OT: What do you usually tip the pizza guy?
So I haven't been on the board much lately, and figured this would be an interesting question for the MGoMasses on a Friday night. I just ordered a pizza for delivery(first time in probably 9 months), and ended up tipping the guy $1.75. He gave me a look like, "Geeze buddy, thanks for being such a cheap bastard."
I figure, $1.75 seems like an adequate amount for a pizza driver, especially when everyone is already charging $2.50-$3 for delivery nowadays.
Am I being a cheap bastard by tipping $1.75? What is your standard tip for delivery? What is your standard tip at a restaurant?
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:07 PM ^
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:09 PM ^
What about Jimmy John's? Am I being cheap when I'm only tipping one dollar? I find it crazy to tip 40% on a $5 sandwich.
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:09 PM ^
I tip a dollar per sandwich.
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:11 PM ^
It depends. I usually ask him/her how much their student loans from Michigan State University are...and then tip a small % of that.
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:13 PM ^
Dammit, you beat me with the "get off my porch" joke.
August 3rd, 2012 at 11:04 PM ^
I'm surprised it took so long for someone to make a Sparty Pizza Delivery joke.
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:12 PM ^
My tip would be this: "Since you got your undergraduate degree at Michigan State, see if you can get a nice GMAT or GRE score in the books and get your next degree at the University of Michigan."
-says the guy with a degree from neither but with a ridiculous GMAT and a Masters from a decent school in Chicago.
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:15 PM ^
Why tip someone for a job I’m capable of doing myself? I can deliver food. I can drive a taxi. I can, and do, cut my own hair. I did, however, tip my urologist, because I am unable to pulverize my own kidney stones.
I can't believe it took this long for someone to post the Dwight Schrute quote from The Office.
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:17 PM ^
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:30 PM ^
depending on rounding/ amount of food delivered. I guess if I had like $200 worth of food, I would go to $10.
Not 20% though.
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:35 PM ^
Why do servers get paid by they amount of your bill? Does a large pizza cost more to deliver than a small? Do people who work at dinners give you worse service than at an upscale place, I bet not usually. When did it become normal to tip at a buffet when you are serving yourself? Thanks for cleaning up your place after I leave. Isn't that part of what they have to do as business owners? Why don't you tip nurses? I say a sponge bath is a much better service than bringing a hamburger.
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:48 PM ^
you live off tips because your management is fucking you. it's a joke that business owners get away with this shit, and you should really be mad at them instead of expecting your customers to pick up the slack.
that said, i tip up to 50% at restaurants because they care more about the money than i do, but each thing i consider obnoxious or ill-form costs 10-15%, and i have no problem stiffing people (as long as my wife's not there to stop me) to send a message when it's well-deserved.
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:37 PM ^
I tip in beer.
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:41 PM ^
i had a few different delivery jobs back in the day in college and, in general, it came out to be about 10% at the end of the shift. of course, delivering primarily to students didn't help. that said, you learned to hustle in an effort to deliver more pizzas, hence more $.
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:44 PM ^
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:46 PM ^
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:49 PM ^
for Tiffany's Pizza in Monroe. On a Friday night we would have 15-17 deliverers. Of course this was when the business was booming. Now the $5 pizza has punished small mom and pop places like this. I would never deliver now. Here's how we got paid.
1996-1998
1.) Hourly rate $6.00 8 hours a night average, about 38-43 hours a week
2.) Dollar per delivery from the company ($2 delivery charge, split down the middle), 20-40 deliveries a night
3.) Tips. Average of $60 bucks weekday, $100 bucks on a weekend
All in all pretty decent money. Gas was still $1.00 a gallon. The most deliveries I had in one day was 63. The most tips I made in one day was $410 in tips. That was on a 55 delivery day.
August 3rd, 2012 at 11:40 PM ^
Holy fuck can I give up my two-degree requiring mid-level salaried job for that kind of money?
August 4th, 2012 at 12:02 AM ^
I remember a Pizza House driver telling me a while back that he averaged $350 a night during Fall weekends. That doesn't sound like such a horrible gig to me.......
August 4th, 2012 at 12:11 AM ^
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:49 PM ^
I generally judge my tip by the pen that I am given for my signature...If he/she presents me with a Waterman-esque ballpoint, he/she will be tipped accoringly. If he/she provides me with a bic or #2 pencil, I can't justify anything over a single.
It's all about the presentation, gentlepeople.
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:49 PM ^
August 3rd, 2012 at 11:55 PM ^
August 4th, 2012 at 12:05 AM ^
August 4th, 2012 at 12:36 AM ^
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:50 PM ^
Give enough so they don't spit in your food the next time.
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:50 PM ^
If you've got a decent job and can afford it, I'd give him minimum $3 every time. Figure they can use the money more than I do. But I also never tip less than 20% at restaurants, regardless of how good the service was.
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:55 PM ^
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:55 PM ^
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:57 PM ^
I delivered for Omega for a long time. Some of the cool regs would give me a joint or load up mad bong hits. Many were stingy and you knew you were getting very little going there. $1.75 in old days on $13.25 was cool. Hear people tip more now. M students sort of have more money now than we all did in 70's-80's.
I tip my Cleveland Indians hat to you and your buddies. Thanks for the bong hits. Omega was cool. Fixed up place downtown but the rent was steep. Sold to NYPD. Still talk to Omega owners and they lament the high rents and still wish they could do another Omega. They now own Tony's Roofing but we all miss the italian subs, breadsticks, and pizzas.
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:59 PM ^
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:59 PM ^
August 3rd, 2012 at 11:09 PM ^
August 3rd, 2012 at 11:11 PM ^
August 3rd, 2012 at 11:12 PM ^
First, I say, "Please remove your Ohio State Alumni Association hat." Then I tip him 20%. Then I say, "Go Blue."
August 3rd, 2012 at 11:13 PM ^
i'd have given him a 20, and looked at the change he gave me. if there's a 5 in there, he'd have gotten 1.75. if there are 6 singles, 2.75. that's over 20% and nothing to feel bad about, no matter what delivery people want you to think.
August 3rd, 2012 at 11:16 PM ^
I always struggle with how much to tip these guys as well, not to mention Olive Garden/ any take out place people. I guess my thought process always goes, "ok, what's my first instinct", which is usually like $2 for a pizza guy, and then "well, if I give this person and extra $1, its probably going to make more of a difference to them than it is to me." So I always just go with an extra buck or so.
August 3rd, 2012 at 11:55 PM ^
This. This is the way to look at it.
I've recently, shockingly, found myself as one of the higher income earners of my little circle (in no way am I bragging, unfortunately), and that way of thinking is creeping up more and more often.
"Is this $5 worth more to me than the waitress?" That's never a yes. Same with friends or anything that involves a variable amount of money owed. Pay it forward my friends, pay it forward.
August 3rd, 2012 at 11:16 PM ^
August 4th, 2012 at 12:01 AM ^
August 3rd, 2012 at 11:39 PM ^
I'd say you start with a floor of three dollars and adjust it from there. If it takes forever I'll drop it to 2 dollars (unless they tell me upfront they just got slammed with orders and it will take awhile). For a family order five dollars. For big groups, more. Between wear and tear on the guy's car and his gas, he's already out likely a dollar the minute he sets foot on your porch. So one dollar to cover that and then something for his time. Bonus thrown in for the cases where its a blizzard outside and I'm ordering solely because I don't want to drive my rear end to the grocery.
My trick is to order some carry out pizzas during January and tip well. That gets me a good rep and then when the Super Bowl comes mine arrive during half time. Other peoples pies won't.
Edit:
The other thing to consider is what percentage of the route you are. For example if you call in during the dinner rush and 50 minutes later your pie arrives (and you can see 10 other warmer bags in the driver's car) it means the wait was due to them consolidating a number of the orders. Thus I feel compelled to only pay some of the guy's total gas costs for this run, etc.
When I call in at 2 pm and 15 minutes later I'm holding a pizza, odds are I was the sole guy on that driver's run. So I up my tip.