Tipping for curbside, ie. Home Depot

Hey guys and gals.

Since this pandemic began and most places do curbside now, just seeing what you guys do in regards to tipping at places such as Home Depot. Since this is going on, I order a lot of big home projects online, and I love having people load everything up for me...but I feel like I should tip. I’ve been told not to, but feels awkward sometimes like I think the helper pauses momentary to see if I’m going to tip. ...I’d love to, honestly.

Do you guys in these situations?

 

I tip when I pickup food from a restaurant so I would say yes, especially if they load it for you. Either a percentage or for a place like Home Depot, spot them $10 o $20 depending on how much, quantity, and how heavy the items are.

 

Hell no. Tipping at restaurants is because that is how they make the bulk of their money. How about some of these employees start tipping me for helping keep them employed?

 

I guess if you tip them that's fine, I give a tip to the young man that brought the groceries to the truck. If on the other hand whoever brings your stuff out and loads it flat out refuses.... then no, but at least you offered. I know a few are going to say "who in their right mind turns down money?" Well I've had it happen, claiming "it's part of my job", OK, at least I offered.

 

A lot of states have lower minimum wage for tipped restaurant jobs, I think in Ohio it was like $4 an hour if you also received tips.

In personal principle I disagree with tipping, but I'm also not going to fuck over a kid who otherwise would make $8,000 a year working a hard job full time.

I don't tip employees who make "full" wage though. Home Depot guy would get a smile and a "thanks man!"

 

In your particular situation, no.

His job is literally to do that exact action. Unless the guy had to carry something incredibly heavy or their safety would be in jeopardy it is what he signed up for. In comparison, a waiter is the same, except the gov't has messed up that industry long ago and allowed restaurants to pay lower than minimum wage and we are guilt-tripped to pick up the rest of their wage. I believe we are the only country that does this.

Tipping is supposed to be when you are provided a service and receive service above and beyond the minimum required you provide some amount of money to bring attention to the positive service you received.

If I sit down in a restaurant, I tip the waiter, having said that, the number of times where I received steller I really want to tip that person service in my life I can count on one hand. The significant majority of the time I am just doing my USA citizen duty of paying their hourly wage for the gov't and they didn't give me service above/beyond.

I tip in restaurants and delivery, but if I go to pick up food, I don't tip. The only caveat was during the shutdowns during COVID I felt if I didn't throw a few bucks that person might lose their lively hood in some way. Even during shutdown time, I really don't understand tipping during carrying out. Mostly, who is actually getting the money? The person who pushed two buttons on a screen, turned around and handed me my order? The whole crew of that shift splits my few bucks? If everyone is actually splitting it, then why when I sit down it's like 95% to the waiter and prob 5% to busboy, so do employees love carry out orders more? If someone in the industry can shed light on this?

The other industries I tip: if I order furniture/appliance and you cross my door threshold you get a tip, if I get a haircut I tip, but I am not really sure the finances of that industry, I think they are just earning extra money out of me.

 

I worked in the restaurant industry for 20 years. There is an art to it. Lots of multitasking. To do it well, it does take talent. I did fine dining, so i would “tip out” (bus boys, hostesses, cooks) close to 50% of what I made. I always tipped more because I personally would get better “service” when I took care of these guys/gals.

I wouldn’t personally tip out stuff like loading up things, but food service, haircuts, nails (for the wife), etc I would.

In a side note, I never cared about the amount of the tip. I was of the mind that everything balanced out. If I got 5% from one person, I would get 80% from someone else (yes, this happens). Some people simply couldn’t afford to tip well. They wanted to impress someone or this was the one time they scraped up enough money to go out. Just my views on it, but I am also a little older and had a lot of experience with it, so I knew about “the law of averages.”

 

thanks for providing insight, do you know what happens with a tip at carry out? who earns the money? who most deserves the money? I feel like at that point only the cook.

 

Cooks do a lot. They do get tipped out by both servers and take out (togo) people. The Togo people do a lot as well. They are usually the ones that add condiments, verify the order is correct, etc. Togo tips out as well, usually just the cooks. It’s an interesting system. As a server, I would always tip out the cooks and bussers extra. They bust their asses and are the least thanked.

 

Long time ago I worked in Giant (Like Kroger / King Soopers / Walmart / Safeway for those who don't know) and we were not allowed to take any tips or gifts or anything from customers who we help to get their bags to the cars. Especially elderly people. I don't know if that has changed in time.

 

Follow-up question, bus boys, hostesses, cooks, do they all get paid a full wage? or a waitress/waiter lower per hour too? I think it is only the waiter/waitress who has the lower right correct?

 

About 45 or 50 years ago, I would work summers s a bagger at the one grocery store in my home town. Almost everyone tipped me, especially if I carried the stuff out to their cars. It was part of my job, and the store paid us pretty well, for a kid's summer job, but I carried out anyway. Just being a "good kid".

Only person who didn't, and it's surprizing, since she was richer-n-heck, was Shirley Temple-Black. Yeah, that cuter-n-heck little girl with the curls grew up to be a mean, nasty woman, I kid you not. She had a chip on her shoulder the size of one of the redwoods in our town about something. No one ever did figure out what. Anytime we kids saw her coming, we'd all go on break at once

Just a memory that popped up in my pea-brain. So few do, any more.
Pat☺

 

depends on the state. California pays full wage plus tips. In Texas, they just had to make sure you made minimum wage after you were tipped.