Just learned that a friend of mine always tips 10% on takeout. Ive never tipped on takeout unless they offered me a water/soda while I waited or something.
US biased, but I’m a little curious about other countries as well.
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No, because tipping culture isn’t a thing here.
I never ever tip if I’m picking up the food myself. No service is being rendered.
I also pretty much never get takeout anymore because the grossness of being asked for a tip ruins the experience.
There’s a donut place I go to that hands you a device/keypad thing when you pay and it has like a gazillion prompts and questions, including tip. But I found that if you order ahead and pay online, you can skip all that and just pop in and pick up your order. So that’s what I always do now.
For anyone in the Chicago area, you need to try Stan’s Donuts. Everything is good but specifically the yeast-raised donuts are to die for. Best Boston Cream donut I’ve ever had.
I just assume that the tipping screen is built into the POS (cash register) software. It doesn’t know if this is a tip appropriate business, so it just asks for one.
They surely wouldn’t complain if you did, but I don’t think that any of those places are trying to manipulate people into tipping through their cash out screen prompts.
As a business owner that has used several different POS systems, I can tell you that they are choosing to have you see the tip prompt. I have never seen a system that didn’t have tipping as an option that can be turned on or off. However, it is usually set to on as default.
I have no doubt that you are completely correct.
But, as someone who has used various POS at various companies, I can tell you that nobody ever changes the defaults. 😂
Sadly this is very true haha
You friend is insane and making the problem worse. Tell them to stop.
Even in the US, where tipping has been out of control for a long time, nobody in their right mind tips for takeout. The employee literally didn’t do a damn thing other than a couple seconds of handing you a box and possibly cashing you out.
In my previous town there was a restaurant where I had to install an app to order. When ordering, the kitchen would make the meal and put it out on a counter where I had to go and pick it up myself. When ordering drinks, I had to walk over to the bar where a server left the drink out on a table for me to fetch. Basically no interaction with anyone.
The audacity when the app asked me to leave a tip. Luckily I live in Norway where leaving no tip is completely normal, because civilized employment laws exist.
Please continue not tipping. I do not want to pay extra so that business owners can dump wages.
Well that’s just false. Many people don’t tip for takeout (I don’t), but the customary amount in the US is 10% if you’re going to. I worked in the service industry almost 20 years ago and that amount was supposed to go to bartenders and hostesses who handled the takeout, and it was a nice supplement since takeout and busy bar times didnt normally overlap. It didn’t use to be expected (unlike post covid where tipping is out of control), but if they bring the food out to you or if you have any special orders it’s definitely common. I still bristle at the idea and did back then too, but it’s a far cry from “nobody in their right mind”.
Nope. Where I live employees’ salary is included in the food prices.
Fuck no, they’re paid to prepare food. There’s no service, why am I tipping? People who tip like this are the reason why we have a terrible time ordering every time we go out.
Could you speak up so those in the back can hear you?
“Fuck no”
Ok great, thank you for your service.
Zero tips for takeout.
Canada here. For the very rare delivery order I make, I’ll do 10%.
For takeout orders, 0, except from my favourite shawarma place because I like them and want them to stay around. They get 10%. Their prices are very reasonable to begin with, so much that I’ve thought they could charge more.
This is the correct response. Small businesses with fair prices need support.
USA, I also tip 10% on takeout. I guess it’s my way of helping the employees have a shot at a livable wage. I used to have a job in the industry myself, and internalized the “pay it forward” culture.
This.
Was in both front and back of the house positions, in the service industry in the US and while yeah, it may be allowing employers to skate a little longer on paying their people a REAL wage, that’s their karma accruing.
I’ll help the person in front of me.
I’ll tip like a buck sometimes, but only if I’m feeling like it. Certainly no obligation. USA
Yup, in the US you shouldn’t tip on takeout orders
Scotland. As much as they are trying tipping isn’t. Thing here but back in the days when we payed by cash I’d usually just round it up to the next £5 or £10
As much as they are trying
Ha ha ha same here (NZ), I’m assuming gullible tourists must be keeping that misguided dream alive.
For pickup? No tip. There’s no service provided. You are paying the listed price for the goods (food) you are receiving.
Delivery? 20% with a cap of $5
At a bar? 20% with a cap of $10
Sit down restaurant? 20% with a cap of $20
There’s no service provided.
And furthermore, takeout workers are not defined as a tipped position legally and therefore their employer should be paying them an actual wage, not “waiter’s wage,” which is federally $2.13/hr. (“Should” and “is” obviously not always being the same thing.)
I am always wary of touch screens and other gizmoes popping up everywhere begging for tips in non-tipped counter situations. It is possible, indeed likely, that the tips are not going to the employees anyway and are just being pocketed by the management.
I hope you’re not capping your sit down restaurant tips in America. Most more expensive places have waiters working far fewer tables so they can be more attentive, and they’re also usually the cream of the crop waiter wise. The higher total tips but still a normal percentage are definitely what they need/deserve to make the longer meals and fewer tables make sense financially (assuming the service actually was good of course).
Note I’m not advocating for any of this “20% is the new baseline” bullshit, but you definitely shouldn’t be capping your tips. Same goes for capping your bar tips unless you’re talking about only pouring wine/drafts or opening beers, and then I’d still advocate a per drink cap of like a buck per - definitely not a total cap.
I absolutely am capping my tip in America. Even at an expensive restaurant. If there’s a big party, or we’ve stayed longer than usual, then yes I’ll pay more. But fuck anyone who thinks $20 is a bad tip for less than an hour of service. That’s 20% on a $100 bill. I don’t feel the server at a steakhouse is magically working harder to refill my water glass than a waitress at IHOP is. The premium is already factored into the price of the food. Paying strictly on a percentage basis is a completely fucked line of thinking that’s led to the tipping nightmare we’re in. Wake the fuck up and realize what you’re advocating.
It’s a question of opportunity cost. In order to be really attentive they work fewer tables, so they need to have higher margins to make up for lack of volume. If you can’t afford a 15% tip, or 20% for good service, you shouldn’t be eating at an expensive restaurant to begin with. That’s the social compact in America, that’s how it works. Until servers start being paid a living wage, you’re not the arbiter of what constitutes paying “enough”, you’re just rejecting cultural norms and hurting servers so you can save a few bucks.
An alternative way to view this: if I order three sodas at a fancy restaurant vs three top shelf alcohols, the service is functionally the same but the bill is wildly different. Would you still say I should tip on pure percentage in the latter scenario?
You should because that’s how tipping works. No one likes tipping (as a customer anyway, plenty of servers and owners do), but until servers are provided with a living wage that’s how it works. You’re not changing the system by tipping less - you’re just being a dick.
And not for nothing, but there is a slight difference between soda service and a simple pour service. Actual liquor service usually comes with someone asking how you like it (e.g. on the rocks vs straight vs three drops of water) whereas a soda is just a soda. Sitting at a bar, no one is gonna get pissy if you’re not tipping 15-20% on opening beers or straight pours, but that’s just how table service works.
If they’re working at a fancy restaurant, they’re being paid a living wage.
You have clearly never worked in the service industry. They make the same sub minimum wage as every server unless there’s a local ordinance otherwise.
I’ve heard legend of places that pay servers up to $5/hr!
I’m in the usa and I tip at least 20% no matter what. the food service industry is shit and I want to help the workers in a way that I can.
Then you should also campaign to get them better wages and to get rid of tipping, get to a better healthcare system to so the money they do get isn’t sunk into that, as well as for doing something about crazy rents in some places.
How do we know that goes to the workers and not the head honcho?
Now we’re discussing tipping for takeout? What’s next tipping in drive thru? I’m so tired of the tipping culture in the US, so very tired.
Have you not been tipping the machine for taking your tip? I was told we should leave 2% next to the machine because VISA/MasterCard will go out of business if we don’t afford the life we have to sacrifice to it every day?
I checked with Futurama by the way, we can sacrifice the embryos for 1.76 days of extension.
I went to a Sonic recently because I was constipated and sure enough, they were asking for tips at the checkout screen. Same thing at a liquor store I went to.
I tip 20% or $5 on takeout orders, whatever is larger (provided nothing goes terribly wrong). I have the means, and I remember how much I fucking hated working in retail. I depend on these people to feed me and I appreciate that they’re willing to do it (especially with how poorly they get treated at times). If I can make someone’s day better then it’s worth it to me.
That being said, I hate tip culture and wish that the laws in my country around tipping would change. This is getting off topic now (since I think that the people doing takeout orders aren’t subject to this), but it’s absurd that we let restraunts pay $3.50 an hour if someone is making the rest of the minimum wage in tips. If I tip someone, I want it to be because I really appreciate what they did. I don’t want to be paying their wages, they should be receiving a livable wage no matter what. I know that refusing to tip won’t change that, so I just go along with it.
20% / $5 on true “takeout”? When you drive/walk there, go to the counter, wait, and leave with food?
I love the generosity and understand the point for appreciating workers, but that still sounds too generous for getting zero “service” and only getting food.
$0.00
That’s €0.00, for my fellow Europeans.
