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Is Tipping Getting Out Of Control?

I was recently talking with my son about tipping and he had an unusual slant on it. He bases his tips on the quality of service as most do. The unusual facet of his tipping is he adds his tip including change so that the total on his plastic money is an even dollar amount. He said it's an easy way to make certain his card wasn't over charged. It seems a bit eccentric to me but I don't use plastic money.
 
Bearsyzf said:
California is last in tipping out of all the states at %17 lol
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Last night I ordered pizza online. Their software suggests a 20% tip. Being as I'm already paying for the delivery, I click other and tip two bucks which is closer to 10%. After checking out I was brought a screen saying my pizza would be ready for carryout in 20 minutes. I obviously clicked something wrong. There was no backing up so I had to drive across town to get my pie. Who was I tipping and why was tipping even part of the checkout? I guess I was tipping the gal that handed me my pizza.
 
olbriar said:
Last night I ordered pizza online. Their software suggests a 20% tip. Being as I'm already paying for the delivery, I click other and tip two bucks which is closer to 10%. After checking out I was brought a screen saying my pizza would be ready for carryout in 20 minutes. I obviously clicked something wrong. There was no backing up so I had to drive across town to get my pie. Who was I tipping and why was tipping even part of the checkout? I guess I was tipping the gal that handed me my pizza.
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10% ? I'd be afraid the driver would spit on my pizza for a tip that low😆
 
But yes, tipping is getting ridiculous everywhere. I have no problem tipping 20% at sit down restaurants where the servers aren't even paid minimum wage, but I'm not tipping someone at Crumble Cookie to put a freaking cookie in a box. Even our dog kennel place is asking for tips now.
 
10% strikes me as an adequate gratuity for carrying my pizza from the cub to my porch, ringing the bell, and walking back to their vehicle. I feel quite differently if I were dining in their establishment where my order was taken, served, drinks refreshed, etc.
 
treb1797 said:
So when these pizza places are charging a delivery charge who is actually getting that money and for what 🤔
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DoorDash was called out for taking tips the customers gave drivers, and putting them toward the delivery fee paid to the drivers. That has changed, fortunately, and now drivers get to keep 100 percent of the delivery fee, plus any tips they receive.

How much do DoorDash drivers make? | Gridwise
 
treb1797 said:
So when these pizza places are charging a delivery charge who is actually getting that money and for what 🤔
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There are a lot of unknowns there. The price they charge for delivery, the amount paid drivers an hour, the number of pizzas delivered per hour per driver, and who gets the tip? I'm guessing it's lucrative. My local Pizza Hut has a dine in area that has been closed since the beginning of the Covid situation and has yet to reopen. I'm guessing that they wish they didn't even have that space and its expense.
 
I recently went to the bowling alley, of my other old stomping grounds, and purchase a chicken sandwich and a soda, it had tipping rougly around the lowest was 20% off the bill.. a 0.84 cent off the dollar...
 
The wife and I recently dined at a chain steak house. We were seated by a young lady that got our drinks and took our order. Another gal brought our hors d'oeuvre. A young man brought our dinner and topped off our drinks. He was back at our table making certain everything was to our liking and later to ask if we desired dessert. Who am I tipping? All of the restaurant help that waited on us went out of their way to make certain we were perfectly accommodated. I had a gift card that more than paid for the meal and gratuity and I ran that through the table card reader to zero the balance. I then gave the young man that spent the most time at our table a ten spot. I wanted to be certain his effort was acknowledged.

So I tipped the house close to 25% which I suppose, if the house is honest, the money is equally dispensed to all of the help. That doesn't really give an incentive to bust your buns and be a stellar server. A slacker with an attitude makes as much as the most cordial hustling server in the establishment. And if I was working at such employment, I frankly wouldn't trust the restaurant to pay the employees all of the gratuities they receive. I guess that's why I pay cash and my reason for tipping the young man that really made our meal enjoyable.
 
I've never worked in the food industry. However, I've worked for people all of my life. I was a trim carpenter / cabinet maker by trade and for the last three decades I've run a lawn care business. Lots of different customers through the years that paid me for my service. Most all were kind and considerate enough to add a thank you or a hand shake for the attention I gave to their project and that was greatly appreciated. Some gave gifts like home baked breads or pastries or take me out to lunch... that sort of thank you was also appreciated. Then enters the tip money..... I have received many tips and some were quite substantial. I folded that money up and stuck it in my pocket. I'm an evil non tax paying so-and-so. I considered every tip a gift that perhaps I earned but certainly did not expect. I would like to think tipping for any service was treated just in that fashion. It wasn't on the bill or invoice.. it was a gift for extra effort or demeaner.

The best tip I ever received was a lady brought me a picture of a kitchen hood surround that she very nicely asked if there was any way I could build something similar. The next day when she saw what I built she burst into tears. She was so thrilled with the surround she just boohooed. That is a tip that I'll never forget.
 
I am on the edge of dropping Domino's Pizza from my weekly list. With the delivery charges and high cost of pizza, the pie is now costing me almost 40 dollars, to have a large delivered to my house.

I drove through Burger King two days ago and it was 26 dollars for two hamburgers with fries ! ! !

My doctor will be glad when I finally quit the fast food anyway.
 
Bearsyzf said:
I heard about that on the news, that is totally ridiculous .... now I'm tipping you guys for doing absolutely nothing or am i tipping you for letting me do it my way 👎
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Maybe you are tipping the person who had to come and verify your age when you were buying alcohol? Or perhaps the person who maintains the machines? Or it's shared between all of the staff.

Or maybe you are just giving a tip to the store manager who pays the staff so poorly that they need your tips in the first place? There's no way you can know.

That's what I dislike about American tipping culture: it's an expectation that you, the customer, will enable the employer to under-pay their staff by topping-up their wages (assuming tips actually go to them). It's not genuinely optional or a reward for exceptional service, it's treated as a slap in the face for the staff if you don't. And it also means that all of the prices on the menu are a lie as well, because you are expected to pay 20% more than whatever it says there. It is simply a dishonest system, and it always makes me feel bad to have to collude with it - but then if I don't it's not the person responsible who suffers.

Has anyone actually tried paying staff decently and putting up a sign that says "we pay our staff properly, tips here are optional"? I know that place would get my custom, but that's also a culture I'm familiar with but different from the norm over there, so I don't know how easy it would be for people to accept it (staff or customers).
 
I have never like the concept of tipping. When I tell people that some people will come back with either, "it will ensure good service" or "I know people that make $300 a night on tips".

I know sub minimum wages and tipping can be abused. It happened to me: Is Tipping Getting Out Of Control? Companies are suppose to supplement an employees wages if tips don't bring them to minimum wage. I can imagine if an employee asked for that they wouldn't get any more working hours
 
I lay hard cash in my server's hand. I do not trust the system at all. Even if it is all paid equally to the staff, where is the incentive to give great service? I want my server to KNOW that I appreciated their good service.. or not so good service.
 
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