Tips for takeout: is $1 just too cheap nowadays? (Boston, Cambridge: home, school)

[bostonguy1960]

I realize some or maybe most do not believe in tipping for takeout, whether at bakeries, ice cream or restaurants (casual or chains, or fancier).

Maybe it's regional or maybe the same all over America.

And to some, they do not tip, no matter how many boxes and packages and specific instructions the staff needed to prepare and hold our order. If they're not being waited on, no tip.

A friend, 81, is from the old school and will never tip for takeout. Not sure if most that age also feel that way.

I've been tipping a lousy $1 for 20 years now, on rare occasions $2 if I like the person's attitude. But usually it's still just the $1, whether a cookie at Flour bakery or a $25 Chinese takeout. I don't get big orders of $50-$100, but would I just still tip the $1? Maybe I'd give $3-$4?

***Is $1 just too cheap in the year 2021, especially during the pandemic where most of us seem to (or at least initially in the pandemic last year) insist that we appreciate the workers more than ever?***

I would never leave without at least a $1 tip.

On rare occasions, I see no tip jar and ask why, because I usually enjoy tipping for takeout.

In a very few instances, they say they're not allowed to accept tips; Georgetown Cupcake on Newbury Street is/was that way.

PF Chang downtown charged me $22 for my takeout last week, and I tipped $2, not my likely $1, as I felt sorry for the hostess who was so busy that I had to wait too long. But tonight at Toscanini's ice cream in Cambridge, I tipped $1 on their payment screen on my $7 order.

[msRB311]

I'm not into tipping for take out. I'm 43 and have been getting take out for quite some time and leaving tips for take out has just never been a thing as far as I'm aware. I'm happy to leave 20% if I order a sit down meal and occasionally leave money in a tip jar if people are nice and doing a good job.

It seems like the expectation to leave people tips has skyrocketed over the years particularly during the pandemic. The restaurant industry seems messed up right now to say the least. I sometimes wondered why don't the chefs get tipped? I get it they make more per hour than the waitresses but still. Theyre a huge part of what makes a restaurant great.

If tips are going to be expected for take out then they should go to the chef. I don't know that I see tipping for takeout becoming a thing though. You are already paying more for the food than if you were prepare it at home plus driving your own car to pick it up and bring it to the destination. If it gets to the point where picking up take out requires a certain percentage to be tipped on top of what you already paid for and taxes in some cases then I think this will hurt places in the long run.

Not long ago i walked into a store and ordered a green smoothie that was about $7. When I paid I was asked if I wanted to leave a gratuity. It felt obnoxious. I was kind of like for what, because you rang me up on the register ? Or because someone in the kitchen put some fruit in a blender and pressed a button ? I'm sorry if someone's hourly wage isn't enough but restaurants can't keep putting that on already paying customers. I haven't been back to that smoothie place either. It was my first and last time there.

[OutdoorLover]

I am thinking that wait staff are paid below minimum wage, whether they wait tables, serve over the counter, or provide curb side pickup?

[GeoffD]

When everything was in lockdown and restaurants were only doing takeout, I was doing a 20% cash tip on takeout. After vaccinations were available to all in the spring, I dialed it back. I cash tip a few bucks for takeout.

[msRB311]

But when did tipping for take out ever become a thing ? Did you tip before the pandemic? Or the pandemic has just led to an expectation that people should leave tips when the drive themselves to retrieve food and leave more money for it on top of what they already purchased?

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

I am thinking that wait staff are paid below minimum wage, whether they wait tables, serve over the counter, or provide curb side pickup?

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.

[GeoffD]

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.

https://youtu.be/4fbwwlHPtRM

[BostonMike7]

I do 20% for in person dining and ~15% for take-out.


Our takeout meals are usually for a family of 5 so it’s a rather large order to put together and totals $75+. If im picking up a $10 single meal for myself or getting ice cream with the family I usually just do $2.

I was doing this pre-covid, although I admit we did takeout meals much less prior to 2020

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

https://youtu.be/4fbwwlHPtRM

Ok but take out is not sitting down and having someone 'wait' on you.

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

I do 20% for in person dining and ~15% for take-out.


Our takeout meals are usually for a family of 5. If im picking up a $10 single meal for myself I usually just do $2.

I'm surprised. I guess it's people like this that are the reason tips are becoming more and more expecting for anything. I think it's also why there's a movement of people preparing more and more things at home from coffee to dinner.