I’ll put it this way… for dine in tipping, 20% is fine. If you order a cheap meal by yourself at a restaurant, that $4 tip on a $20 meal is fine. The server probably didn’t have to spend more than a few minutes with you.
If you are a table of 5 with a bunch of drinks and a $200 tab, the server probably earned their 20% of $40.
For delivery, a flat rate makes more sense. If someone delivers 3 pizzas and some wings for $100, did that take much more effort than delivering 1 pizza for $20? Same number of steps taken, miles driven, gas used, time used, etc.
$8 to $10 makes sense for doorstep delivery in todays economy. $5 was fair pre-pandemic.
If you are getting a whole bunch of stuff delivered then I can see justifying a bigger tip, but probably not percentage based.
A $4 tip on delivery means the driver is taking a loss or maybe breaking even. They shouldn’t have to suffer because you had a small order.
The service you receive for delivery is not as directly correlated with the total ticket amount as much as dine in might be.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I was given four options for a tip: 10%, 15%, 20% and custom. I gave the maximum offered. Now you’re berating me for not giving more?
20% has been the tipping standard in the U.S. for decades now. For everyone who gets tipped.
So I have no idea where you’re getting this from or why you’re berating me for doing what was expected. Maybe berate everyone else who orders pizzas too and not just me since you’re one of the only ones tipping more than 20%.
UmeU@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I’m not beating you, take it easy.
Ask some delivery drivers in any major metro / high COL area in the US.
Flat rate tipping for delivery is a lot more common than you might think; things have changed in the last 4 years.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I’m in Indiana and not in a major metropolitan area.
UmeU@lemmy.world 5 months ago
While the dollar amount I suggested is particularly applicable to metro / high col areas, the concept still applies. The same expense/effort on behalf of the driver exists for a $30 delivery as with a $130 delivery.
The same cannot be said for dine in.
Flat rate for delivery, percentage based for dine in is a sensible solution which I didn’t come up with myself. More sensible of course is fair pay which negates tipping altogether but we aren’t there yet.
If small town Indiana is a particularly low cost of living area then maybe $4 is a fair tip. But where I am from, $4 doesn’t last five seconds anymore.
If it takes them 20 minutes to bring you your pizza, then go back to the shop, then at best they are making $12 per hour minus the mileage and gas and other expenses they incur driving their own vehicle… it’s a real shit job that can only be made better by decent tippers, until such a time comes that tipping is abolished (I won’t hold my breath).