• We are now running on a new, and hopefully much-improved, server. In addition we are also on new forum software. Any move entails a lot of technical details and I suspect we will encounter a few issues as the new server goes live. Please be patient with us. It will be worth it! :) Please help by posting all issues here.
  • The forum will be down for about an hour this weekend for maintenance. I apologize for the inconvenience.
  • If you are having trouble seeing the forum then you may need to clear your browser's DNS cache. Click here for instructions on how to do that
  • Please review the Forum Rules frequently as we are constantly trying to improve the forum for our members and visitors.

Takeout tipping

WalkingWolf

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2011
Messages
11,930
Location
North Carolina
My wife asked me what the protocol was for takeout tipping. We usually tip 10% for takeout, and 20% for dining. Are we too cheap? Pretty much believe 20% is standard but not sure what most people tip on takeout.
 

EMNofSeattle

Regular Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2012
Messages
3,670
Location
S. Kitsap, Washington state
My wife asked me what the protocol was for takeout tipping. We usually tip 10% for takeout, and 20% for dining. Are we too cheap? Pretty much believe 20% is standard but not sure what most people tip on takeout.

personally I would just leave them the change for takeout.

when I'm sitting down and being attended to, I tip very generously, just last night at a local bar I left the bartender about 7 dollars in tips for a bill of 20 bucks that was a sandwich and two drinks.

but when its takeout, I don't like coins and I just leave them the change, my taking the food out is not depriving the wait staff of time they can use to tend to sit down customers and requires no more work then the mcdonalds cashier that no one tips,

HOWEVER

and this may effect my answer slightly, in Washington state and in Oregon and Montana, the two states I most frequently visit, the minimum wage is higher then national AND waitstaff must be paid by the employer MW for all hours worked, tips are on top of that, If i lived in a state where some greedy restuarant owner is only paying the ladies 2.50 an hour and expecting them to get tips I might tip much higher for takeout.
 

WalkingWolf

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2011
Messages
11,930
Location
North Carolina
You mean you order and then pick it up and you are then out the door? Tip=zero.

The cooks often get a portion of the tips at the end of the day. Probably in most cases the tip goes to the cooks for takeout. Though a lot of people do not give tips, even to good wait staff. We will probably stick with 10%, I was just curious what others give, for you that is nothing. Bet they just love you.

Most times the food is really good for us to get takeout, so IMO it is worth a tip.
 

Grapeshot

Legendary Warrior
Joined
May 21, 2006
Messages
35,317
Location
Valhalla
I have tipped for carry out and at fast food restaurants too.

It is amazing how the level of future service improves. I become a friend, not just a guy with a gun on his hip. :)
 

EMNofSeattle

Regular Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2012
Messages
3,670
Location
S. Kitsap, Washington state
I have tipped for carry out and at fast food restaurants too.

It is amazing how the level of future service improves. I become a friend, not just a guy with a gun on his hip. :)

That's the other side, when I am openly carrying there is about a +5% OC adjustment to my already generous tips, to help be a good ambassador for gun rights.

also when OCing use the $2 bill for tips.
 
Last edited:

davidmcbeth

Banned
Joined
Jan 14, 2012
Messages
16,167
Location
earth's crust
The cooks often get a portion of the tips at the end of the day. Probably in most cases the tip goes to the cooks for takeout. Though a lot of people do not give tips, even to good wait staff. We will probably stick with 10%, I was just curious what others give, for you that is nothing. Bet they just love you.

Most times the food is really good for us to get takeout, so IMO it is worth a tip.

The cooks also get employment from my order too.
 

Va_Nemo

Member
Joined
May 1, 2016
Messages
654
Location
Lynchburg
You mean you order and then pick it up and you are then out the door? Tip=zero.

Although it is difficult to admit, and I hope no one thinks less of me for it*, but on this I agree with the guy above.

Nemo

*agreeing with him, not the no tip thing
 

utbagpiper

Banned
Joined
Jul 5, 2006
Messages
4,061
Location
Utah
I spent about 10 years working in restaurants efore I got my first technical job. Did everything other than run the cash register: washed dishes, bused tables, cooked, and waited tables, along with the routine janitorial and maintenance required to keep a restaurant working. Two of the restaurants I worked in where high end. We had customers who would drive 120 miles or more to dine with us on a semi-regular basis. One was a 24 hour restaurant in a casino. The 4th was a hotel restaurant with nice menu and excellent Sunday brunch. I never worked in a chain of any sort. In none of the places I worked did the cooks/chefs get any tips. We were paid a fair hourly rate for our work. Waiters and bus staff were tipped to encourage the best customer service.

I was trained in a restaurant where the owner was a real PITA to work for because he was a perfectionist. But the training served me well throughout my time in food service, and has translated to a work ethic to this very day. Customers were not to ever have to fill their own water cups, beverages were to never run dry, bread was to be kept on the table until the customers made clear they were finished. We had an employee restroom and employees were never to use the public facilities. For obvious reasons, I'll never be a sommelier, but I was providing wine service at 15 years of age and doing a fine job of it. Having never tasted either, I make a better cup of coffee or spot of tea than many who consume it regularly: I regularly received compliments to that effect from customers who had no way of knowing my dietary habits. I can swap out a keg faster than many bar tenders. Or at least I could the last time I was working in kitchens. As a cook, food comes up in the proper order (appetizers before entrees) and at the same time. The well done (what a waste), 24 oz rib eye had better hit the window within 30 seconds of the sunny-side up eggs and pancakes. Whether cooking, busing, or waiting tables, a person ought to be moving quickly and efficiently.

I eat out rarely. Good service is getting very hard to find. I don't like running out of water. I really do like my courses served in the proper order, as ordered. I like a waiter/waitress who is attentive, but not intrusive. It is really nice to have a waiter or waitress who can actually offer an informed opinion about the various menu items: as opposed to simply recommending the most expensive item on the menu. No one working in a restaurant should ever say, "Well, I don't really like..." In a decent restaurant, with a good chef, broaden your pallet and experience good food. Put the cell phones away and work.

With that background. I am not a difficult customer; I'm not one to expect off menu or special prep work, I'm pleasant and patient. I know some things are beyond the waiters control. But I do expect a waiter to do his best.

I tip 20% for a sit down meal with decent service. More for exceptional service. Just this past week a waiter in Crystal City, Virginia returned to the table I was sharing with work colleagues after picking up our final checks to thank us for our generous tips. The service had been very good for Northern Virginia, which is most often too slow and inattentive for my tastes.

For delivery (most often to the office when a team is working late), I figure 10% is about right unless the order was unusually large or complex. Failure to bring the paper plates and plastic-ware I requested, however, gets that cut. It isn't like the office has a kitchen full of dishes we can use if the restaurant fails to send what we requested.

For take-out, I don't usually tip unless the order is complex or large, or it is obvious that the person preparing it for me is a regular waiter/waitress taking time away from tables. Most often, just the opposite is true.

I picked up some dinner for my team working late a few weeks ago at Olive Garden. One harried gal was dealing with several large take out orders, while 3 or 4 waiters and waitresses kind of loitered around the hostess stand doing nothing useful at all. Pretty poor customer service on the part of the establishment.

Anyway, nothing wrong with tipping more, or in cases where others don't.

Charles
 
Top