§ Do you tip for take-out food?
I’ve got a nagging feeling that my position on tipping at restaurants when you pick up food for take-out is a social faux pas. I don’t do it. I just don’t see what I should be tipping for.
Typically when going to pick up carry out all you’re doing is being handed a plastic bag with your food and a bill. I pay for most things by debit card and there is always that little nagging tip line on the receipt and in some places there is a tip jar next to where they ring you up.
I feel odd when handing back the receipt with no tip on it but by the time I get out the door I feel better – probably because I’m not face to face with someone who typically augments a base pay with the day’s tips. I figure that I’m getting the base level of service – the advertised food and a container to put it in. That’s worth the price on the menu or I wouldn’t have ordered. But I haven’t been served, nobody has brought me a refill or asked if I need katsup. So I logically thing that there shouldn’t be a tip.
And this is but a stepping stone to a more stingy view on tipping. I’m starting to question the validity of the tip jar at the coffee shop or the deli. Do I really need to tip for the making of my food? I thought that was part of the base price.
Maybe I’m just getting stingier in my old(er) age, maybe I’m just coming to my senses and am able to buck a growing trend. I think that its just human nature to see a tip line and fill it in. I bet if they put on in at the supermarket checkout line people would fill it in.
Tagged as: food take out tip
