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Tipping for Pickup?
fightinfilipino
Angry as Hell#BLMRegistered User regular
Angry as Hell#BLMRegistered User regular
here's a dumb question: if you're ordering for pickup/takeout from one of those chain restaurants (like Ruby Tuesday's or TGiF), do you still have to tip when you pay? i always figured "no" since you're not receiving any actual service and just picking up food, but i could be wrong...
anyone?
anyone?
fightinfilipino on
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No tip. You're not being served like if you ate in, and nobody had to drive your food to you.
i figure that it's getting put together in the kitchen already at these chain places and that all the server does is bring the bag out. i'm not even sure waitstaff really get involved, it's usually the host or hostess taking care of things.
steam | Dokkan: 868846562
On the other hand, I regularly tip at my favorite indian buffet, even though when I get carry-out I have to even pick my own food off the buffet! But I love the food so I always round my bill up (it's $8+change, I give them $10) as a sign of appreciation.
I do similar with sitting down -- places that I like get more, places that are just doing the basics and the food is meh get 10 or 15%. Good places get 15-20%. To me, the pick-up is an automatic 5% if I really like the place.
So no, you don't have to tip for pickup/carryout. You can if you like, though.
I don't for fast food though, because in fast food chains most of the actual cooking is done way ahead of time.
I never tip for pick up, though I don't order pick up from chain places.
It pisses me off when anyone gets an automatic tip. That defeats the whole damn point.
Edit: Just to clarify, I do tip whenever appropriate; I just think an automatic gratuity is a little pompous. If for whatever reason your customers generally have a habit of not tipping, then just increase the wage of your waiting staff.
by the way, this totally reminds me of reservoir dogs.
Yes, waitressing/waitering is a hard and shitty job... but standing in a blazing hot kitchen for 8 hours a day, busting your ass off isn't exactly a cake walk.
Fast food doesn't get a tip.
My reasoning (justification?) is this. When I go to California Pizza Kitchen, the server is working with me for an hour or more. Granted s/he's not just working with me, but during that hour, many services beyond the simple delivery of food are given to me. S/he takes orders, answers questions, brings the meal in courses, refills drinks, prepares a check, brings it right to me, runs the credit card, brings it back, and checks on me throughout the meal to make sure I'm happy. In addition to that s/he is pleasant the entire time and waiting on several other tables. Lastls, s/he makes a sub-standard wage because a tip is expected.
The person at the Sonic drive-through, however, splits the work with me. I go to him/her to order, I drive around to pick up my meal, there's no check that I'm happy, and s/he already makes a legally acceptable wage.
tl;dr Waiters/waitresses get tipped because they do more and they don't make enough to survive without it.
If you are tipping 10-15% is actually rather high on a lot of takeout orders. A good judge is to go back to the old fahioned a dollar per person and then if it's good service or you're feling generous another dollar or two. Even if you don't usually tip a dollar isn't much and it adds up at the end of the night for them. Takeout people get a lot more orders than servers and a few bucks every other order over thirty to forty orders on a busy night is noticeable.
That's just my cents from the other side of the conversation. Personally I'll usually tip 2 dollars for most orders and 5 for larger or complicated ones.
Cooks get paid a lot of fucking cash.
Lots more than the waitstaff does.
Really? Because around here most line cooks make between $1.00 and $10.00 above minimum wage depending on the position they work and years of experience. Most don't get a share of tips.
Waitstaff typically makes $0.50-$5.00 above minimum wage, generally balanced out by tips.
I work at a New England chain restaurant, the 99. I do the take-out orders and it's that easy sometimes. On a typical Friday/Saturday night, I take over $1000 in take out order sales. Now I answer the phone, record the order (which isn't that easy. Some people are fucking dumbasses and call and THEN ask what everyone wants, change their mind 1000 times or give me shit about things we don't or never even had) take that order and put it into the computer.
Then I have make sure that everything is made correctly with the appropriate side dishes and that they get everything they need, then watch the cars to pull up for the Car Side to go spots and then take the food out to them, get the money, go back inside, and finally return with their appropriate change/credit card slip.
Friday nights all 4 of the Car Side to Go spots are filled for a good two hours, so I'm running outside to 4 cars, all the while taking new orders from the phone. Tipping is pretty damn common, even for the people who choose to come in and get their food rather than wait in the car for the car side to go. On a typical Friday night, we'll get around $60 in tips, but that's split between 4 people (two people bussing tables, one person running the wait and myself, who does all the takeout work). Typical types range from 2-3 bucks, with good tips being 5-6, and I've pulled down 15-20 dollar tips from a single person before, but that was on a single order that amounted to $300.
Working in the restaurant business is not easy, and it doesn't matter if you're doing the small family owned stores or the larger corporations, it's still a demanding job at times. I've done both for a number of years respectively, so I can attest to that. The amount of bullshit we have to deal with is so much higher than that of most other jobs, especially for the pay grade.
Throw them a damn dollar, it's really very appreciated.
The U.S. and a small handful of other countries:
Servers make less than half of minimum wage, and delivery-drivers barely make enough to cover gas. We live on our fucking tips. Not tipping a server or driver is saying to them "you don't deserve to be paid for the work you just did, and so you shant."
Countries that see poverty as a social problem rather than a mental illness:
Minimum wage means exactly what it sounds like. Tipping is optional, but I say it's still a good idea because in many cases it can win you subtle perks on future visits.
The last thing I want is a delivery driver or waitstaff to have me marked as that guy that never tips, or always tips poorly.
You tip well, people remember you, they will give you better service than the bum 2 tables down that tips $1 for his table of 30 guests.
That isn't to say I don't shirk on tips sometimes. I've had some phenominally bad service at times, and regardless if that was how they always act or if it was just a bad day, they did their job very poorly and were given a crappy tip because of it.
1) Taking down the phone order. Nine times out of ten, the assclown is on a shitty cellphone, and has no idea what he wants. The difficulty of this is compounded by the fact that I am in a noisy environment.
2) If there is something special about the order, I have to go out of my way to make sure the kitchen staff understands this. (Complete stereotype I know, but all of the kitchen staff barely speak english)
3) Getting the takeout containers, eating utensils, condiments, napkins, etc. ready and assembled. Getting drinks together if they were ordered.
4) Combine all of the above into a bag and ready for pickup.
5) Process the payment when the customer arrives for his order.
This all has to be done while I am waiting on other tables, if it is at a busy time, this can mean less tips from my actual tables due to my partial neglect. Granted, I don't do all that many pickup orders, but it can easily be a pain, especially when the person doesn't tip.
As for the fast food arguement, even as a food service person, I do not believe they should be tipped. They already make at least minimum wage, not the best pay, but on slow nights I barely clear minimum myself.
I get paid $2.63 an hour, even when I have no tables.
In short, toss the pickup person a buck.
Damn, really?
Because, you would figure I would know that considering I have a Culinary Arts Diploma and I am a 3rd year apprentice.... Or because I've been a cook for about the last 5 years or so... Man, thank you for opening my eyes.
In reality, Cooks make shit all for the work they have to do.
During those 5 years I had to stand on my feet between 4-10 hours a day on average, with very few shorter, and several longer.
I had to stand by fryers and ovens and salamanders and heat lamps and open flames, regardless of the weatehr outside. We had almost no AC In the back, so during the summer it was so hot back there I can't even fathom how much I had to drink to keep hydrated.
I've suffered cuts, bruises, innumerable burns on various parts of my body, chemical burns from cleaning up the place at night, wait staff that have an atitude on their own, wait staff giving me greif because a customer is making their life hell, and all the other assorted joys that can come with working in a restruant as well.
I do not disagree that wait staff work hard, many do. But in general I don't think there is anyone that works harder than the cooks in most cases (not counting lazy individuals that appear everywhere).
There were some nights I came home so badly worn out from the day, and so badly injured from cleaning up the place (or potential accidents) that I looked like I'd just been dragged through hell. I've never seen anyone from the wait staff come in earlier than me, and I'd never seen any stay later than me unless they were hanging out. I do not doubt some restruants are much different than this, but I'd imagine most are fairly similar.
I have a great respect for the people that cook my food so long as they are competent at it, because I've been there and know how difficult it can be, as well as how thankless it often is.
That said, I didn't make that much. The bartenders usually pulled in more than anyone else save managers once you factored in tips.
Holy shit, thats fucking bizzare. It also puts the whole Resovoir Dogs scene about tipping into a new light for me.
i'm sure it's appreciated, but i don't think "i think my job is hard sometimes" means you deserve a tip. I've worked a lot of very very hard jobs, many of them for minimum wage, never did i get tips.
Lots of people work hard at their job, doesn't mena you deserve money fom me. Unless of course you're expecting tips to round out your sub standard wage.
Yeah! Because you took a job eating bees!
Seriously, I think the OP was asking if it was customary to tip for a pickup, not if it was moral.
Minimum wage in Canada is different depending on your profession. Waiters/waitresses and bartenders get paid lower than what the normal minimum wage is for other people.
So its basically the same as in the states.
If anything, that law would vary by province, just like the minimum wage does. Where I live, min wage is min wage, there is no special double secret ultra low minimum wage just for the food service industry.
My family owns a restaurant and the waitresses all make at least $7.25 or whatever min. wage is now. Plus their undeclared tips. It can make for some decent money.
I know for sure because at my work they have a big poster on the wall which is "employees rights" or somesuch, and it stipulates that the minimum wage is different for hunting guides, waitresses (or bartenders?) and a couple others.
I think it has to do with the fact that some provinces tax the tips that are made by these professions. I know Quebec taxes tips. Ontario doesn't, to my knowledge. I dont know about Saskatchewan or any other province.
I think VC is partially wrong, I haven't ever worked delivery or any job that pays a tip, but from what my friends tell me is that if you get paid less than minimum wage and you don't make that amount back up in tips then the company is required by law to make up the difference so that at the very least your making minimum wage. So while minimum wage isn't the minimum a business is required to pay you it is the minimum you can potentially make.