How much do you tip the person who hands you a bag of restaurant carryout?

Nothing. I saw a tip jar at an Arby's once, I LOLed.

But seriously, the "take out" food I get is most often chinese. I don't tip anything for them cooking the food, putting it into a paper bag, handing said paper bag to me, and swiping my credit card.

I tip for the blow jobs.

Gecko Gingrich: Depends on management. I've worked in places where you declare your own tips (from "nothing" to "everything", guess which one flags the IRS) and I've worked in places where a set percentage of you sales is declared for you.

That's the part that was missing, hence the "error". Waitstaff are taxed on the assumption of tips...which is a percentage of their bills. It's not 8% of the totals.

Crunch61: What about places like Sonic, that bring the food out to you? I've never eaten there, do people tip?

Sonic is the only fast food place I've ever tipped. I don't know if other people do or not, but I always give them a buck. Two if they're on roller skates and they jiggle.

The purpose of tipping is not to express appreciation for the service you just received, it's to ensure that the next time you receive that service it is provided promptly and satisfactorily.

For example, I tip my local taxi drivers, who all know my name and address, more than I would tip a downtown driver who will in all likelihood never see me again. This pays dividends, since when I call for a cab it's usually because I'm running late and they come to my house very promptly. They also wave or honk when they see me walking. This is the rationale for tipping, IMHO.

But counter help who merely total the order and hand you the bag? A dollar most, no matter the size od the order. Delivery guys get ten to fifteen percent on average.

Wait staff at restaurants get twenty percent. But again, it's the future transactions with that establishment that my tip is there to enhance. If the service is lousy but I'll return anyway for the great food, I might reduce the tip to ten percent, but rarely less. The service would have to be very poor indeed for me to stiff the waitstaff entirely.

jst3p: I did last time. I yelled "lay off the Sharpies!"

Was she mexican?

Fark 'em. Here's a tip - if you want to make money, don't work in food service.

I once tipped a lousy waitress $.03 (on the credit card recipe). Tips are supposed to be for good service - no service, no tip.

My wife and argue about this all the time. I say fark them - and wife wants to tip everyone - Because she is in the restaurant industry! These are the only frickin people who believe in all this ridiculous tipping.

The thing that really makes you feel obligated is that they have a spot for "tips" on the credit card receipt that you sign, and if you leave it blank you look cheap....the filthy bastards.

wage0048: There was a line on the credit card slip at Old Country Buffet for a tip.

I actually saw the old geezer in front of me give a $5 tip at a buffet where they don't even come by with refills on your beverage!

To be fair, I try to leave a few bucks at the local chinese buffet, since they're always coming by with water and more tea.


I leave five bucks at the buffet because a) I am pretty sure the people who clear the plates and tables make very little and b) there is a pretty good chance that my four year old and seven year old create slightly more work than a table of adults but mostly it is c) To teach my kids to be considerate and appreciative to anyone who serves them in any capacity.


A couple times I have had to go to the ATM and get some cash (I pay with debit for just about everything) and my daughter even reminds me when we go now "Daddy, did you remember to get money for a tip?"

I usually tip a higher percentage at cheaper places, but I don't tip takeout and I don't tip baristas. I also don't tip at Subway - give me a break, you're fast food. I might break that rule at a mom and pop place.

Bartender tips crack me up. I tip because everyone does, I guess, but is it really worth a buck to pour a draft beer? It takes no skill and 15 seconds. I'll bet at a busy place they can pull $50-75/hr, cash.

I begrudgingly tip when I sit down to eat at a restaurant. I'll be God dammed if I'm going to tip for take out.

I don't tip the guy at Mcdonald's, so why should I tip for take out?
I don't tip the guy at the auto parts store. I don't tip the guy at the 7-11. I don't tip the mail man.

There is a whole gamut of folks I don't tip, and I've yet to hear a compelling reason why I should automatically tip anyone regardless of their performance. The only reason I tip at sit down restaurants is because of social custom....here in the US.

Agent19: Tipping at a takeout counter is just as stupid as tipping at a supermarket checkout line ... cashiers at a supermarket have to take your money, put your food in a bag too, does that mean you should tip them?

It depends. Is the person who has to fill your order also part of the wait staff, in which case they're making waiter's wages? Then they're wasting time filling out your order, when they could be serving tipping customers in the restaurant proper. On a related note, do barbers always expect tips?

Lets change topics and get off the tip thread and move it
to the one where we talk about all the waitresses we know that
would bang anyone on the slim hope of latching on to a guy
that made enough that she didnt have to work as a waitress
any more.

bonus for CC and above.

As a former bartender at an Italian restaurant, I can tell you that I did much more than put the stuff in bags and hand it to the customer. Basically how it goes:

Answer the phone (it's at the bar) and deal with the customer
Me: What would you like?
Them: Can you read me the specials?
Me: Ok...{proceeds to read 8 specials)
Them: Ok, and how much does that cost? Does it come with soup & salad? How much is that? Do I get dessert with that? Can you read the first thing again?
Me: Patiently answers all questions again and re-reads the specials.
Them: Oh, never mind, I'll just have the chicken parm.

Meanwhile, I've got servers lining up with drink orders and people at the bar waiting for drinks and to order food and get the food they already ordered.

I have to go back in the kitchen, drop off the order, pack up a salad in the to go container, get their side of dressing, and wrap up bread for each entree they order.

Then when they come to pick up the food good few would add to the order once they got there. So, for this same customer, I have to do the whole thing over again, plus re-adjust the bill. So, yeah, if I didn't get tipped, I was pissed. I'd have to say 9 out of 10 times I was tipped, so most of the population isn't completely brain dead when it comes to that.

So, for all of you that don't tip on to go orders: If you're THAT cheap, stay the fark home and don't waste the bartender's time.

justtray: I always give a couple dollars for carry out as long as it's under 20%. One dollar just doesn't get you anywhere these days.

The real question is do you tip the maid when you stay at a hotel? I'm a traveling consultant and for the most part I've never tipped but the more people I ask, the more random people I come across that say they tip a few dollars every week... I kind of thought the price of fixing my room up was included in the cost of the room, but maybe I'm way off base here.

The answer to this one is YES. You should always tip the maid in a hotel room. I travel for business pretty regularly, and the rule of thumb is to leave a dollar or two per night. So, if you stay for 5 nights, leave $5-$10 on the desk with a little note that says "Thanks!" so they know it is meant for them.

If it's a sit-down, full-service restaurant, I tip 20%. (I usually round the total amount with tip up to the nearest dollar.)

If I'm picking up carry-out I usually don't tip. If I do a lot of business with them I'll occasionally drop a buck in the tip jar depending on my mood.

jst3p:

Only if you are still planning on converting to the Jewish faith.
/I kid!

Is that the religion I must convert to in order to win you over?

bobbette: It depends on how much the minimum wage is in your area.

Also, if you had any special requests, I think you should tip.

Why? Is it extra difficult to put things in the bag and ring you up when there are special requests?

DirkValentine: you tip a bartender to get drinks faster and stronger. period.

At the restaurant I work at they scan an weigh the bottles all the time. Anyone going nuts making the drinks stronger would get called out on it.

Why is the food service industry, in particular, so tip-focused?

A waiter or bartender's job is no more difficult or complex than countless other low-paying positions.

You don't generally tip retail staff.
You don't generally tip service people (okay, plumbers and carpenters are well-paid, but their assistants sure aren't).
You don't generally tip at the gas station (unless it's one of those rare places that still washes your windows, checks the oil, and so on).
You generally don't tip delivery people and couriers...

In fact, you don't tip the vast majority of employees and volunteers that you encounter in a typical day.

Who arbitrarily decided that restaurant employees, cab drivers, housekeepers, and a few other "professions" (using the term very loosely) are exclusively worthy of our tips, even when the service isn't particularly good?

Crunch61: What about places like Sonic, that bring the food out to you? I've never eaten there, do people tip?

It is a fast food restaurant so people don't tip.

IXI Jim IXI: jst3p: I did last time. I yelled "lay off the Sharpies!"

Was she mexican?

Are there non-mexicans working at McDonald's?

/I know there are
//just not around here or in Cali where I grew up

dahmers love zombie: A laurel, and hardy handshake.



These guys had a secret handshake?

Gecko Gingrich: If you want to start paying Applebees $35 an entrée I encourage you to continue this line of thinking. If restaurants have to start paying servers a living wage, do you think that that increase in overhead won't be passed on to you?

Does not compute. If tipping were abolished wage costs would go up on the order of 15% to replace the lost income. Hardly $35 at Applebees.

It's easy...

if someone else brings you the food and cleans up after you, you tip.

if you bring your food to the table, put your garbage in the trash, and leave your tray on top of the garbage can, you don't tip.

you have pee hands: I also don't tip at Subway - give me a break, you're fast food.

People tip at Subways? Are you sure you aren't just putting money in that "Help so and so's kid, who's got cancer" jar?

KaponoFor3: BKITU: If I'm picking up a bag from a counter and that's the end of the service, however, they get no tip. I wasn't waited on. I'm not tipping someone for swiping my debit card. IMO, just putting food in a bag isn't "service" deserving payment beyond the price of the food.

Bingo. I get pickup from a local Mexican place near my house pretty frequently and they always print out my ATM receipt with one of those "tip: ___________" lines, and I always have to write zero.

I've actually taken to paying cash for take-out, just to avoid that awkward moment where they watch me fill out the receipt.

When getting Chinese food, a pizza or a Subway sandwich, I leave a dollar bill in the tip jar. No biggy.

Maybe a dollar or two. Sometimes nothing (like when I pickup up pizza Monday).

jst3p: mikaloyd: Sumatra: I've never worked anywhere where the host split tips, they make a an hourly about four or five times what a server makes,

So if a server makes 10 bucks an hour a host makes 40 or 50 bucks an hour?

I think it is more like "if the wage paid to the server is $2.45 an hour...."

I think he means that tipped employees make less than minimum wage. Which is the case in some states. Back in my day in the restaurant industry Washington paid tipped employees minimum wage. Or that was the minimum. Anyways, at the end of the night you had to tip out the bartenders, hostesses and sometimes cooks. One place I worked had you paying the bartenders $0.25 a drink, bussers a set percentage, 1.5% of sales IIRC, and then you could put whatever you wanted in for the hostesses and cooks.

Another place I worked had you tipping out a set percentage of sales each night, 3-3.5% or so IIRC, that was then split up to the bussers, bartenders, cooks and hostesses.

jst3p: A couple times I have had to go to the ATM and get some cash (I pay with debit for just about everything) and my daughter even reminds me when we go now "Daddy, did you remember to get money for a tip?"

I'm that way as well, even when paying the bill with a credit card, I always tip cash.

Having read the article, but finding the thread to be tldr, the correct answer is 0%.

The_Sponge: My Dad's cousin is a slick defense attorney, and he came out to visit us in '93. (His client was a Canadian citizen who was caught with cocaine at Seatac Intl. Airport.)

Anyhow, one morning we all went out for breakfast at this country-style restaurant that has awesome food. Since they're popular and don't take reservations, it was crowed. Peter (the cousin) tried to bribe the hostess with a $20 so we could get our table ASAP.

/She turned it down.

Probably because she would get fired for that. Seen it happen.

manwithdaplan This is yet another symptom of the "Mr. Rogers Entitlement Syndrome" from yesterday. If waiters/waitresses expect a tip for putting my food in a bag, they will be surely waiting a long, long time. I tip for table service, not takeout.

Mr Rogers never encouraged anybody to expect anything except simple respect and human decency.

So fark you with a rusty pitchfork, you piece of goddam shiat. And jam your Fox News hyperpole up your farking politics hole.

idrow: So, for all of you that don't tip on to go orders: If you're THAT cheap, stay the fark home and don't waste the bartender's time.

To play devil's advocate:

I configured a 250GB lun today because the DBA screwed up the request for the new server and this was in addition to the regular work I had to do. They didn't tip either.


Some tasks are tip worthy and some are part of your job.

My last boyfriend was kinda cheap- we'd go to a restaurant near my house (where they know me) and if it was his turn to pay for dinner, he would give an embarassingly small tip. So I would always pretend to have left something at the table, go back and add another couple dollars. Didn't want the "I spit in your food" revenge on my next visit.

Bar Tenders = 50 cents a beer, $1 a drink... if they charged me $20 for a $250 night... they get the remainder of half what the bill should have been, in this example: $105.

Waiters = ~20% after tax (whatever is easiest for me to add)

Hostesses = ...what? why would I tip someone for writing my name down or taking me to my table?

Pizza Delivery Guy = whatever the nearest $5 denomination comes to

Hairdresser = 10%

Baristas at a regular coffee place = nothing

Baristas in Pasties/Bikins (go seattle!) = $2 flat rate

Restaurant take-out guy = $3-4 if he comes out to my car for curbside, $0 if I have to walk into the building myself

One of my regular restaurants switched to giving the hostess and bartender part of my waitress' tips, whether they actually served me or not. Since I don't ask for any alcoholic drinks and the hostess is only interacting with me for a few seconds, I consider this really unfair for the waitress. I usually give her cash for the tip so she can do report however much of it she wants rather than put it on the CC receipt.

Necropenguin: you have pee hands: I also don't tip at Subway - give me a break, you're fast food.

People tip at Subways? Are you sure you aren't just putting money in that "Help so and so's kid, who's got cancer" jar?

I don't usually put any money in the jar. But it says tip.

My favorite is how it's not rude to not leave a tip on top of the 15% for parties of 6 or more.

WTF is this? First tips became mandatory (unless you want them to make a scene and threaten to call the police)... now 30% for parties of 6 or more?

Also amusing is tipping the toll both employees on holidays... yea, that will happen. Same goes for the mail man. I bet 2 people follow this "rule" in the whole damn country.

AbbeySomeone: AGAIN, restaurant staff are taxed on ALL orders they ring up, take out or dine in. Approx 8% of all sales are taken out of their meager paychecks. Tip at least 10%.


Staff have to pay taxes on the restaurant's gross receipts? Where do you live?

St_Francis_P: Instant Karma: I suspect the Chick tract would only be advisable if you don't plan on EVER coming back or you happen to have a food taster on your staff.

Dunno. Those things are comedy gold if you're in the right mood.

really came here to say this.

/tip 20% and a dollar per beer

Gecko Gingrich: Can'tLetYouDoThatStarFox: Abolish tipping. It has outlived its usefulness and only leads to needless conflict. That is all.

If you want to start paying Applebees $35 an entrée I encourage you to continue this line of thinking. If restaurants have to start paying servers a living wage, do you think that that increase in overhead won't be passed on to you?

And you go on to make the same old fallacy that most tip-system advocates make.

I'll make it very simple, repeat after me:
WHETHER YOU TIP OR PAY A FLAT FEE, THERE IS NO EXTRA MONEY ENTERING OR LEAVING THE SYSTEM EITHER WAY.

Economic principles dictate that you will pay the exact same total amount whether you are paying the waiter directly through tips, or whether you give the restaurant the money first and then they pass it on to the waiter later. In other words, customers are willing to pay what they are willing to pay, and the business will price accordingly. Entree's do not magically jump up to $35 in a flat wage system (where is this increased overall cost to the business coming from?), they would remain exactly the same price as they are in a tip system, as long as you view tips as part of the total price in the first place, which they are.

Stop perpetuating this nonsensical myth that we are saving money by tipping, that makes no economic sense whatsoever. We would pay exactly the same total amount either way. The only question is whether you want to pay that fixed amount to the restaurant in one payment or two. I vote one.

It wasn't that long ago when a tip might be rejected as undemocratic and unamerican.

I never heard of tipping for carryout. It's not like they had to spend a lot of time on you.

I always tip 20% for normal service, and I'll tip more if they do something awesome or make my visit extra enjoyable. If someone really sucked at paying any attention to my table, then I'll knock the tip down.

Oh, and I learned to tip a minimum of $2 in case I'm just eating a cheap meal (e.g. breakfast). The waiter/waitress still has to spend all that time on you, even though the meal was cheap.