Fast food tipping??

[Elkins45]

The one that amuses me the most is the tip jar at the drive thru window at Starbucks. You're supposed to tip someone for handing a cup of coffee through the window?

I should add that I only know this because my wife likes Starbucks coffee. I think it's terrible, and I hate the company too.

[popper]

Actually I prefer to go to eateries where tips are NOT allowed. Means the management is paying help properly. Dad was always a big tipper, as he worked his way through college during the depression, when people would order 'pine-floats'. Break a dish and it came out of your wages. Patrons with money knew the situation (MU) and did tip good. Places were happy to get any customers, I suspect there were many 'free' meals too. But slipping a $20 to the hostess to get seated before others, tipping good prior to get 'better service'? Sort of an elitist attitude. The emperors did have food testers and 'tipped' them well - and if the king got sick from the food, prison or off with the head. Lots of incentive there - Danial ...
I regard tipping as a charity, not a gratuity.

[dragon813gt]

Actually I prefer to go to eateries where tips are NOT allowed. Means the management is paying help properly.

This is how it is in Europe. And why Europeans don’t tip when they come here. There’s a flip side to this. I think it’s great that I don’t have to tip because they’re getting paid properly. But it lead to increased time to eat. We averaged two hours per meal because the servers weren’t motivated. And this was w/ us flagging them down and asking for drinks when we needed them and the check at the end. When servers rely on tips they’re motivated to work. When they’re paid accordingly it can lead to no motivation.

[MT Gianni]

I tip fast food because the only one I eat at is local non franchised. What rips me is when I go out of state and a machine has printed what my tip should be based on a total that includes a sales tax. Last one I say was $4.00 added to a $50 bill. Machine suggests I tip $0.80 for an added tax when living in MT we have no sales tax. I usually tip 15% in a sit down restaurant. I don't eat out nearly as much since I retired but used to figure a dinner waitress would see an average of 30 customers a shift. $20 a plate @ 15% was a minimum of $90 in tip money. With the two drinks many have at a meal that figure probably was a lot closer to $25 meals. A good waiter/waitress should be at a classy place with an earning potential greater than making subway sandwiches.

[Hannibal]

The one that amuses me the most is the tip jar at the drive thru window at Starbucks. You're supposed to tip someone for handing a cup of coffee through the window?

I should add that I only know this because my wife likes Starbucks coffee. I think it's terrible, and I hate the company too.

I've never been to a Starbucks and never intend to, but I'm curious. I've heard they do NOT sell plain coffee. Is that factual?

[lightman]

Not a Starbucks regular but they do have a few normal coffees. You have to overlook all of the yuppie stuff but there are a few .

[mold maker]

A tip is supposed to be a personal "Thank You" for above and beyond service. I grew up in an era when 10% was a good tip. If the service you are tipping is the same, why do they expect a higher percent in a tip? The food/hotel price has increased so the same % is more money. At this rate some day you'll pay the tip and they will give you the food/room.

[Walkingwolf]

We don't eat anyplace we are not waited on. Those that do get rewarded well when they are polite, and go out of their way. Today we stopped at Highway 55 for ice cream. The bill was only $9, and I left a $5 dollar tip. Kinda perturbed my wife but I am not leaving a $1.80 for the girl that did her best to take care of us.

[woodbutcher]

Don`t know how it is now,but IIRC the community tip jar is a NO-NO under wage and hour laws(Federal).No divvying up tips at the end of shift to all servers out of the tip jar.Server gets a tip,it is theirs alone.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[popper]

Yes, a gratuity is awarded when my server is doing all the work and the others are sitting around. Dennys is a good example. When the bell hop stands at the door with his hand out after rolling my small aircraft carry-on bag, I shake his hand. I don't leave a fiver on the pillow for the cleaning crew either. Earn your pay and if you are an over achiever, you do get rewarded. All the places I went overseas, wait staff were very responsive, good jobs are hard to get - well, France is different. Tick off the tourists and they don't come back. Wait staff there doesn't have a big turnover - most in their 30-40ish age.

[Hossfly]

I started in high school working Friday night, Saturday, and half day on Sunday after church, delivering Hamburgers and chicken baskets all over Shreveport, Bossier, min. Pay bout $1.90 per hour. Pretty much got tips by how drunk people were.

[Reverend Al]

I only tip if I feel the service really warranted it. It doesn't matter whether it is a fast food restaurant or an upscale eatery. Tips are a "gratuity" which are (rather generously) given by the patron to the server IF they truly feel it was warranted. Tips are not "automatic" and shouldn't be automatically added to the bill (which is a fairly common practice these days).

[Walks]

I stopped at a jack in the box drive- thru on my way home from ACE Hardware. It was Noon & my Daughter had given me a $1 off coupon for a milkshake. I ordered that and an order of 2 tacos & a Jumbo Jack. I paid for it & was given my food by a middle aged hispanic woman. There was a tip jar hanging out the drive thru window. I asked for the receipt & got napkins, I asked for a second straw & was given a spoon. I asked if there was taco sauce in the bag and finally someone who spoke english came to the window & I FINALLY GOT WHAT I ASKED FOR.
That's the way fast food works around here. Those people learn the names of the food to match the register keys and nothing more.
At the June 5th Primary in California, they issued ballots in 18 different languages.
And I just hijacked this thread.
Sorry

[Bent Ramrod]

I went into an Arby's on the way home on a stormy day. As I was walking to the counter, happily anticipating quick service because there was no one in the place, the girl in the Manager's cap was saying to the boy behind the counter, "The Computer is down; no telling in this weather when it will come back up again. You'll have to do the orders by hand." She tossed a school notebook, a pen and a calculator on the counter and went back to the back.

The look on the kid's face resembled Steve McQueen's in Papillon, when the character he was playing was sentenced to 20 years on Devil's Island. And, of course, I might as well have been standing in line for 20 minutes by the time the kid had worked out the advanced equations necessary to get me my Philly Swiss, Curly Fries and Coke.

I didn't tip him.

The sad fact is that many, if not most, of these "service economy" types think they are too good for the job. It can't be easy enough, and they never get enough money for whatever slight grudging effort they make.

I used to be in a couple Old Geezer Dinner Groups. We would pick a restaurant once a week, sit around the table and solve the problems of the world while we ate. At least, that was the plan. What really happened were endless interruptions in the conversations while the waitress came back to tell us what was unavailable that day, and then the endless "Who ordered soup? Who ordered iced tea? Who ordered meatloaf?" She would stick her face right between us as we talked to ask these questions, nicely busting up the conversations. Of course, being Old Geezers, we had to struggle to remember the thread of the conversation, before the next interruption. That's why the world is still in the shape it is in.

There are still waiters and waitresses who can get orders from 20 people at a table and plunk the selections down in front of them without asking who ordered what, and with ten more tables to cover. But they are a distinct minority now. The New Breed of Service Employee seems to think that while the eee-ville Employer can keep his body in thrall, there is no claim whatsoever on his fine mind or attitude.

Service that is worth a gratuity is service where you give your order, it comes to you in a timely manner, and in the meantime, and throughout the meal, your drink is replenished and your requests fulfilled without a lot of lost motion or conversation. A really top notch waiter is invisible except for the order, the food, and the check. That's who deserves the tip. But not the "living wage," not yet, not at their level. When they show that kind of attitude and smarts, they are in line for the promotion or the better job, that does come with the high salary. If we all got money just because we "need" it, we'd all be billionaires, and a hot dog would cost $3 billion.

[MyFlatline]

Agree,,have a favorite lunch place. A sit at the bar special, cheap burgers and what nots. When I walk in, they know what I am drinking and know that I am working so my order is taken right away. Yes, I tip them accordingly. To tip at McD's? not on your life. first time in 3 years I stopped this morning cause I was starving. 4 bucks for an egg biscuit. It 2 for 4 at hardees, I'll go there next time and give one away.

[Idaho45guy]

If fast food places start expecting tips, then it will drive away business.

When I take lunch at work, there are a few places within driving distance if I don't pack my lunch. McDonald's, Taco Bell, Jack in the Box, and a sit down chinese place.

I can get a plate full of delicious General Tso chicken on steamed broccoli and fried rice for $9.65. With tip I am out the door for $13.00.

Many of the fast food combos are approaching $10. If they add a tip, I might as well get better food and service at the sit down places...

[avogunner]

Aren't those folks up in Washington State getting $15.00 an hour for flipping burgers? And they want tips? I guess that's the millennial way.

My thoughts exactly....paying the rising cost to pay the minimum wage will be my tip (well, if I ever went to one of those places).

Semper FI!

[WILCO]

I just ignore the tip jars.

Yep. Me too. Fast food jobs aren't careers unless you're in management.
I always tip at local eateries with servers and waitresses.

[jonp]

I just worked my 6th 70+hr week in a row and no-one tipped me.

I will tip in a semi-casual (red robin, etc) place if the server is nice and friendly but if they are not then no tip. In fast food, unless the server brings it to my table and is good about it no way.

Besides, Washington as well as the other left coast states have instituted $15/hr min have they not? Not tipping someone what took me 10yrs of hard work to get.

[jonp]

Yes, a gratuity is awarded when my server is doing all the work and the others are sitting around. Dennys is a good example. When the bell hop stands at the door with his hand out after rolling my small aircraft carry-on bag, I shake his hand. I don't leave a fiver on the pillow for the cleaning crew either. Earn your pay and if you are an over achiever, you do get rewarded. All the places I went overseas, wait staff were very responsive, good jobs are hard to get - well, France is different. Tick off the tourists and they don't come back. Wait staff there doesn't have a big turnover - most in their 30-40ish age.

denny's is anti-gun to the extreme. I don't go in the place