Okay Internet, I need your help. You see, one of the side affects of busy jobs and lives is that we have been ordering a bit more take out than we used to. Superb Sushi, Lulu’s Pizza, Smokey Mountain pasta…you get the picture.
Normally Andy picks up the take out, but tonight I was on that side of town, so I did the honors. The woman at the front desk of the restaurant printed out my receipt and asked me to sign the credit card slip. The blank line below the subtotal of the meal stared back at me. Do I leave a tip? Do I not? Literally, the only amount of service I experienced was the woman carrying our food ten feet from kitchen to front desk. Oh and she put it in a bag. Does that really deserve a tip?
Let me clarify. I am not cheap, especially around tipping…I usually leave at least 20%…but I also have a problem with the excessive tipping our culture seems to have fallen into. If I pay $100 for a cut and highlight, is a $20 tip on top of the service I just paid for really necessary?
In China, we did not have to tip at all, so it really made me start to wonder why we tip SO much when it is not necessarily deserved.
Don’t get me wrong, in a normal restaurant scenario, in a coffee shop, 20% at least…no question about it. Many of these people don’t even make normal minimum wage and they work hard to provide good service.
But what about take out? What about the hair salon?
What do you recommend?
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March 18th, 2010 at 10:01 pm
I’ve had this dilemma before. The answer I’ve always received (which means I’ve asked more than one person) is not to tip for takeout.
I always hope that they’re not looking when I do that too. I secretly hope that they don’t notice I didn’t tip until I leave the restaurant. Is that awful?
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March 18th, 2010 at 10:21 pm
I am completely against unnecessary tipping. I’ve even seen tip jars at Subway and other fast-food style places!! For takeout, I generally do not tip. But with one exception – for the sushi place in San Diego that I went to every week, I tipped. All the staff there knew me by name and visited while I waited for my order to be prepared. For those guys, I always tipped generously because I considered it above and beyond that they knew my order just by recognizing my voice over the phone. For every other takeout, a big fat nope.
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March 19th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
It is a split decision for me. I never tip for take out. I always tip wait staff well for they are performing a service, however for takeout it does not make sense to tip someone for ringing you up. I always tip at the salon. Stylists don’t make much, they rely heavily on their tips and I want to have a good relationship with who is cutting my hair.
Always better to tip when in doubt. Like someone once told me, money is like manure, it doesn’t do any good unless you spread it around.
March 24th, 2010 at 10:39 pm
While I would never judge negatively for not tipping for take out… there are a few things that some people don’t realize.
If you are getting take out from a restaurant, for example, the bartender will ring up the food on his/her register. Usually, this bartender has to tip the hostesses, busboys and food runner (the person who is bringing the food up to the counter) around 5% of the sale. So, if you don’t tip, the bartender is actually paying money for your food. (BTW, this is true of wait staff except wait staff usually has to tip the bartender, as well).
If a place does NOT have a bartender, though, you may want to consider that the food did not walk itself up to the hostess stand where you pick up the food. Someone had to go back there, package it up, put it in a bag, make sure there were napkins and forks or whatever in the bag as well as ensure that it was ready when you got there. So, there was an effort involved, though it might be a minimum effort.
Also, people who work in restaurants have very good memories. They’ll remember the names of people who have tipped them and will usually go out of their way to provide them with a little extra service, like making sure that their food is ready on time, that it is hot, that there’s extra condiments, etc.
All that said, I never tip more than 10% for takeout. And if it’s not ready when I get there and I have to wait for someone to go get the food, then I don’t tip at all.
Can you tell I was a waitress at one point in my life…
alecia Reply:
March 24th, 2010 at 11:59 pm
Excellent points that I had not considered…thanks!