random tipping etiquette question...

[keryx]

You're not supposed to tip when you pick up takeout, correct?

If you pick up takeout from a restaurant that by default uses those receipts that include a line for tipping and total under your total, is it rude or simply security-minded to write in a total at the bottom?

Comments

[missmeridian.livejournal.com]

i tip at my fave carryout place (thai) because i seem to be their only customer, ever, and i lurve them and i don't want them to go out of business.

and at my second fave carryout place (middle eastern) they don't take credit cards, and there's no tip jar, and i really want to tip them (again with me = only customer) but i can't.

but i absolutely do not tip chain carryout places (outback, ruby's, various pizza places, panera) because a) that tip will go into the tipping pot and not to anyone in particular, and b) those places don't need my business, and don't need to know that i lurve them.

if i'm not tipping on a credit card reciept, i either write "on table" or put a slash through that section, depending.

[vaspider]

Go you- tip-stiffing single moms living below the poverty line. Do they deserve your disdain for the parent company?

Generally. I feel that if you don't want to tip: don't eat anywhere where you are expected to tip. The parent company could not possibly care less if you tip or not- all you do is screw over someone who already has a hard enough time making a living.

[missmeridian.livejournal.com]

well, tipping is for a service above cooking food and placing it in a container and setting it on the counter for me to pick up.

really.

if i get served, i tip. if i get carryout, i don't get served, so i don't tip (except as above).

oh, i'm just not going to get into it with you.

[vaspider]

If that's what you believe, good for you. It's still no less acceptable soially than going out without pants on. The only difference is, now you're screwing some single Mom.

Go you, taking a stand!

If you don't want to tip: Eat fast food.

[missmeridian.livejournal.com]

wow. ok. you're really very angry about this.

[vaspider]

I had a long time living on tips to get this mad.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

It's still no less acceptable socially than going out without pants on.

I haveta disagree on this comment, whatever other opinions y'all may have - etiquette guides will tell you not to tip for takeout, and a large number of places don't even give you the option to tip. So not tipping takeout folk is clearly more acceptable than going about half dressed. And apparently a much more contentious issue than I'd thought.

[luludi.livejournal.com]

Interesting viewpoint. I hadn't thought of it that way. But when I do go out, I usually eat at places where the people waiting on you are likely to be the owners, or at least of the same family.

Why do I like the system in many European countries where tipping is not customary because everyone gets paid a livable wage and often they have union contracts, too?

[vaspider]

Well, because that makes sense.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Most of the smaller places I go don't even do that kind of receipt in the first place, so the people who could most use the bonus couldn't get one anyhow.

Hmmm.

[missmeridian.livejournal.com]

yeah. and the middle eastern place in particular is staffed by exactly one ecuadorian guy with whom i can barely communicate, so i don't think i could explain the concept of the tip jar to him. it's so awkward. back in east hell, the one (somewhat crappy) chinese place in my county had a tip jar, and i was all about that.

but ecuadorian guy makes a mean kebob. yum. dinner.

[snidegrrl.livejournal.com]

i'd say security minded and practical.

[luludi.livejournal.com]

If I know and like the people, I'll leave a tip but usually it's smaller than if I had sit-down service. I try to avoid chains. People running a small private business often have a small profit margin and they do appreciate it. If it is a very big, very successful restaurant, it's not as important to tip for take-out.

[peregrin8.livejournal.com]

I tip a small amount if they had to do a lot of futzing around with containers and bags and so on, but usually I just put a slash through that line.

[vaspider]

It depends- ifit's someplace where you would tip if you were sitting down to eat,then chances are the people who are putting together your take-out order are only making Server Wages- 3 bucks an hour if they're lucky.

In that case, I'd tip--but then, I've lived off of tips for the better part of a decade. :)

Either way, I'd fill in my total. I've Known some pretty shady servers in my day.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Huh. I thought that carryout orders got put together mostly by kitchen and host staff, just based on who we usually deal with. Are those folks making waitstaff wages, too?

Cause if so, the whole restaurant staffing/paying situation fundamentally sucks. Not that tipping/not tipping would have much effect (unless it made all those people unable to keep working, and restaurants were forced to choose between shutting down and raising prices/paying people better), but I would think there'd be more outcry against such a situation.

[vaspider]

Some places, hosts do it. A lot of places have gotten wise to that though and - now servers do it. Why pay someone eight an hour or twelve an hour when you can pay someone three an hour?

I'd imagine most people think servers make an awful lot more than they do. My ex used to bring home forty dollars in a paycheck every 2 weeks after taxes and a shred if health care.

And most servers ere too busy moving food from hand to mouth to raise much of an outcry. Even switching jobs isn't always an option, because you dont nave that ''last paycheck" to tide you over.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know I think servers make pretty decent money (although I don't care how much they make, I wouldn't want to do their job - it's hard). But I blithely assume everyone tips at least 20%, and plenty of people probably don't. My own parents think of tipping as a bonus, not what it really is - subsidizing substandard wages for service folk.

Gah. This topic (rightly) depresses the hell out of me.

[vaspider]

Sadly, we figured it out once, and in reality. people tipped my ex- husband and his friends about eight percent. It's a horrible way to make a living.

[firecat]

I always write a total in at the bottom.

I sometimes tip a buck or two when I pick up takeout.

[luludi.livejournal.com]

This makes sense.

TIP WITH CASH. When you tip on a credit card, the credit card company gets something like 10%, don't they?

[firecat]

It's less than that, and it should be taken out of overhead and not out of the servers' pockets.

But there still is a reason to tip with cash, at least in the US: if you tip with a card, then the amount gets reported to the IRS as income. If you tip with cash, the IRS is none the wiser.

I'm sometimes too lazy or don't have the right change to tip with cash. Since I give pretty generous tips anyway I don't worry about it though.

[luludi.livejournal.com]

"and it should be taken out of overhead and not out of the servers' pockets"

'Should be' may not be the way it always is. I've heard waiters complain of having something taken off the tips when cards are used. I've also heard them complain that they have to report to the government a 10% tip for tax purposes for every order, whether they get the tip or not. This was in America. Maybe this has changed?
Does this depend on the state?
BTW is the word 'server' used in America for 'waiter' now?

[firecat]

I've also heard them complain that they have to report to the government a 10% tip for tax purposes for every order, whether they get the tip or not. This was in America. Maybe this has changed?
Does this depend on the state?

I heard they had to report 7.5%, but it might have changed. I assume that if their actual take as determined by credit card charges is more than 7.5% they have to report the actual take. I could be wrong.

I sometimes use "server" because to me "waiter" is a gendered noun, but plenty of people in the US use "waiter."