Tipping on Take Out Food

Last night I ordered a total of six large pizzas from a Pizza Hut to take to a party. I had ordered the pizzas online and picked them up myself from their restaurant. My total bill was just over $100. A couple of my friends who went with me to get the pizzas got into a arguement of how much (if at all) to tip.

Normally I am a very generous tipper, and typically tip 18% to 20% at all dine in restaurants that I go to. However, in the case of take out food, I feel that I should not have to tip (or tip as much) because I have no server and I am not taking up any space in the actual establishment.

What do you think is proper? Would it have mattered if I was getting take out from a nice steak restaurant instead of a Pizza Hut? And who gets the tip anyway if you order take out?

I absolutely draw the line on take-out, no tipping! I tip in almost all other situations.

I can't think of any reason to tip someone who hands you a take-out order. Do we tip the person we pick our drugs up from at the pharmacy after a call-in?

Quote: gambler

And who gets the tip anyway if you order take out?

You can ask.

In many restaurants waiters share a portion of their tips with the bus boys and the kitchen staff. If that's so at Pizza Hut, then you should tip when picking up take out.

You don't have to tip 15-20% on take out orders, but a small tip seems appropriate. I might have given $5-10 on that $100 order, depending on how fast the order was ready and whether or not I made any special requests.

Quote: gambler

What do you think is proper? Would it have mattered if I was getting take out from a nice steak restaurant instead of a Pizza Hut? And who gets the tip anyway if you order take out?

The European ("European", as in, "worst possible") way to handle this is to simply automatically add on a service charge once your butt settles into a chair. I've noticed that many sit-down restaurants in Europe have a take-out counter or window where you can order the same exact food, but not get socked with that service charge. That would seem to indicate that the service charge--what we would call a tip--is for actual SERVICE. I don't think being handed a stack of pizzas qualifies in that regard.

So there's no OBLIGATION to tip--but if the pizza slingers went above and beyond the call of duty in some way, then a small tip might be appropriate.

A tip on take out food is not needed nor should it be expected. At most throw a buck into one of those tip jars, if they have it.

Tipping is an archaic tradition, back from the day when the servers would be in a different social class than the person being served (and not with 2:1, but 10:1 or more income ratios). The reason it still persists is very different from the original reason, and now it's you being able to pay more or less depending on service quality, promoting good service.

I see the point, but then tipping should be restricted to people who actually perform a service and the quality of that service can vary substantially. A restaurant waiter or a casino dealer definitely can make or break my visit, hence the tipping. A supermarket cashier can't (apart from going out of his way to disservice me, but the point is reward for good service), hence no tipping. Takeout food is definitely closer to the latter.

In the case of takeout food, you can also present the point that you are actually only using the services of the kitchen, rather than full establishment services, so it's natural for the price to be different. Even if not reflected instantly, if a measurable percentage of the customers takes food out, the establishment can employ slightly less personnel and have slightly less floor space.

Quote: P90

Tipping is an archaic tradition, back from the day when the servers would be in a different social class than the person being served (and not with 2:1, but 10:1 or more income ratios). The reason it still persists is very different from the original reason, and now it's being justified as you being able to pay more or less depending on service quality, promoting good service. I see the point, but then tipping should be restricted to people who actually perform a service and the quality of that service can vary substantially.

A restaurant waiter or a casino dealer definitely can make or break my visit, hence the tipping. A supermarket cashier can't (apart from going out of his way to disservice me, but the point is reward for good service), hence no tipping. Takeout food is definitely closer to the latter.

As discussed at length in other threads, the culture of tipping enables the business owner to underpay his employees by shifting part of the burden of compensating those employees onto the customer. My dividing line is whether the employee is working with or without the expectation of being tipped.

I totally agree that it's an outmoded and obsolete tradition. It's also stupid and degrading. But then, we don't stop doing something as a society just because it's outmoded, obsolete, stupid, and degrading--we need a BETTER reason than those to quit.

Quote: mkl654321

I totally agree that it's an outmoded and obsolete tradition. It's also stupid and degrading. But then, we don't stop doing something as a society just because it's outmoded, obsolete, stupid, and degrading--we need a BETTER reason than those to quit.

I think we don't. If people stop tipping, employees will stop working for their sub-sustenance wages and go work elsewhere (or die from starvation). Then pizza huts will either cease to exist or shift the burden of paying back on themselves.

It's really just down to whether you want tipping in this specific field to go on or not. If not, don't tip in situations you aren't positively obliged to. Voting with your wallet is the greatest kind of democracy there is.