When you dine out or give in to the desperate necessity of delivery, it means you’re going to be spending extra hard-earned money: the markup at restaurants, delivery fees and, of course, gratuity. Many of us have been (or are) on the other side of fence, and we know: it sucks to get stiffed for all your hard work. Williamsburg delivery guy Larry Fox thought so too, and started a blog chronicling all the poor tippers he has encountered. Tumblr made him remove the personal addresses, but now he uses street names to shame bad tippers. He also fields questions from all sides in arguments about tipping, the state of the serving industry, and personal habits.
So we want to know: what’s your standard for tipping delivery people? If you order via Seamlessweb or Grubhub, do you leave more of a tip on your card because it’s easier? Does a delivery person get a bigger tip if the weather is nasty? Or is it the system that pays sub-minimum wage that ruins it all? What about the recession — is that a valid excuse? Share your thoughts below (or make it anonymous if you’re ashamed of your cheapskatery)!
View Comments (24)
can we please just have mandatory living wages in this country? it's pathetic that a waiter's ability to pay his rent at the end of the month depends on my good humor. american exceptionalism, my arse.
In response to the comment about a bad tip implying bad service, not a bad tipper:
I've had many tables give me a "verbal tip" ("You were great!", "Great service, thanks!" etc.) but they leave 10%. That's not bad service, that's a bad tipper. And while the tip isn't included in advertised prices, you're still expected to pay it, just like the tax that isn't included. It's just that the tip is left at your discretion so you can reward service that's above and beyond, or make a statement about how the service was bad. 20% is definitely the standard. 15% if the server does the bare minimum, and 10% or less if they eff up a lot or are rude.
I wasn't mentioning the pay rates elsewhere in the hopes of changing the system here. It works ok. It's just that I find it strange that the employer ends up hardly paying for his/her employees.
Also, I have found that daytime diners (breakfast, brunch and lunchers) pay a lot less gratuity than evening diners. I don't know why this is, but I can make more than double my daytime tips on any given evening, which complicates matters for the person doing scheduling at a restaurant/cafe.
I tip between 15% and 20% depending -- never below 15%, but 20% is for good service - not the norm.
Also, for delivery, it is 15% or $2 - which ever is more - unless the weather is bad. If the weather is bad I tip more like 20% - 25%. I appreciate the bad weather.
That's for food though. For haircuts, nails, etc. I tip closer to 10% -- I pay a lot and I (believe?) think that they are paid a better living wage than servers/delivery people. 15% near the holidays, etc. since I go all the time to the same people.
For drinks, it's $1 per drink - but I'm just a beer drinker. A $6 beer has a 17% tip with that $1 -- a $4 beer during happy hour gets a 25% tip. If I get a cocktail it's $2. If it's a simple mixed drink (rum and coke, etc.) it's still just $1.
I still do not know where this 20% came from. It used to be in NY that you doubled the tax, which put you at 16% an you'd often round up the tax before doing so. So that might bring it to 17-18%? Where did restaurants and restaurant employees get this notion that we should be paying 20%?
I double the tax for sit down service, full service. If I think they were over and above, I give a bit more.
I usually give 5% for delivery service. I do not get delivery very often, but it doesn't seem logical to give the same proportion to some who guide me through a meal - offering food and wine suggestions, etc - as for someone who serves as a runner, but outside of the restaurant.
To be honest, I tend to avoid situations in which there is a need to tip outside of bartenders and restaurant waiters. In other words, I don't get delivery and I try to avoid table service at bars. For those I do tip: $1/drink for beer, $2 for a complex mixed drink, %20 for food. These don't change if the items in question are more expensive, i.e. I still tip $1 a beer even if the beer is $12. Occasionally I will up the tip for mixed drinks at expensive bars.
As for this Tumblr: he fails to answer the most important question of all, which is to say how much of the delivery fee goes to the delivery person on average. As a result it's just griping and hearsay, neither of which we need more of in BK.
Finally, I calculate 20% by dividing by 5, which is a lot easier to do in my head than moving decimals around.
I like being able to tip on my card via Seamlessweb or grubhub, but there's a problem with a presumptive tip. Like the time I ordered falafels during a poker game and then had to wait 2 hours for delivery. If I have cash, I'll withhold tip until actual delivery from now on.
I hate to break it to you, but deliverymen are not waiters, they are bus boys. In no way shape or form should a deliveryman get a percentage of the order cost. My standard tip to a deliveryman is $2 and I will bump it up to $3 for a larger order. When the weather is nasty then I tip $5. These guys who think they're waiters need a dose of reality (which I'm sure they get when they make their deliveries)
Yes, deliverypersons are not full-service waiters. I tip a floor of $3, or 10%, whichever is more and especially if it's raining. FD gets $1/box. Emotional entreaties about people's livelihoods don't affect the issue. People who pay 20% over everything are only doing themselves a disservice over time.
I find the whole tipping system to be stupid. All things being equal, except at the top-most scale, a $10 entree doesn't take more effort than a $20 entree. My glass of water is only vaguely less work to deliver on than a bottle of beer. And I DEFINITELY don't find the argument that a restaurant subsidize staffing during less-busy times by not paying a living wage. Close down, for god's sakes.
How about I reasonably expect everyone does a good job of serving/cooking/busing, the restaurant charges me 15-20% more, and I decide not to go back (and complain on public forums) if they failed to not suck at their collective job?
The worst is tipping 'creep' into nearly every aspect of consumer life, and the idea that we as customers should find such a compelling advantage to socially-enforced wage subsidy that we'd be indifferent to this happening. The idea of 'better' service for extra money is fundamentally broken in its premise.
Except that the fact is that people need to live, and sometimes these service jobs are all that they can get (especially because of racial and class reasons) but also because people are trying to get themselves through schooling in which they can really only work service jobs. In which case, especially in NYC, their hourly wage DOES NOT cover their rent/food/etc. and the idea in which the delivery person, or hostess at a restaurant might actually be paid a living wage is wrong.