How much do you tip Delivery guys?

[Fatter than Joey]

To be honest, I'm very surprised that you are paid below minimum wage, I never would have expected that.

 

Servers made like $1.25 per hour back when I did it (about 15 years ago). The other thing that sucks, is that servers have to report their gross sales for a shift on their taxes, so the IRS can get their cut on the tip income. I am sure of the exact numbers -- but if the standard is 15% -- you have to report like 10% to the IRS (they assume a lower %, for cheapwads). If you have a $200 ticket, and you get stiffed, not only did you work for free, you are paying taxes on income you didn't earn.

 

I have served, delivered pizza, etc., at some point in my life when I was getting through school, so I have a lot of sympathy/respect for the young kids trying to earn some extra cash or young kids with family, so I tend to tip pretty good. I live in a small town, so I personally know most of the servers/delivery people which makes it easy to tip. I remember how good a fat tip made me feel, so I figure that kid needs that 5$ more than I do, and I feel good about paying forward the generosity I experienced when I was in their shoes.

 

When I was in college I worked on a garbage truck for a summer in Madison. I have never had a job since that allowed me to see the good and bad of people all in the space of a couple of hours. There were people that would take extreme care to make sure my job was as easy as possible -- for example some people would watch for me and run out lemonade or water in July -- on the other hand some people treated me if I was child rapist on work release.

 

Tipping the garbage men is a good thing -- primarily I have a lot of sympathy for the job they do, but at some point in the year I know I will have some crazy item (large rug, old TV, expired inlaw, etc.) I will want taken away, and I know that they will help me out.

 

I have never understood the concept of "not tipping because of bad service". Anyone that has worked in the food industry should know that most the problems with getting your food to your table or house happens in the kitchen -- certainly some servers are better than others, but if you have a bad experience -- you may want to consider that the server may have had nothing to do with it.

[Paul77]

Bartender always gets a buck ever few rounds. This one usually leads to free drinks as the night goes along.

That's it? I tend to tip more toward $1/drink....exception being if drinks are crazy cheap (like $1) then I wait till I leave and toss out $5-$10, depending on how many drinks me/the group had.

Wow, now I feel bad about all the bartenders I've been shorting. I just see so many people leave nothing, I thought I was ahead of the curve. Well BF.net educates me once again.

 

[RyDogg66]

I used to tip about 20% of my total bill, with a $3 minimum tip. But now places like pizza and sub joints are charging a delivery fee. I assume that goes to the driver, so I subtract that from my tip. I usually tip just $2.00 now, if at all.

[Schlitz001]

I can remember when I lived in the dorms in college and Dominoes had $5 medium pizza Thursdays. One night I ordered a medium pizza and waited in the lobby for the delivery guy. When the guy pulled up he had about 12 medium pizzas stacked on top of one another for people in my dorm. I was the last one to pay the guy and the only person to tip him ($1). I know it's only 1 stop, but that's a hell of a lot of pizzas.

 

Nowadays if I order over the phone it's almost always carry out. This is to avoid tipping, surcharges and just to get the food faster. I hate tipping anyone. I'll do it, but most of the time I don't think a waiter earns a tip anymore than the guy getting my cart for me when I enter Wal-Mart. Or a bartender more than a dentist. JMO.

[bullox]

Or a bartender more than a dentist.

Whoa - forget apples to oranges, that's like apples to spaceships.

 

Dentists don't need tips, they earn plenty of money and they deserve it after years of school. Bartenders rarely make minimum wage and earn the vast majority of their money off of tips.

 

[Weirdos19]

My pet peeve. I think most people here are familiar with me.

 

I own a bar. Before I bought it, I bartended full time and did very well. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday most weeks. I would average $40- $50 on Monday and Tuesday. Around $100 on the other nights. So, I got about $400 per week in tips. Great money for somebody in their early twenties, but missed lots of parties, weddings, etc.

 

Now that I own the place, all tips are about 1/2 of that. I seldom work nights, but I always hear from people, "You don't have to tip the owner".

That rule seems strange to me. Anybody abide by this rule?

[BrewCrewForever]

I tip 15% on everything. Delivery or when I eat at a restaurant. And I always round up.

 

As for Bartenders, I usually tip $1 every 2 drinks. Sometimes every drink, depends how much I bring to the bar with me.

[1992casey]

I generally don't know if the bartender is an owner or a peon, so I'd be treating them equally. Usually, it involves tipping when I leave--or at the end of a shift if I can spot that happening. However, if it's really busy, I'll tip as I go along to encourage him/her to return.

 

The owner of the tavern near my house is generally on my side of the bar. We buy each other drinks, just as people would when sitting with other customers. On the rare occasion that I see him bartending, I'd tip him like anyone else.

[logan82]

Fatter than Joey wrote:

I have never understood the concept of "not tipping because of bad service".

When speaking of bad service I am talking about getting a menu when you are seated then not seeing a server for 30 minutes. In a case like that I would probably leave a dollar or nothing. That is if I didn't walk out.

[Gobias Industries]

For pizza or chinese, I tip a gallon of gas, as someone here noted. It's a nice drive for any of these type of places to my house.

 

As for when I order Jimmy Johns and am at my apartment on the UWM campus, I just give them the change, as they pretty much only deliver in a 1 mile radius, and there is a delivery charge.

 

With coffee drinks I give the remaining change as well. I just order a cup of coffee, but for the people ordering those specialty drinks, the baristas do a lot of work, so I feel like it's right to donate if I'm paying cash. Now days I just go to McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts for coffee because it's a lot better and cheaper, and they don't have a tip jar out so I don't feel the need.

 

Restaurants I tip 20%, unless it's horrible service.

 

Haircut, I go to the same girl, so I tip depending on what kind of job she does. After a few smaller tips, I've all of a sudden gotten much better haircuts and tipped her better because of it.

 

Takeout: Nothing. Is this the norm?

[Katuluu]

It'd be interesting to see what would happen to restaurant food prices if tips were eliminated and servers were paid the $18 or so per hour that they take home with tips. I wouldn't bet against Patrick425 being correct that it wouldn't make much of a difference.

Restaurants are notorious for their low markups on food. It's typically somewhere around 70% or so, where in retail the general markup is around 200%. It is why keeping a restaurant open is so difficult, their is little wiggle room if you don't get people coming in the doors, and why liquor licenses are so important, as the markup on alcohol is massive.

 

So basically your $9.99 plate at Applebees would become nonexistent if you were paying servers $18 an hour. Price would increase dramatically to cover the massive increase in labor costs. It would be fairly easy to see prices tripling or more at even mass market restaurants. Or, to keep prices flat the only other way to eliminate costs would be to lower the amount of staff, thus greatly reducing the quality of service.

[logan82]

I am not sure how it works for restaurants, but I know for bars that they could buy alcohol cheaper at a liquor store than they pay their distributors.

[TSack27]

Weirdos19[/b]]I seldom work nights, but I always hear from people, "You don't have to tip the owner".

That rule seems strange to me. Anybody abide by this rule?

I've only gotten to know who the actual owner of a bar is at only a handful of locations, so don't really know who is who when visiting another town. But, one of the local ones did actually tell me himself, "you don't tip the owner". The others are usually sitting on our side of the bar, or only briefly jump behind the bar for a few moments during the occasional rush periods - disclosure: my frequent stops are rural bar & grills (sponsors of softball and pool league teams) where you don't have to fight to get the server's attention and can carry on a conversation with the person next to you (and the bartender) without having to shout.

 

I've only ordered delivery once in the seven years in my current location, so I can't help you much with the original question.

 

[dadofandrew]

in retail the general markup is around 200%

 

Don't know where this info is from, but in grocery, it is a very competitive industry, they make less than a penny for every $1 they take in. Their margin ranges from negative to about 40% depending on the item. For mass merchandisers, the range goes to about 50%, but overall it's far less. I used to work in one of the highest markup areas of retail, and we never made 100%, never mind 200% markup.

 

There may be some mom and pops charging 3x what they paid, but they either have no competition or won't be around much longer.

[Paul77]

in retail the general markup is around 200%

 

Don't know where this info is from, but in grocery, it is a very competitive industry, they make less than a penny for every $1 they take in....

I spent about a decade in grocery management and I'll back up this statement, at least with regards to center store items. Even in the perishable departments the GP is no where near 200%, it was usually between 20-40%.

 

[burniebrewer]

As someone who knows the grocery industry, I know that certain warehouse stores operate on 15-20% markup and the other chain stores are more in the 30-40% range. Knowing the cost of items and shopping at different stores, I can easily figure what their markup % is.

[falloutboy]

20-40% has to be pretty nice. After costs, that still has to be a pretty tidy profit considering it's pretty easy repeat business. All it takes for a grocery store to get my business is maintaining clean carts and hand baskets.

 

I'm at approximately 10-12% as an IT channel sales rep.. for serious accounts it's about 3% though.

 

What I find severely offensive in my industry is that I have to pay to maintain certifications and continually obtain certifications to open new opportunities for both myself and my customer. I had one specific customer that was on vacation and needed some printheads ASAP for some weird label printers and he had called in and asked me to find them for him.

 

- I called the company and got the models on the printers

- I called the manufacturer and found out there were two versions of the printhead.. one 600 ohms one 700 ohms

- I set my company up as a direct vendor for the printer company (we had to get authorization through Ingram Micro)

- I called the company again and walked them through finding the part #'s of the ink they were currently using

- I sent over a quote to the company and waited on a PO (I had them on Net Terms)

 

All of this took about two hours of my time, time where I didn't get a single sale from another customer. I followed up on the PO two hours later knowing that they needed these printheads ASAP. My customer told his office to google the manufacturing part numbers I had given them and to order them. The google price ended up being around $5400. My price was $5500. I could have matched, or even beat the price.. not that I would have. But I was never even given the opportunity after all of my work.

 

I ended up thanking that customer for all of his previous business and stated that I simply couldn't continue doing business with his company if he didn't value my time. I ended up passing that account on to a newbie. I don't mind being priced out when I'm not doing any work, but when I'm doing all the work it's extremely offensive.

 

Anyways, I tend to be a pretty decent tipper. I don't care for the math thing. I tip $5 for my girlfriend and myself as long as they routinely refill my drink. If we're somewhere nice I'll tip $7-15. If it's breakfast, it's $3.00. Pizza guy always gets $3 (I've been told it's above average anyways), carry out always gets $2. If all I have is a $5.00 bill though, that's what they'll get. I think the haircut place actually fights over me, I'm in there about 15 times a year, am done within 15 minutes, Ialways get the same haircut and always tip them $5. I'm not rich by any means, but I remember back when I had to slave away to make a living. I figure if I can make someones day a little better there's no harm. I know I'm not any worse for the wear.

[dadofandrew]

Many guys in my office have lost huge commissions after giving people the idea of what to do to protect their money...they sign them up, and then the customer cancels at some point, taking the idea they knew nothing about to their "money guy" who has kept them at risk for years.

[Katuluu]

I used to work in one of the highest markup areas of retail, and we never made 100%, never mind 200% markup.

You worked at discount retailers. Even grocery stores rely on the sheer amount of volume they process to allow for low markups and to sell the large amounts of perishable food they have in stock. Stores that don't rely on volume rely on markup, and it commonly starts at 200% and goes higher. Where I work now some of the retail markups average over 500%, and on occasion top 1000%. And we even markup less then the larger chains. While the smaller shops and boutiques that surround us all markup similar to us.

As for grocery chains, there is one in Minnesota that has a markup ~100% and higher, and it thrives because it is considered a glamorous place to shop. It caters to people with money, and because of that has filled a niche in the market. You might think discount retailers are the be all end all of retail, but that is hardly the case. BTW, why are they called discount retailers? Because they offer a discount off of the industry standard markup, which is 200%. I get this from working in retail for over the past decade, including running a store.

 

[jwill535]

I am not sure how it works for restaurants, but I know for bars that they could buy alcohol cheaper at a liquor store than they pay their distributors.

Its illegal to buy alcohol from a store and sell it. All alcohol must be bought from a distributor. In bars, tap beer is where they make their money. Remembering back to my beer delivery/sales days a keg of Bud Light was around $80(if i remember correctly). You can get about 256 8oz glasses of beer out of it. So lets say you serve 12oz and pitchers, you are making about $200-250 off each keg.

 

[logan82]

jwill535 wrote:

Its illegal to buy alcohol from a store and sell it. All alcohol must be bought from a distributor. In bars, tap beer is where they make their money.

I think they can buy something like 5-10% from a store just in case they run out, but they do have to buy most from distributor. If they could buy hard liquor from a store they could get it cheaper than they can from a distributor.

[1992casey]

Restaurants are notorious for their low markups on food. It's typically somewhere around 70% or so...

One of my friends is a restaurant manager. She recently told me that food markups can even be quite a bit less than that. They attempt to make up for it with high markups on items like soft drinks (2000%).

[Katuluu]

One of my friends is a restaurant manager. She recently told me that food markups can even be quite a bit less than that. They attempt to make up for it with high markups on items like soft drinks (2000%).

It wouldn't surprise me. Resteraunts face spoilage issues like grocery stores and rely on a high customer turnover rate to minimize the potential sunk cost. I bet big box resteraunts like Applebees have markups of 10% or less.

 

Fountain drinks are notorious for their markups. I know for us a large costs somewhere around 25 cents (including cup, lid and straw) yet we charge $4.25 for it.

[1992casey]

I think the example she used was a 20% markup on a steak. I'd bet on items like pasta dishes being marked up more, though.

[mothershipconnection]

As a 6-year veteran of the delivery industry from high school through finishing my bachelor's, I always use a base tip of $3 and go up according to A) how far away am I? B) is the weather bad? and C) how demanding was I (specific time, call ahead so I can meet you at the door, etc).

 

I've always wondered, with all of our information on your restaurant computer, do you have a little comments section like the doctors did for Elaine on Seinfeld? Drivers come back and enter a note, "poor tip again" or am I just crazy?

 

I entered stuff like that all the time. "Tips huge, give him a deal", "guaranteed stiff", etc. People who've been there a while remember every customer who orders regularly, and WILL prioritize orders and service according to how well you tip. I had a guy who gave at least $5 every time. When his order went out with 2 others, guess which was my first stop?