum. My current side is one whole hell of a lot better and all it took was a little effort.