Take out that you pick up? A couple bucks at most. I throw out the % system for the most part, which usually works to their advantage with small orders.

A dollar in the tip jar if they have one. If they don't, I don't tip when I pick up take out.

I do what mullacc does.

I have a thing against tip jars, so no, not usually.

A buck or two per item, more or less, plus maybe some change (especially when I'm paying with a card--I've got a habit of tipping up to whole dollar amounts).

If I know it's a tippy (tipsy?) place, but there's no jar or the jar's not nearby, I might tell 'em to keep the change.

What do you have against tip jars, Miko?

Follow-up question: Does it matter if it's a corporate franchise or not? I.e, do you tip equally at both a family-owned sub shop and at, say, Cosi or Panera?

If I am picking up from Outback steakhouse or Panera, or any other franchise I do not tip. If I am picking up from the family owned Chinese place I will tip a dollar or so. I think I have tipped at Subway, so I have to take that franchise bit back.

My own answer is that sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. But whenever I don't I end up feeling so guilty that I wish I had just tipped.

If there is a jar; a buck, or at least my change.

If there is not a jar, ... never thought about it but asked at a few places, and have been told the management does not want a jar; but they will take tips, so change or a buck.

All this talk of tip jars brings to mind some lines from one of my favorite Gillian Welch songs...

I can get a tip jar,
Gas up the car,
And try to make a little change
Down at the bar.

Or I can get a straight job,
I've done it before.
I never minded working hard,
It's who I'm working for.

What do you have against tip jars, Miko?

While "paying my dues" during college and during the first decade of my career, I worked for a total of twelve years in restaurants. In each one, in three different states, I earned the service-staff minimum wage, which was between $2 and $3 an hour. The wage was that low because the expectation was that you made your money in tips. The wage was only enough to cover the required debits from your check - SSI and unemployment insurance, things like that - meaning that a typical week's paycheck was under $10. The wages were in the form of tips, not in the check. As a waitress, I declared my tips as income, and paid taxes on them.

Tip jars at counter service establishments were pretty much unheard of until maybe 15 years ago or so. The reason was that counter service jobs do not have to pay only the service minimum - they have always been required to pay full minimum wage or better. There was no expectation of tips and no need for them: the employee's wages are fully covered by the employer. Counter staff are usually not required to declare tips as income (often the software has no way to process this). It becomes a tax-free cash bonus - which, in my view, is unearned, since they're performing in a job description in which all of their duties are fully covered under the wage structure they signed on to work within.

I understand my view is pretty unpopular, having discussed it here and there, but that's okay with me. I just opt out. I've watched the tentative introduction and gradual proliferation of the tip jar take place over my lifetime, and it still boggles. It basically amounts to giving people money because they've put out their hand and asked for it; not because their wage structure has evolved with an expectation of tips, and has a tax status and separate minimum wage to match. In all the other fields where we tip people, the contract worker we're tipping is working in this situation: they accept a paycheck reduction in order to work in the environment in which they can earn wages in the form of tips. That's not true of counter staff. So I just don't feel any need to tip them.

No. Tipping is for service rendered. If I render the service unto myself, I keep my money.

If it's a place I go often for a sit-down meal, I tip 5-10% for take-out. I figure that less-than-minimum-wage waitstaff took time to box up and hand me my meal, so I want to honor that time, and it feels weird to tip the same waitstaff sometimes but not others.

If it's a place that has sit-down service but I only ever get take-out, then I don't tend to tip unless I go there really often.

If it's a place that's take-out only, then no, I don't tip, for the tax/wages issues that Miko brings up.

I tip when I'm served or have stuff delivered, not when I pick up.

If I pick it up myself I do not tip. The exception is my local starbucks (yes, I go to starbucks -->*defensive*) where I tip a fiver or so every couple of weeks because I go there daily and they make my coffee as I walk in the door.

I don't tip if I pick up the food myself.

Not as well thought out, but wholly in agreement with Miko. As almost always.

I don't tip at a Panera or similar where there is no traditional tip-earning waitstaff.

I'm not sure who usually takes and preps the take-out orders at a restaurant with a waitstaff, but I imagine there's a good chance it's someone who would otherwise being doing stuff for tip-paying customers. That's why I tip them.

I have a thing against tip jars, so no, not usually.

I have a thing against the absence of tip jars, for the most part. Not out of consideration for the staff, but I just don't want to deal with 38 cents in my pocket all day. I'd rather give it to the low-paid restaurant staff than a panhandler.

I don't habitually contribute to tip jars, although it has been known to happen from time to time.

I don't think your view is really that unpopular, Miko. I think that there is some bias in discussion of tipping because the people who tip more are happy for people to know about it but those who aren't usually don't like broadcasting it.

Here's some data on that:

A survey by the Emily Post Institute found that only 30 percent of people thought contributing to a tip jar was obligatory.

A survey by the Emily Post Institute found that only 30 percent of people thought contributing to a tip jar was obligatory.

WTF? If there is an obligatory charge I assume it will be added to my bill. A little homemade sign on a pickle jar does not say "obligatory" to me.

I overtip when I have a delivery, especially in bad weather. We refer to it (in our home, not to the recipients) as part of our stimulus package.

I usually am not a jar tipper. The very presence of the jar, which for most of my life was absent, feels like some kind of scam.

Get hip
to this timely tip
get your kicks
on Route 66

Takeout places get a 15-20% tip, just like sit-down restaurants, hairdressers, massage therapists, and lap-dancers. Having one standard for all service people lessens my need to do complicated math, and that is worth my money.

I'm very glad this was posted. I probably would have burned an AskMe on it at some point.

Despite being cheap-ish in most things, I think I tip reasonably well - having been raised by a generous man. When I take lunch in Hires Big H, I calculate 20% and round up to the nearest quarter.

However, when I get take-out there, I tip nothing. Nor will I tip in any other take-out situation. Like Hugh Janus, I believe that the tip is for the service rendered: bringing the plate of food to my table, delivering the pizza to my house, driving the taxi to my destination.

Ringing up an order does not count as service to me. They are not doing anything I wouldn't do myself if I was permitted to. You don't tip the person working the register in the supermarket, do you?

I think I get the stink-eye for this sometimes. But I won't change.

I sometimes do, sometimes don't, and I'm sure that my decision is often not entirely rational, but impulsive or instinctive.

If it's a place that specializes in take-out or doesn't have dedicated servers, I often don't tip; I assume that the wage is hourly, not tip-based. I'm probably wrong about that sometimes.

If it's a sit-down restaurant with table service where take-out is the exception, I usually do tip something, for a couple of reasons:

- I remember wrapping up occasional take-out orders when I was a bistro waitress, and it takes time and trouble. Indeed, the less the restaurant is set up for take-out, the more time and attention it takes the server. It's not always a server who packs the meal, but in small places, it often is. (Last time we got take-out from a not-takeout place, I got home and discovered how beautifully and thoughtfully our meal was packed, and wished I'd tipped more.)

- A server is (theoretically) reporting their wages and paying taxes based on a percentage of their total sales, and take-out orders contribute to that total.

To sum up: eh, I dunno. I usually decide on the fly, basing my decision on whether the place seems A) set up for take-out, B) set up to make delivering the tip easy, C) whether I am paying with cash or card, and whether I have the right denomination in cash handy.

I think that there is some bias in discussion of tipping because the people who tip more are happy for people to know about it but those who aren't usually don't like broadcasting it.

I think you're probably right, and I will unabashedly admit that I'm a cheapie cheap cheapskate. Tips are one of the few areas where I'm inclined to generosity, in large part because it's such a small thing for me, but cumulatively a large thing for the server.

Take-away? not really. Delivery? 3-5 depending on the weather/order size.