If it's a place I would have sat down and ate dinner, I'll leave 10%. But if I have to drive home smelling it and hungry, no way I'm giving more than that.
Tipping on to-go orders: What's the consensus?
- Thread starter Chris
- Start date
OP
I agree, the customer should be aware, because if they are tacking on those fees, they shouldn’t even be asking for a tip.
I’m not even against paying higher prices for my food if it means paying employees living wages. I like the European model much better when it comes to the service industry.
We're (mostly) talking about carry-out, take-away, to-go which differs from drive-thru in that you walk in to the establishment to pay and receive your food in a bag. The customer service experience can be similar to drive through depending on the presence of glass and its thickness which vary by neighborhood.
Tipping sucks, so does sales tax, and all the stupid little fees we get charged. Lets be like Europe and put the actual total price on shit. Pay people fair wages and all that. While we are at it let's revamp campaign contribution rules and special interest, legalize marijuana and let the ATF manage it like cigarettes and alcohol, and send Rosie and Whoopi to Canada like they promised.
When I typically go out to eat, I tip a little over 20%. Nowadays I do closer to 30%.
I use Uber eats instead of getting pickup. I usually give the recommended 15% to the driver but I change that dependent on the size of the total bill. They should get at least $5 from me for driving my food and I typically end up giving them a little more. If I was doing pickup I’d be tipping nowadays, but I usually don’t otherwise.
I use Uber eats instead of getting pickup. I usually give the recommended 15% to the driver but I change that dependent on the size of the total bill. They should get at least $5 from me for driving my food and I typically end up giving them a little more. If I was doing pickup I’d be tipping nowadays, but I usually don’t otherwise.
SaharaBound
TJ Enthusiast
Same here, I lived in Greece for a summer and it was great knowing you didn’t have to think about tips for anything. The US should just get rid of tipping it just complicates everything, but restaurants will say its too expensive.....
Many waiters don’t want to get rid of tips. I was at a nice steak house a few weeks ago. Tip ended up being about $125 for my table alone. I’m sure that guy doesn’t want to switch to a $10 or $15 hourly wage.
He might if he got stiffed on that table. You can do well as a server if you work the right spots, and shifts. It's not consistent though. I have a friend in Huntsville AL that makes six figures as a waiter. High end place, lots of wine and rare booze, and he is good at his job. He has bad nights too though. Two sides to the argument as always.
It would be extremely unlikely for him to make $20k to $30k in a year. He would have to get stiffed on the majority of his tables. He will always make more on tips than what he would make hourly.
I can understand wanting to get rid of tips if you work at a very cheap place. It would be interesting to see the statistics on what the average waiter takes home.
OP
I don't bother with Uber Eats, GrubHub, or any of those delivery services. I've seen how badly those third parties nickel and dime the restaurants, and in many cases they lose money off of those delivery services. My thought is if you care about the restaurant and want it to stay around, just go pick it up in person (or curbside).
I used to work as a to-go person at a chain restaurant and we would get above minimum wage while the waiters would get below. Now we would take the orders over the phone and be responsible for that order until it got to your car. We had to make sure the food was presentable, hot, and had the right condiments and utensils. We would also go out in any weather and bring it to your car. I never expected tips, but it was nice and did happen often.Lately we've been getting a lot of to-go from restaurants. I've noticed a lot of these restaurants have apps that automatically include a tip when you're checking out, unless you go in and set the top amount to zero.
Now my question is this: Why the hell would I tip for a to-go order? I'm going in and picking up my food, no one is waiting on me, and it's just a cook making my food and someone putting in a bag.
However, I feel that often times I get the cold shoulder, almost as if when I pick it up, they are disgruntled that I didn't leave them a tip.
Do you tip on to-go orders? I just can't wrap my head around this one for the life of me.
Why does everyone feel like they deserve a tip these days. I feel like George Costanza
The regular wait staff would have to tip out 3% of their sales. So on a $100 check $2 go to the hosts and $1 goes to the bartender automatically. Then we would have to report a 10% tip for taxes...no matter if they left you 0. So that is another $2. when you leave me $10 on that $100 bill I'm only seeing $5 in tips.
Sorry for ranting but if you think that to-go person went above and beyond tip them. If you think your waiter did a shitty job, tip them but let them know they screwed up.
OP
Gotcha. But what would you said is a fair tip assuming everything went as planned? I mean 20% seems too high because it's not like they are literally waiting on me. Does 5-10% seem more reasonable?
I honestly had no idea since I've never worked in the service industry. Again, I just wish the restaurants would build something into the price of the food.
Yea today it's crazy what waiters get. They now get over minimum wage plus tips. 5-10% is appropriate in my mind for a to-go order.
It is more popular in cities since people don’t own cars. When I’m home in Pennsylvania I always go pick up. But for me to pick up in my town now I have a hefty walk of about 15 minutes each way to get to the town center where restaurants are located. I park about a 10 minute walk from my apartment so that doesn’t help much since I still have to drive to town.
Getting stiffed is bad, and I'm not trying to cause problems here, or anywhere, but a bad night for a six figure job is probably still better than a good night for the average person on the restaurant floor.
OP
I'll keep that in mind! Like I said, I had no idea what actually goes into it.
I'd be curious to know what the average waiter makes these days.
Yes, I can see it being a big hit in the cities. I read an article once saying Uber Eats takes something like 30% of the total. I guess the restaurants ought to just raise prices to compensate for us. I know a lot of companies do this on the Apple App Store. AllTrails for instance charges you 30% more if you subscribe to their app in app, but if you do it through the website, it's 30% less. Makes sense to me.
P.F. Changs...Chinese food must really suck in AZ if that is where you get it from?...lol sorry kind of spoiled here but I have found them to be terrible. But to answer your original question, no I don't tip on pick up orders..typically (like a Dunkin donuts, Panera etc...) However a good restaurant I have frequented and I know they were leveled by this nightmare I will take care of the staff that has been great in the past.
I think most places around here are more expensive on Uber eats. Most restaurants here are on delivery apps and have been for at least a few years so I’d expect they are making at least some money on the orders. Especially in a college town, they get a ton of orders through the apps.
OP
There is good Chinese food around here, I just haven’t found it yet. Plus, I’m very picky. I won’t eat Chinese food that has been deep fried and over-breaded. It’s got to be pan-fried.
A lot of these Chinese places seem like they just take KFC chicken and dump some sauce on it. P.F. Chang’s pan-fries the stuff and doesn’t overdo it on the sauce, which I really like.
I had a local pizza place tell me uber eats and the like add 30% to the bill. All I can say is when my daughter was confined with Covid, she ordered a Dunkin donuts iced coffee with door dash (normally $3.47) the bill was over $11.50???