Fast food tipping??

[crowbuster]

Not a chance in hades

[bob208]

we don't use fast food much anymore. there is better food at most dinners. also dinners get the order right.

[Geezer in NH]

At dining functions I always tip the caterer's serving staff before the meal. Learned that a long time ago from family members who were waitresses.

I also tip in cash not on the charge slip. Good waitress deserve that and my aunts would turn over in their graves if I did not.

Tip at a fast food restaurant NO !

[bedbugbilly]

Idaho . . . . I'm with you all the way. Most of the fast food places that we eat at once in a while are staffed by youngsters who either don't care or can't, get the order right to begin with . . . . let alone can any of them count change back. If it is a sit down place where they come to the table, take your order, bring you food out, keep your drink filled, etc. . . . then we will give a 20% tip.

Your post is interesting . . . biven that most places like that are staffed with young kids. The other day, I heard of a study where "millennia's" - many of them - don't tip . . . yet when they are the ones on the other side of the counter they think they deserve a tip for fixing fast food?

We ate at a Bob Evans the other day . . . we were in the city and decided to grab a quick lunch and we eat there once in a while. The service is usually good, food is good and good servers. We had a real nice young lady probably in her ate 20s. She was waiting on quite a few tables and always on the move. Well, that day, we had to wait forever to get our food and my wife and I both commented on how long it was taking. We aren't "on the clock" but for those that came there for their lunch and then back to work, it was an extremely long wait. Our waitress kept apologizing but we realized it wasn't her fault. She came back a number of times with the water pitcher, coffee pot, etc. while we waited. When our food finally came out, she explained that they had a new cook and she was just shaking her head. When sh brought us our bill, I left her a very generous tip . . more than usual. We got up to leave and she thanked us for coming in . . . I smiled and pointed to the tip on the table and told her she had better pick it up before someone else did. When she did, she gave me a funny look and I just told her that she deserved it as she was a hard worker and that the long wait wasn't her fault.

I don't mind leaving a tip when it is warranted . . . a lot of servers work hard and probably have young ones at home that they are working for. But a tip for putting a hamburger on a conveyor that goes through a grill to cook it . . or when it requires a wrappeer that is printed "place burger here" before the wrapper is folded . . . and then if you don't leave a tip in front of them they do stuff like pour the salt on your fries or who knows what . . . forget it.

[andre3k]

I'm in Houston. Very few of the fast food restaurants in the city of almost 2 million people are staffed by "youngsters". They are staffed by Hispanic women of all ages, some legal ,some not legal. And these women are trying to raise families on minimum wage. Sounds like a lot of you are in smaller towns, but the days of kids working fast food here was gone 20 years ago.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[shaune509]

Seattle is $15, rest of state is $10.?? . You can't have a living wage when it costs an hour of work to get lunch, raise wages and all costs go up.
The stupid Dems push there living wage on to a very gullible public. The other problem with tips happens with the restaurant CC systems that all have a tip function, then people think they are required to add the tip, my wife tips the pizza delivery when they order at work, I've told her they are paid to work and if they use a private car the job should add to cover fuel, etc so don't tip. Most pizza is not worth the price let alone a tip.
Shaune509

[buckwheatpaul]

Went to the little town of Colfax, WA yesterday to pick up my new pistol at my FFL (the only FFL in the county, now) and stopped at a fast food place called "Zips".

It's a local chain with a couple of dozen locations in the Northwest with pretty good fast food. I have been stopping by this one for probably the last 20 years on my trips to Spokane. There is another one 20 miles away in Moscow and I visit that one a couple of times a month.

The food is really not that cheap for fast food. I usually buy the two for $5 Papa Joe burger special (cheeseburger with a slice of ham added) and a large tots and no drink and the total is just over $10.

So I walk into the Colfax location and about fall down due to a super slippery tile floor. Seriously, it felt like it was coated with cooking oil and soap. I manage to make it to the counter and instead of the typical fresh-faced and bubbly teen, I am greeted by a sour-faced middle-aged woman who obviously has made a lot of bad life decisions.

And on the counter is a giant bright silver tin tip bucket.

Wait, what? This is a fast food place!

I pay for my meal with my debit card and there is a section on the receipt for a tip. I grab a pen out of the tip bucket and mark it out. I get my usual receipt with the order number on it.

When my order was ready, an employee walked the 20' to my table and handed me my tray. I guess that's why they want a tip.

I ate my meal and the fries were inedible; way, way over-salted. Done on purpose because I refused to tip?? I took my tray to the garbage and dumped it and hobbled my way out the door without saying a word.

I sent an email to their corporate office complaining about my experience and left a negative Yelp review. I've never done that before. It was just so offensive to me that a fast food place that I've been going to for decades now wants me to tip them for not calling out a number and walking 20' with my food.

Anyway, that's my geezer rant of the day...

Tips are for exceptional service....not for just showing up at work. If your order was not acceptable you should have asked for a supervisor and complained.....dont let them get away with that nonsense because they are just being accommodated when we say nothing and accept bad service and food. If you had charged it not debited it you could have disputed the charge.....

[lefty o]

no way in hell do you tip for fast food.

[snowwolfe]

Ditto, fast food? No tip, nada, zilch, zero. Same goes for any place I walk to the counter and see a tip jar. I don’t care if it’s coffee or burgers or fried chicken.

[JimB..]

Here is what I believe, fwiw. There is an exception in the minimum wage laws for wait staff. Those poor folk make like $1.50/hr plus tips, so tipping brings them up to something reasonable and better if they are better. Fast food workers are not exempt, so they get minimum wage plus whatever tip they can squeeze out of you, I don’t usually go for it. It is possible that the fast food guys want to prove that tips are material and so their workers should be exempt from min wage laws, who knows.

I do tip at the place I most often get takeout, mostly because the same folks bring me my bag of takeout as normally wait on me, and I want them to appreciate me all the time.

[Hannibal]

I just don't eat out unless I have to. Don't have to worry about anyone messin' up the order or messin' with the food. Don't have to worry if the cashier knows how to count or if my card # is getting stolen. (It's happened to me 2x). It's cooked exactly how I like it and no one complains about wages or tips. It's my bathroom, so there's never urine on the vanity top, **** in the sink, nor a general odor of unlaundered buttocks in the air. Don't have to pretend not to notice that taking my order is the biggest inconvenience they've been forced to tolerate all day.

Tip, you say? How about get yourself some more valuable skills and move on to a job that has a future.

Tired of all that business.

[john.k]

If you tip on a credit card payment,how do you know the boss aint pocketing the tip.....the guy trying to buy my land to expand his grease factory nextdoor,told me the tips are part of the gross,and the staff get a small weekly bonus ,dependent on showing up on time,everytime they are rostered..

[john.k]

here s something else to ponder.....theres a grease factory nextdoor to me, all the crows have got smart and wont eat the grease laden food,apparently clogs their guts........and the maintenance man there had the gall to complain to me about all the fast food garbage being dumped on my land next to the store......Tips...yeah right.

[nicholst55]

The last fast food joint that I ate at (in the States) was in San Diego. I placed my order and paid with a card at a kiosk, and was handed my order at the counter. IIRC, a machine cooked my 'meal', and a human bagged it. Drinks and condiments were self serve. There were only 2-3 humans in the place. That's what you get when burger-flippers get paid $15 an hour.

[GhostHawk]

I have a step daughter who has been a waitress, survived on tips essentially.

Got paid less than 4$ per hour. If she wanted to eat, she had to hussle and make tips.
Actually it drove home some very good life lessons for her.

And changed my opinion some about tipping.

If I see the server twice, to take order and give me my food my tip is going to be between 5 and 10%.
Three times takes it up a notch to 10% or more.

A server that checks on me several times, fills drinks, makes sure our visit was perfect will get 15 to 20% tip. Depending of course on just how friendly, professional and helpful they are.

Fast food I don't tip. I am not escorted to a nice table, offered water or other drink. She does not go to the counter and order for me. She does not deliver the food when it arrives. It is strictly pay as you go.

And I suspect they make more than 4$ an hour.

So no I don't tip at fast food places. Nor do they expect it where I eat.

Service with a smile will always get a smile back from me.
Personal attention gets personal attention. I look at name plate and use what I see instead of "hey you".

You reap what you sow.

My step daughter is now a LP Nurse, moving back to Fargo ND in Aug. (Yippie, grandkids!) and she very well might be working some weekends as a waitress to make ends meet until they get settled. You GO Katie! That's the stuff. Do what you have to do for family. Yeah I'm proud, and yeah she knows it.

She's come to the big money well twice this spring and got some help both times. Enough to pay off the credit cards so they could get credit rating good enough to rent. And again for enough to be half of a down payment on a house.

Hey, that's what dad's are for, step or otherwise.
Mine taught me well, helped when I needed it. Lectured me when I felt I didn't but really did.
Doing what I can dad. Miss ya. Sorry I got sidetracked. Tip when they earn it. Let em know when they don't.

[wv109323]

I dont know the exact rules but but waitresses salaries are reported as if they receive a 15 or 18% tip. They must pay tax on money they may never recieve. If you order a meal for $15.00, the waitresses W2 shows she earned a $3.00 tip that she m7st pay taxes. It may be just a WV state tax.

[wv109323]

I dont know the exact rules but but waitresses salaries are reported as if they receive a 15 or 18% tip. They must pay tax on money they may never recieve. If you order a meal for $15.00, the waitresses W2 shows she earned a $2.25 tip that she must pay taxes. It may be just a WV state tax.

[merlin101]

I’ve done this at restaurants and bars plenty of times. It’s never failed and I end up w/ very attentive service.

I do the same quite a bit. A decent tip upfront has always resulted in good fast polite service and I've never been disappointed.

[lightman]

It looks like most of us are on the same page about tips.I don't tip in fast food restaurants unless its a place like Sonic where they bring me my order. In restaurants and bars where I am waited on I start at 20% and adjust up or down depending on the service. A favorite waitress in a favorite place around Christmas may get 100%!

dragon813gt, I do about the same thing.

GhostHawk, I liked your story!

I have to tell a few waitress stories:

My senior Daughter-in-law was a waitress in college. When my Son first started dating her we went out to eat together. Of course, Dad paid for it! I paid the tab with cash and left a generous tip on the little plastic clippy thingy. The future DIL scooted it around and looked at it. Knowing she was a waitress I ask her if that was OK? She replied "oh yeah"!

During a major ice storm I had a bunch of out of state linemen working in town. Maybe a hundred or so. It was a real windfall for the restaurant owner but they elected not to call in any extra help. At night, my buddy and I would wait and order last as the other guys were driving 30 or 40 miles back to their motel. The one waitress would come by and sit with us after everyone left and one night I commented that she looked really tired but should be making some nice tips. She replied that the guys were not leaving very much. I informed her that I was adding 15% (the company approved amount) on every ticket that I signed and for her to ask for it. (My company paid for meals)

Another story, same storm, same restaurant, same waitress. Another night we were finishing up our meal about 10:00 and the young Lady came out of the mens room after cleaning it and was carrying a wallet. She said "I found this in the mens room and its got a lot of money in it". I called the mans foreman and ask him to tell the guy that I had his wallet. If I remember correctly it contained about $800-$900. That was probably more than the girl made in a month. He tipped Her and thanked Her the next night!

Well, enough stories. I could write a book about tipping!

[Handloader109]

Tip for fast food? NEVER...... I stop at a Sit down fast food burger chain ( about 5-6 locations) when I travel thru Conway/ Little Rock. Dave's btw, Best burger I've eaten.
Great Greazy fries. Order and pay, get your own drink and sit down. Person brings order out. One person checking on tables, and they pick up trash for you. They will get more soda for you, but still I've never seen NOR left a tip left. EVER. Food isn't cheap, close to $10 for burger fries and drink. But tip? nope. But I'm a poor tipper at a regular restaurant. Sorry.