Take-Out and tipping

[vinraith]

This one's a total mystery to me:

Do you tip when you get take out? How about when you get the kind of take-out where they bring it out to your car (curbside take-away or whatever). I usually don't tip with the former but feel obligated to provide something with the latter. I'm never sure how much is appropriate (because I'm not totally sure anything is) so the amount fluctuates wildly.

I know we have some former restaurant workers in our midst, any enlightenment on what the "right" thing is to do here? Are the wait staff that are on take-out duty paid with the "you'll get tips" assumption like the interior staff?

What do you do in these circumstances?

[Martinus]

Well, my tipping is entirely circumstantial, and depends on a host of factors, from whether the service impressed me, or I have change, or I am paying with plastic.

But then again, in Europe/Poland the culture of tipping is not as robust as it is in the US, because here waiters are not expected to get a considerable part of their income from tips, so dunno.

[Zanza]

I never ever tipped when getting take-away food in the US. I didn't have impression as if anybody expected me to do so either.  I paid for the food and there is no service in take-away.

[Admiral Yi]

I've never done curbside but I wouldn't tip.  They're doing about as much work as the person at a drive through window.

[The Nickname Who Was Thursday]

Curbside is bullshit designed to make you feel obligated to tip; I'm perfectly fine with going inside to pick up the food.

[Caliga]

This is why I don't patronize Sonic.

[OttoVonBismarck]

Something like Chinese takeout?  Pizza?  No tip.  I know for a fact (at least in the ones ran legally) these people are not paid based on an assumption of getting tipped.

The curb-side takeaway is a different thing.  I've only done it a few times and I've tipped only because about two years ago I asked about it on a different forum and some restaurant workers chimed in that it was expected that you still tip in that situation.  The way they described it, it's still a decent amount of work for them.  Honestly I can't imagine it'd be nearly as much work as a real table, I think the kitchen staff is doing 90% of the work in that scenario but I don't feel like it is my place to judge something like that.  If it's expected, and if people who are making $2.50/hour because most of their take home is in the form of tips are the ones bringing it to me, I feel like it's a situation where I should tip.

I usually tip 20% as standard at a restaurant, I drop it down to 15% for the curb side.

[OttoVonBismarck]

This is why I don't patronize Sonic.

Sonic is the only good fast food in America.

My impression was that Vinnie was talking more about the chain full-service restaurants that do this (Applebee's, Outback, places like that), not places like Sonic. 

[Caliga]

Oh... well, I like Sonic, but I don't elect to go there because the way they operate annoys me.

[DisturbedPervert]

Nope.  Don't tip at Taco Bell either.

[vinraith]

This is why I don't patronize Sonic.

Sonic is the only good fast food in America.

My impression was that Vinnie was talking more about the chain full-service restaurants that do this (Applebee's, Outback, places like that), not places like Sonic. 

I love Sonic (and adore the way they operate, they're the only genuinely convenient fast food chain I know), but yeah I was thinking of Outback, Tumbleweed, Applebee's, that kind of thing.

[PDH]

As an extravagant man, I always tip, everybody I meet, with the gems of wisdom that I create every time I speak.  As for money, those take out shysters can eat a dick.

[CountDeMoney]

If I'm picking it up at a counter, no tip.
If someone's bringing it out to me curbside, just a little tip, but nothing to feel guilty about.*
If it's delivery, definitely.



*No curbside places in Maryland, though.  Too many opportunities for robbery and drive-offs, so no Sonics. Fucking niggers ruin everything.

[DGuller]

How much do you typically tip for delivery?

[katmai]

As an extravagant man, I always tip, everybody I meet, with the gems of wisdom that I create every time I speak.