Do you tip for curbside service?

[kjezierski]

Now that we have Alex, we get ALOT of takeout. One of the most convenient ways to get something besides the basic burger is the curbside service a lot of restaurants like Outback and Chili's offer. You call your order in ahead of time and then wait in their designated curbside pickup area in your car and they bring your takeout order to you.

Unless service is really bad, I always tip at least 20% in full service restaurants. However, I'm not sure what to do in this circumstance. There is a 'server', but it isn't quite the same as having a server inside the restaurant. What do you do? Do you tip? If you do, how much?

Kathleen
Mommy to Alex
04/29/04

[lisaE]

Yes. I actually asked the gal who brought out our Outback one night. She said most folks do tip. I usually tip $5, I think that person is the one who puts the order together and everything.

[g-mama]

I'd done it without tipping a couple of times and then one time, dh was with me in the car. He was horrified that I didn't tip and said that you absolutely are supposed to. I never knew! Now I give about $3. I don't feel they do nearly as much as a waiter/waitress so I wouldn't give my usual 20%.


Kristen
Paolo 11-00
Benjamin 8-03
and a *THIRD BOY* coming in December '05

[s7714]

We never tipped until my BIL was visiting. (Let's just say he's worked in restaurants a lot...) He explained that the people who bring you your food are still the ones gathering your order, making sure everything is right, in some cases making up things like salads too, bagging it and bringing it out to you. So technically speaking they are still "serving" you, it's just in a bag instead of on a plate. ;) So now we've been tipping curb side servers about 15% unless we have a really big order, then we'll tip more.

Jennifer
Mommy to
Annalia 3/03
Sophia 6/05

When raising kids the days are oh so long, but the years are short.--John Leguizamo

[trumansmom]

I don't know if it's still true, but when I waited tables in college way back in the dark ages, servers were automatically taxed on a certain percentage of their sales. The assumption by the government was that we were getting tips on all sales. So, if a customer did NOT tip, I still had to pay a percentage of their meal in taxes. (And it used to piss me off to NO end!)

Sooo, I generally tip anyone that may be put in that position. It's not fair for someone to have to pay to do their job. KWIM?

Admittedly, I'm one of the older moms on the board x( so the laws very well may have changed.

Jeanne
Mom to Truman 11/01 and Eleanor 4/04
Independent Consultant, Do-Re-Me & You!

[RwnMayfair]

We tip at the places where they have a person dedicated to the curbside service (like Outback, where they run it out to your car), but not the places where you run in and pick up your order from the host/ess, bartender, or someone who's not doing that exclusively. For the places we do tip, we basically just give a bit less than what would give in the restaurant, since we didn't really get quite as much service out of the server as we would have in the restaurant. Usually about 10% at that point.

-Melissa

Taran, November 20, 2003
Elowen, August 20, 2005

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