Do you tip at a restaurants that are setup like McDonalds where you order and pay at the counter, deliver and clear your own food (or have staff that do that)? I see more independent places like this around lately, like those that do “street food” or mom and pop-like places with limited menus. I was recently at Mutabak Karak which had this setup. The thing is, while you’re not given the option to tip at McD’s or Timmy’s, the other terminals always present you the choice. The owners should know if they setup a restaurant like this that they should factor that into the staff’s pay right?
This poll is anonymous (doesn’t show who voted).
How much do you tip at independent McD’s-like restaurants?
I have sometimes put coins in the collection for Ronald McDonald House that’s at the cash or drive thru.
McD’s offers some pretty good work -related perks relative to a small indie coffee shop, doesn’t it? I have a friend who was a manager at Harvey’s for decades, until she retired recently . Harvey’s was a good employer.
I often tip 5-10 percent at Starbucks. I had the cashier short me by ten bucks 2 weeks ago, and I’ve been driving around with an empty cup , to let management know and see if they’ll give me a $10 comp.
I round up at the indie coffee shops and some bakeries, around $1 and change, usually.
At small places served largely by owner operators (and immediate family) I’ll regularly throw change or an extra buck into the jar. However I will NOT throw an additional tip onto POS screens unless it’s one presented to me at my table where my food was brought to me and where im not expected to do my own bussing.
I try to use a ‘small business’ model. If you’re a sole proprietor or you’ve got a partner and a kid manning the register, sure. I’ll throw a few $ if I like your place. Support what you want to see. Margins are tight.
But if you’ve got a corporate logo and 5 locations and a robust regional ad budget, you don’t need my extra 10% and I don’t really trust you to give it to the poor sap asking me if I’d like fries with that.
At a local smashburgers & fries chain you can leave a variety of percentages when you order on their terminal. I added 10% just assuming it will be evenly distributed to the staff.
Totally depends on the place. I go to a particular coffee shop every weekday and some weekends; I always get the same thing, and the staff all know me and make my drink in the non-standard way that I like it. I tip 15% there. At a similar kind of establishment where I’m not a regular, I might just round up the bill, or I might tip zero.
I tip the same 20% at a quick serve as I would at a sit down restaurant. Let’s face it. My 2 bucks on a $10 order isn’t going to change anyone’s day let alone life. It’s a small gesture that hopefully lets them know their work and wares are appreciated.
I used to work for tips so I tend to tip at cafes by figuring out 10% in my head, doubling that result, then rounding up to an even dollar. At Mom and Pop fast food with little service I tip around 10%. I use the 10% so often because it is easy to get an accurate 10% you just move the decimal point and doubling the result is dead easy.
BUT, I tend to tip in cash and pay my tab on the credit card. I know the cash is going directly to the server and she will split with the bus staff. No employer cut, no drama, no taxes. There is one restaurant I go to for breakfast all the time and they have customers pay at the exit so I tip at the table in cash and I just tell the cashier that I pay the check with a CC but tip in cash. I do not want to look like a stiff to a person that works with the people that serve me food. The regular cashier thanks me for doing so.
Yeah, I over think this.
7 Likes
CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
9
Under the circumstances you set out (counter order, self-carry, self-bussing), I will sometimes tip independently owned/family owned places, but not franchises or corporate joints.
EDIT -
The other factor is how much help I need. When I first started going to poke places and didn’t know which combos of proteins/carbs/greens/sauces went well together, and the person putting the bowl together for me was helpful, I’d tip around 15%.
I wonder if that might have to do with the relative percentage of non-North American immigrants in the city. I know from my time in Vancouver that there seemed to be less pressure to tip, and the city had a wide diversity that I as an American found unusual (but welcome!)
I understand that Toronto is similarly multicultural, with wide and varied international communities throughout.
Maybe folks from non-tipping cultures are bringing social pressure to bear?
Circumstances also matter to us. When it’s clearly family-run, and quickly serves very modestly priced lunch, whether bagged, order at register to be delivered to table, full table service – we always tip to make it worth their while to keep on keepin’ on. We’re thinking of killer lengua, fish, or carnitas tacos, bahn mi, etc. . . . on the regular rotation – you get the idea. ( We’re always bussing if we can.)
I think most Redditors who post about tipping on the Toronto Food SubReddit are angry 20somethings living in their parents’ basements. Not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with that.
The same posters comment after posts about a $12 breakfast sandwich, or a $7 slice of pizza at a top pizza joint, that the food is overpriced and that they can make the same thing at home for 1/10th of the price. Not considering the cost of overhead, wages, profit, etc.
1 Like
CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
14
Agree completely about circs. I’ve mentioned before, I think, the family-run Mexican place near the local hospital where I had lunch and/or dinner almost every day for the ~ 6 weeks my wife was in hospital. This was table order and table service, but I could get a fantastic lunch for $6, and dinner for under $9.
I always tipped another $6-$9 atop. WTF, I’m glad they’re there, and I can afford it. Besides, more “downtown” I’d have paid $10-$12 for the same lunch meal anyway, and close to $18 for dinner.
Then there’s a fallback-when-shopping/provisioning-failure-isn’t-worth-solving pizza to go place, where when the phone order taker asks our name and responds with recognition. Over time it seems the pizza is always a bit heavier in the box (we’ve seen him go back and call orders to the prep guy so we’re flattering ourselves guessing he singles out our order?). Actually, last time there, we saw four guys working, instead of the usual two, maybe three, so they’re doing something right just as our favored taco and bahn mi families.
