Should you tip when you get a carry out order from a restaurant?

Question

I am a bartender at a restaurant and part of my job is to answer the to go phone and take walk in orders. I also have to get the order ready for the guests and make sure everything is included. I have to ignore my bar guests (the ones that ARE tipping me) to do this. What do you think?? I get paid UNDER minimum wage

by the way...this is how MOST restaurants do carry out

Answer 1

I always tip the wait staff. If I take up someone's time to put in my order, track my order, package my order, and ring my order then I leave a tip. Probably not as much as if I had table service. Maybe just a $1, or maybe a 10% tip, whatever's appropriate to the difficulty the order presented (complicated special orders, separate checks, large orders, etc.) But to-go orders usually pull the server away from more lucrative tables during a mealtime rush (which is when wait staff make their wages), so you should show courtesy for the service YOU got and leave a tip.

I think if someone can afford to eat out, even if it's a to-go order, they can surely afford an extra $1 for a tip. If the price of the meal was adjusted to pay the wait staff a reasonable wage vs. being tipped to make up the difference, far fewer would be able to afford the luxury of ordering out.

So I hope people don't cheap out on the servers just because they can. Drop that extra buck.

Answer 2

I always ask who got my order together when I pick up take out. Then I personally tip the person. I know that in a restaurant, the person that answers the phone is not always the one who places the order to the cook and checks it and bags it and adds condiments and brings it up front. That is why I ask who 'readied' the order.

Simply answering the phone and writing down the order is not enough work to be tipped for in my opinion. Only the person getting your order ready should be tipped.

And most wait staff does make below minimum wage. Here in Texas it's 2.13 an hour for some that iss why it ticks me off when I see some jerk wad running a server to death and not tipping.

Answer 3

YES you should be tipped. I worked at a Ruby Tuesday as a bartender, and here is my secret: when I had to take food out to people's cars I would tell them (quickly) everything that I included, that I double-checked their food, that I gave them extra napkins, condiments etc. Usually they'd be surprised at my thoroughness and give me a decent tip. It also helps if you act a little breathless and say something like, "Sorry if it took me a minute to get this to you; I'm the bartender as well and didn't realize you'd arrived".

Good luck!

Answer 4

You asked what I "think", so here it is. You should be paid a decent wage to begin with. And tips should be exactly what they were intended to be...a "thank you" for exceptional service, not something that is expected from every customer as part of your pay. I think it is a shame that our society has degraded to the point that tips are considered part of ones expected pay. I understand that it's not your fault that our society has gone downhill this way and that tips are now concidered "part of your wages". But the point is, tips were ment to be over and above your wages, not part of them.

Another pet peev of mine is employers that divide tips among all employees. When I give a tip, I give it to the specific person that waited on me because I felt they deserve it. As far as I am concerned, an employer that takes the tip I have given to my server and gives part of it to other employees that have not waited on me is steeling from my server!

Often, when I get exceptional service, rather than tipping in cash, I will get my server's name and write them a check and give it to them personally rather than leaving it on the table. Or sometimes I will get the manager and tell them about the exceptional service I recieved from my server, and inform them that I intend to tip that server, but ONLY under the condition that they be allowed to keep ALL of my tip for them selves. If the manager don't agree to it, then I go back to plan a and give the server a check in their own name and give it to them personally.

Finally, to answer your question, I think if you are not given the opportunity to earn tips like the rest of your co-workers, you should get a raise to compensate for it.

Answer 5

Yes, because a server has to stop waiting on tables to take your order and put the to-go order together. Tip the full 15 to 20 %.

Answer 6

YES!!! You should always tip regardless if it is carry out or dine in!! It takes the staff's time and energy to get your order ready. To everyone that says that the restaurant should just pay you more....do they realize that would cause prices to go up? They would have to pay more for their food!

Answer 7

When I waitressed I had to do the same thing and I often received tips from carry outs. I think people should but there's nothing you can do if they don't. People need to realize servers depend on tips to make a living!!!!!

Answer 8

That does sound a bit off to me. Your are expected to help two very different types of guests. Having a divide your attention between the two, makes not only you suffer, but your customers, as well.

Answer 9

honestly i dont ever tip when its to go. I feel that tipping is for when you get waited on, you are doing me a service.
when i get food to go i think of it as its just your job to ring me up, its not like your bringing it out to my car or something.

i would talk to your manager, maybe give the to-go orders for the hostess to handle. ****he/she should accomidate you since getting paid UNDER minimum wage is ILLEGAL!

Answer 10

Excellent question. I'm guilty...... until now.

I get a lot of take out - and I tip when I feel like it.

That's wrong and I feel bad.

However, 15-20% is a little high.

I think 10-15% is plenty.