Tipping

[Longhorned]

Are you guys tipping the person at the cash register for totaling up your groceries? At some places, the screen is asking me what percentage I want to tip, and the person at the register is pretty sincere about me entering my tip percentage.

I can't figure out what service the person at the register is providing me that's worth 15-20% of my grocery total. Especially when we're expected to bring our own bags now.

I promise to be honest in conversations about tipping. I'm getting more and more perplexed.

[Merkin]

Never seen that at a grocery store, but there is a restaurant where I live where you walk up and order, and walk up and get your food, and they ask the same thing, 15, 18 or 20%

What the heck? Next time I am bringing cash there and just throw a buck in the tip jar.

[ByJoveByJingle]

I haven’t seen the grocery store thing, either. But the tipping thing is completely out of control. And don’t get me started about the guilt-trip charity donations at the checkout of grocery stores and fast food joints.

[CalStateTempe]

Pay for everything in cash. Problem solved.

[FreeSpiritCat]

I noticed this starting to happen about 10 years ago. These people aren't waiting on tables and they are not receiving $2.50/hour. I always put in 0 dollars in the tip amount. And I don't feel guilty about it just because it is there. I don't get tipped for the work I do. Almost all other countries in the world don't tip at all. I usually avoid restaurants anyway where you are expected to tip. It is really hard to determine the bill.

[Longhorned]

What do you tip the maids in hotels?

[Merkin]

What do you tip the maids in hotels?

Nothing, but I generally stay in motels.

[Longhorned]

I do $5 a night from cheap motels to high end hotels. In the hotels, that makes me a cheapskate, and for most nights I avoid tipping by putting up the "DO NOT DISTURB" sign.

[KaibabKat]

When I order a pizza I always give the ASU kid a couple of bucks when he delivers it.

What do you do about a guy that delivers flowers, or some other gift, that someone else ordered?

[Longhorned]

When I order a pizza I always give the ASU kid a couple of bucks when he delivers it.

What do you do about a guy that delivers flowers, or some other gift, that someone else ordered?

I've never received flowers in my life, but I never tip the USPS/UPS/FedEx person who delivers a gift someone sent me. The way they ring the doorbell and drive away leads me to believe they don't expect tips.

[Merkin]

I always pick up pizza to avoid the delivery charge and tips, but I always tip furniture delivery guys, appliance installers, Comcast techs and so on. Never UPS or USPS.

[Longhorned]

I always pick up pizza to avoid the delivery charge and tips, but I always tip furniture delivery guys, appliance installers, Comcast techs and so on. Never UPS or USPS.

I've never tipped any of those guys. I had no idea!!!

[ASUHATER!]

Tipping shouldn't exist since people should be paid living wages...

But yes you should always be tipping your food delivery, hotel maids, Uber driver, appliance/Comcast guy. At least occasionally tip on a pickup order at a restaurant.

[Longhorned]

I admit I'm totally unclear about why the Comcast guy should be tipped. Does Comcast expect their service people to be subsidized by its fee-paying cable subscribers? If so, why does Comcast charge the customer so much per service visit? And does the Comcast guy file taxes in a special way like food servers do, with the expectation that much of his income is unrecorded?

[Alieberman]

I only tip my proctologist

[Merkin]

I admit I'm totally unclear about why the Comcast guy should be tipped. Does Comcast expect their service people to be subsidized by its fee-paying cable subscribers? If so, why does Comcast charge the customer so much per service visit? And does the Comcast guy file taxes in a special way like food servers do, with the expectation that much of his income is unrecorded?

My youngest son used to work for Dish. Pretty much paid near minimum wage for awful work and conditions.

When Comcast came out to my house, the tech spent at least 2 hours trying to fix my random internet outages, and eventually replaced the cable from the telephone pole to my house, which cleared up the problem. He certainly deserved a tip.

[dovecanyoncat]

I don't tip the piece-work Comcast/ATT/TimeWarner independent contractor techs; the bonafide employees probably deserve a tip and great pity. I won't tip anyone in a grocery store until I'm too decrepit to carry my own sack of shit. Furniture movers, delivery folk who bring what I order get 5-50 buck depending a host of personal subjective factors. Hotel housekeeping is a quandary: we never allow them in to service our rooms no matter how long we stay, and my wife cannot be deterred from doing half the room's cleaning, so up to but never more than 5 buck a night for hotels. We always carry our own bags and no valet is ever gonna touch one of my rigs. For any bathroom attendant ASU grad my tip is: choose a real school next time.

[Longhorned]

One of my windowpanes broke, so I called a local service to replace it. A guy showed up and installed the new glass and charged me $200.

Was I supposed to tip him?

[ByJoveByJingle]

Did he wiggle his hips fetchingly enough for you?