Tipping on Takeout

Just curious as to whether folks tip on take-out (picking up food, not having it delivered) and, if so, how much. Feel free to elaborate, rationalize or draw distinctions about when you might/might not tip (or vary the amount) in the comments.

For reference, prior discussions on tipping on delivery and tipping on wine.

I usually don't tip when I'm picking up food unless I feel like they did something extra for me or if I have a really good relationship with the restaurant.

When I do, it's never a percentage, but just a few bucks.

Best,
Michael

If I am dealing directly with the owner of a restaurant, then I usually won't tip. If it is some kid working behind a counter making minimum wage (or less), especially if they have to pack up the togo orders themselves, then I will tip. I figure in many family run restaurants, tips are the only money the kids ever see.

I do have to admit, I am a total sucker for a tip jar. If there is a jar labeled tips, I will always put a buck or three in it. I guess that usually comes to about 8-12% of the order.

It depends on the place, and if they have a tip jar, but I'll usually tip a dollar or two on takeout, just like I would if it's counter service and I'm eating in, or at a coffee shop, etc.

eatchicago wrote:I usually don't tip when I'm picking up food unless I feel like they did something extra for me or if I have a really good relationship with the restaurant.

When I do, it's never a percentage, but just a few bucks.

Best,
Michael

Same here-- and I also realize that that tip money is probably pooled. Tips for hosts and hostesses are often tip-shared, which means that if I leave $5 because the hostess was pleasant, chances are about $4 of that will go to waiters who never put a finger on my food or dealt with the order in any way.

If I do not wish to leave a tip on takeout, as is the case most of the time, and have paid with a credit card I make sure to write in the total--otherwise they could write in any tip they wanted if they felt inclined to be shifty.

I worked as a hostess at Grizzlys for a very, very short period of time. Takeout was entirely my responsibility from the order-taking to the packing-up, and it took a bit of time to do. I made minimum wage and tips weren't split. A tip would have been appreciated (though I never got one.)

That being said, I also worked at Starbucks and Borders cafe for years, and never understood why they have tip jars. The pay is quite good for the work, and you get benefits, even if the work is exhausting.

I worked as a waiter at a chain steakhouse in college and, like the experience at Grizzlys, the host staff was responsible for take-out, from order taking to packaging. Any tips on take-out (and there were some, although I'm not sure how frequent) went directly to the host staff, with no splitting. Host staff (along with bussers) also got tip-out from the wait staff's receipts -- 3% of all table receipts were pooled and then split out between bussers and host staff (and maybe bar staff).

It depends,

If I am picking up food at the local chinese restaurant I tip nothing.

If I am going to a carryout place that has a bar where I can have a few drinks while I order some food, and wait for it to be done(like my local mexican place, pizza place, and fried chicken spot), I tip over 20%.

I guess the chinese carryout guy needs to expand and open a bar..

I throw in extra change at times, and am more likely to do more if I am charging the bill for some reason.

What do you do if you are at a deli, like Manny's or Schmaltz? You are not carrying out, they are serving you, and yet there is often no way to tip people. I respect the initiative behind throwing a tip jar out there (anything you get is a bonus, so why not ask and see what you get), but I really have no clue.

On the other hand, the percentage I tip has come to be more related to value - if the meal is expensive, I am likely to stick within the range of 15-20% (I do include drinks and tax in the calculation so some would consider it a higher percentage), whereas at a good cheap place, I am likely to tip a minimum of $1.25-$1.50 no matter the size of the bill, and might easily go to 30%. My logic is simple - I am more likely to come back often, the server is paid less and works just as hard.

By that logic, I suppose I should tip for takeout, at least a buck.

Depending if the situation is right, (if there is a tip line on the credit card receipt, or a tip jar available) I always tip a dollar on carry out. I used to work at a restaurant in Kentucky called Tumbleweed, (texmex style) and I noticed how no one ever tipped out the to go person. I told myself then that if everyone would just tip a dollar on their carry-outs, then take person would actually make a bit of money. So, I've been doing it ever since.


Kiyoshi
Web Design Louisville Ky

dicksond wrote:What do you do if you are at a deli, like Manny's or Schmaltz?

While normally I err on the side of being overly generous with tips, I don't usually tip at Manny's. When I started going there with my dad when I was a little kid, he never tipped (nor did anyone else) and so I never have. Once in a while, I'll give the guys who clean the tables $5- $10...usually around the holidays. I think part of the reason the prices are relatively high for a self-service place is that the "service charge" is built in. I don't know this for sure, I have just always assumed it is so.

I hardly ever tip on carryout. The exception would be if I'm ordering a lot of food that took a long time to package.

Case in point, awhile ago I threw a Bachelor party and picked up a ridiculous amount of beef and Italian sausages from Portillos - along with 3 take home heating units. One of the best beefs ever BTW, highly, highly, highly, recommend warming the beef and gravy yourself in one of these heating units - but that's another thread. Clearly, it took the server a long time to get my order together. It was a few hundred dollars worth. Like 15-20 lbs. of beef and 60 sausages...God, I'm hungry...I've just salivated all over my shirt. That will be remedied shortly by kicking the weekend off at Laschet's in a little while. Anyway...I gave the server something bt. $10 and $20 but can't remember exactly how much.

Bster

Forgive me if this has been discussed to death, or sounds like a Roeper column, but....

If you pick up carry out (pizza, Thai, etc.) and use a credit card, and the tip line is blank, what do you do?

I have decided to stop being offended and just put $0. I remember Carson's downtown, where they would cross out the line themselves. If you want to reward whomever, put it on the price.

So you don't tip delivery drivers, or you just tip them in cash?

Personally, I tip about 15%-20% on the pre-tax, pre-delivery charge amount.

I think the OP was talking about carry-out, not delivery. For carryout, I'll tip about 10%.

jesteinf wrote:So you don't tip delivery drivers, or you just tip them in cash?

Personally, I tip about 15%-20% on the pre-tax, pre-delivery charge amount.

I think the OP is asking about carry out orders that you pick up yourself. Personally, If I'm driving and picking up my own food, I don't tip. On delivery, it's a different story. Generally I tip delivery drivers excessively. I've found that if you're a regular customer and they know you're a good tipper, your order tends to arrive quicker and hotter then if you don't tip.

I don't tip for carry-out. I figure you tip the waitress and in this case, you weren't really waited on.

Oops, I misread the OP. I generally don't tip for carry out.

Generally, I don't tip for carryout. I just cross out the tip line. I figure if I'd pay in cash, no one would expect me to leave a cash tip at the register. However, on occasion, if I'm at a restaurant where I can see the waitress packaging up all the food and making sure the order is right, all in the middle of a busy service, I'll write in a $5 tip.

Pie Lady wrote:I don't tip for carry-out. I figure you tip the waitress and in this case, you weren't really waited on.

Having been on the other end of this scenario, while I wouldn't expect a full 20%, as the former hostess of a restaurant who handled things, there's work involved in a carry-out order: your order is still taken - instead of being plated, it has to be packed up carefully, and brought to wherever you pick up. I suppose there's no filling of glasses, and no checking in on the table - but the rest of the job is pretty much the same. If an employee who gets tipped wages is filling your order (at the time, I didn't, I got minimum wage, but ymmv depending on the restaurant) they still depend on tips to earn a living; they aren't getting a salary bump for carry-out.

MHays

You just wrecked my world

Mhays wrote:instead of being plated, it has to be packed up carefully, and brought to wherever you pick up. I suppose there's no filling of glasses, and no checking in on the table - but the rest of the job is pretty much the same.

I consider myself a generous tipper, but even I don't tip to have my food plated or the phone answered.

I get take out often. Nine times out of ten, the food comes from the kitchen packed up. I don't usually direct a tip to the kitchen any more than I would do so for the plating of an eat-in meal. I also don't ask the delivery driver to deliver a discreet tip to the person who bagged the food back at the cafe. The kitchen (like the host/hostess) is on the clock and generally not working for tips. (Though that varies and some finer establishments might have wait staff sharing with the kitchen. Never happened at any of the dumps where I waited, hosted, or cooked.) On the other hand, if I sit at the bar and have a beer or 2 while ordering/waiting for takeout, I generally do bump up the tip to account for the service of being handed a menu and having the bartender enter the order, all of which is about as time-consuming as filling a drink order.

Mhays wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:I don't tip for carry-out. I figure you tip the waitress and in this case, you weren't really waited on.

stevez wrote:

Mhays wrote:instead of being plated, it has to be packed up carefully, and brought to wherever you pick up. I suppose there's no filling of glasses, and no checking in on the table - but the rest of the job is pretty much the same.

I consider myself a generous tipper, but even I don't tip to have my food plated or the phone answered.

I always feel bad for the underpaid waitstaff, I think their wages are abominable.
I don't tip for carryout because they're no different than a fast food joint or other place that has counter service in that case. They still make my food and plate it up (or wrap it up) and out I go. They don't check in on me, get me anything else I need, fix any problems or replace bad food, or clean up after me after I leave.

I tip delivery guys generously (especially in the winter, but pretty much all year 'round), but I never know what to do about carry-out. Which is why I actually appreciate the presence of a tip jar! I hate ambiguity, and a tip jar removes ambiguity. It says, yes, a tip is appropriate and appreciated. And then I know what to do. The clarity alone is worth a couple of bucks to me.

So the absence of a tip jar says to you, "If you try to give me extra money, I will scream and call the police?"

cilantro wrote:So the absence of a tip jar says to you, "If you try to give me extra money, I will scream and call the police?"

In all seriousness, I am sometimes frustrated by the absence of a tip jar. Starbuckses have them, yet sometimes a place that is exactly like a Starbucks won't. (For instance, the "coffee houses" inside Borders and Barnes & Noble, but not limited to those.) If the people who work in Starbucks deserve tips (and I believe they do, or I wouldn't put money in the tip jar), then the people who work in these other places that are exactly like Starbucks deserve tips too, but there is no mechanism to give them this. Is the customer supposed to put money in the barista's palm? Or just leave extra on the counter? Both seem wrong or weird. The tip jar has become so prevalent now that the absence of a tip jar really has begun to take on the meaning of "tipping not encouraged," although it never necessarily had that meaning before.

If we're talking coffee houses, then, yes, no tip jar means no tips.

The only thing I get at Starbucks is tea, so tipping would be me saying, "Congratulations on getting the tea bag into the cup and covering it with water at almost the proper temperature!"

My solution:

1) Order carry-out at local bar.
2) Have beer while waiting.
3) Tip really, really well for one beer.

Win-win!

There's my answer! But isnt drinking beer always the answer?!