Tips for takeout: is $1 just too cheap nowadays? (real estate, dermatologist)

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

I mean every situation is different. If I go to dunks and buy a $2 coffee and pay with my app, it’s hard to tip electronically and I rarely have cash on me. If I do have cash I’ll usually pay $3 and leave the change. However that is less and less these days due to mobile ordering. They don’t really make it easy to leave a non-cash tip.


Ordering $75 -100 of take-out from a traditionally sit-down restaurant where I leave with 3 bags full of stuff? I would be embarrassed not to tip. Someone took the order, packed it, verified it was complete, and added all the extra condiments and utensils. What’s the different from sit down? They didn’t bring me a couple drinks? I still tip here even if it’s less than the 20% I’d do sit-down.

Do you tip the grocery store person who put you food in the bags?

[ziggy29]

I think it's reasonable that tips for take-out are a little lower than for dine-in, as there is less service to recognize. And generally, my rule of thumb is a minimum of $2 per person. If we are getting something for four people, I'd probably tip $8.

While restaurants were locked down for dine-in and struggling to stay open and keeping people employed, I was probably tipping 25%.

Frankly, I'd rather see menu prices rise 15-20% across the board, pay the staff decent wages, and end the tip game entirely.

[bostongymjunkie]

Originally Posted by msRB311

Do you tip the grocery store person who put you food in the bags?

Good question. As someone who bagged groceries and fetched shopping carts beginning with minimum wage, I recall my lower-paid peers waiting tables consistently out-earning me.

[massnative71]

I take into consideration the restaurant...how bad has Covid hurt them? Are still doing takeout only (a few places still are)? How well run are they (do they deserve to stay in business?), are they trying their best to maintain good service despite the challenges all are facing today? I also take into the account that I and many others aren't really eating out, so they aren't making money off drinks, etc. yet they still have pretty much the same overhead. I try to make up for that to an extent. So depending on all these variables, my tips range anywhere from 0-60%.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by msRB311

Why is the responsibility of paying them more placed on the customer who is already paying more for something that would have cost less if the prepared it at home. A box of pasta cost about $1.50 a jar of tomato sauce and some cheese is about $6 depending on the brand yet ordering the prepared meal out is about $13+. I'm just using this as an example but eating out already isn't cheap compared to if you bought the food and made it yourself. Tipping someone who comes by to take your order, serves it to you on a plate and carries it over with drinks and makes several trips to your table to check in on you is one thing. They get tipped. But taking the order over the phone or at the register and handing you food wrapped in a plastic or paper bag doesn't seem the same.

Why should someone be tipped at a mom and pop shop for take out but no one thinks to tip someone working at McDonald's or Taco Bell? Yet I always see tip jars out at Starbucks when someone is paying $5 for a coffee. Maybe the Starbucks workers are just smarter than the McDonald's workers in terms of leaving the tip jar out in the first place.

Yep, eating out will be *at least* 2x the cost of making it yourself, I think 3x is more like the going rate, and if it's a fancy joint, the premium is higher.

Assuming I am right about the worker pay (not 100% certain), then I can see the above view - it's the owner's problem. But I don't share it - it's easy to say that's the owner's job to fix that, but what if they don't address it? The only person being hurt would be the little person who is trying to scrape by.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

Yep, eating out will be *at least* 2x the cost of making it yourself, I think 3x is more like the going rate, and if it's a fancy joint, the premium is higher.

Assuming I am right about the worker pay (not 100% certain), then I can see the above view - it's the owner's problem. But I don't share it - it's easy to say that's the owner's job to fix that, but what if they don't address it? The only person being hurt would be the little person who is trying to scrape by.

I might have said this during the shutdown, but so many places are hiring right now that if a place is so bad they can easily hop over to one that treats its employees better. If my local Dunkin Donuts is forced to shut down in the middle of the afternoon because nobody wants to work there, then it's them who needs to do a better job in attracting employees (or figure out how to operate more efficiently). If I get the impression they are trying to change their ways, that would be one thing. But otherwise, let them go under.

[Lampert]

I never tip for takeout. I was tipping during the pandemic though.

[msRB311]

It is pretty pathetic that many of these places are having to close and shorten hours because they can't find help. But that's not my problem and if I go to one of those places to eat I'm not sure why it becomes my responsibility to feel bad and tip for a service I normally wouldn't. I guess putting a taco in a bag is considered a 'service' now?

Somewhere the line needs to be drawn or made clearer with tipping. I leave 20% when I sit down at a restaurant to eat. I also leave 20% when I get a haircut, nails done or any type of beauty service thing. I am not going to start tipping people at Starbucks when I place a mobile order and go to pick up my coffee. That's where it starts getting kind of absurd to me. At the end of the day it's someone's job to make coffee and why does that deserve a tip? We don't tip garbage men or the people who ring up and bag groceries. Or the guy who pumps our gas. I've heard people say that photographers should be tipped for doing family photos and I don't quite get that either. Professional photos are pretty costly, the photographer has chosen this career and sometimes it's a side job. They need tips too ?

Should people tip their financial planning managers? Real estate broker? Dermatologist? Or just the poorly paid people at restaurants and salons even though the product price isn't low for the customer ?

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by msRB311

It is pretty pathetic that many of these places are having to close and shorten hours because they can't find help. But that's not my problem and if I go to one of those places to eat I'm not sure why it becomes my responsibility to feel bad and tip for a service I normally wouldn't. I guess putting a taco in a bag is considered a 'service' now?

Somewhere the line needs to be drawn or made clearer with tipping. I leave 20% when I sit down at a restaurant to eat. I also leave 20% when I get a haircut, nails done or any type of beauty service thing. I am not going to start tipping people at Starbucks when I place a mobile order and go to pick up my coffee. That's where it starts getting kind of absurd to me. At the end of the day it's someone's job to make coffee and why does that deserve a tip? We don't tip garbage men or the people who ring up and bag groceries. Or the guy who pumps our gas. I've heard people say that photographers should be tipped for doing family photos and I don't quite get that either. Professional photos are pretty costly, the photographer has chosen this career and sometimes it's a side job. They need tips too ?

Should people tip their financial planning managers? Real estate broker? Dermatologist? Or just the poorly paid people at restaurants and salons even though the product price isn't low for the customer ?

I agree to pretty much all of this. My tipping for takeout is generally only at full service restaurants, that are dependent on tips/alcohol sales and where my not eating in is depriving them of income they would otherwise be earning had it not been for the pandemic and I were eating in.

[msRB311]

Seems like there are a lot of people out there who feel bad for people who work in restaurants and feel the need to tip them. They can keep on doing that if it makes them feel better but I don't know why it should be an expectation for all.