Covid-19 has changed the way lots of businesses, specifically restaurants and bars, operate. It’s understandable. Wait staff wages have been decimated. It’s tough to make a living as it is in that business but when you’re operating at 25% capacity in a business where margins are already thin and wait staff live by their tips it’s almost impossible. As a result, I’ve just felt it was the right thing to do to tip for takeout when everything was virtually shutdown. It seemed like the right thing to do in order to try and help keep the local businesses going.
Tipping is and has always been optional. Typically, it’s been based on the service you received. I understood that wait staff lived off their tips. That’s how the restaurant business is structured (at least here in Massachusetts). Wait staff are paid below minimum wage. Without tips they don’t make a living. Me, I always believe in tipping 20% if the service was acceptable. More if it was outstanding. For me to tip less than that the service had to be horrible and I’m not talking about the food. I’m talking about the actual service rendered by the wait staff. Tipping is and has always been the right thing to do as far as I’m concerned.
Prior to Covid, when you picked up takeout you rarely thought of tipping. Why would you? The service rendered was your food that the cooks prepared. The cooks wouldn’t see any of the tip amount. The cooks were paid a living wage and don’t live off tips. The person at the cash register took your payment. Not what you’d consider “tip worthy” as they too made a living wage. Then Covid hit and I felt it was the right thing to do to tip for takeout. Why? Because I believed it helped the restaurant and I hoped that they’d make sure the tips got to the people that needed them most. Tipping was still optional but if felt right.
Fast forward 8 months. We’re still living with Covid. Restaurants are still not at full operation but things are far better than before. I still feel it’s right to tip for takeout but I also feel I shouldn’t be asked if I want to tip. It should be something I opt to do by selecting a button on a checkout device or write in on a credit card slip. For example, I picked up orders twice from a local place and both times I got home and the food was overcooked. Both times I had tipped 20%. The next time I picked up food I checked it. It was burnt again. This time I asked for it to be remade. I still tipped because they took care of me. I figured something had to be wrong for this place to be burning food as that never happened before.
However, when did it become acceptable to ask “would you like to leave a tip”? This happens to me a lot at businesses I used to leave a tip in a jar. I’m talking about the coffee shop. When I place an order for a large black coffee and the cashier asks me, “would you like to leave a tip?”, I kinda wanna just shake my head and say “well, let’s see how long it takes me to get my coffee, if the order is correct, and if the cup cover doesn’t leak all over me when I finally get it.” But no, you can’t say that. If you answer that question “no”, you sound like a cheapskate. You risk getting your order wrong or slow or worse. I’m always one to tip but somehow being asked by this person if I’d like to tip before the service has been rendered just seems odd to me. Then again, everything seems odd to me during this crazy Covid time we’re living in.
What’s my point? We have a long way to go before we return to anything close to what we’d consider “normal”. Tip your wait staff generously. Optionally, leave a tip for the people providing takeout service if you want to. But maybe someone should do something about training people at the register to not ask for a tip for just taking your order for a cup of coffee or just picking up the bag of food you already paid for online. That’s just my opinion.
