Are you still tipping on takeout/pickup orders?

No. I'm over the growth of tipping culture. I've actually started tipping less as a percentage because it's so in-your-face now, expectations have gotten so ridiculous, and almost every time I go out the service experience is WORSE than it was before the pandemic.

And look, I get it, times are tough and inflation is high. But begging for tips instead of pressuring businesses to pay their employees is not the way to go. I've also stopped eating out as much for dine-in food for the same reason. Food prices have gone up enough at my local Chipotle, I don't feel the need to eat out and experience a $30 8oz steak, poorly cooked, from my local Olive Garden or whatever.

Edit: Looked at a below comment, if its a delivery driver or a barista or something, yes I still tip as that involves the driver spending most of their time to deliver something specifically for me or the barista hand-making my coffee.

I do, about 10%.

That said, I am very sick of getting asked to tip before anything is rendered-- such as at the counter of a cafe where I have coffee or a pastry.

Tipping a dollar for a coffee to a barista who lacks any customer service skills is a pain. If they're actually friendly, I don't mind as much.

What's worse is a cafe that asks for a $1 tip at a self-service coffee refill station, lol.

But yeah, this whole "We're paid a decent hourly wage, but we'll still have our cash register ask for a tip, even before your food arrives at the counter, where you take it to your own table" thing is insane.

Tips are meant for restaurant servers -- because they don't make even minimum wage. Tips are't meant for every aspect of the service industry. It gets to become extortive.

I tip because most people who work service jobs are poor. Candidly I won’t notice the difference but the person receiving the tip definitely will.

I don’t work at a FAANG (or whatever the term is now) and I don’t make anywhere close to SV money. But I also don’t make $15/hr and I believe in “love your neighbor as yourself.”

No, I don't tip if they're doing what's barely required for their job (especially for me specifically going to the restaurant to pick up my own order; it's not like they delivered it to me). Should I tip baristas for making and handing me my drinks too, or cashiers scanning my groceries? No, and so I don't.

I don’t mind tipping 10-15% but complaints against the standard tipping options on payment machines are well deserved. Somewhere along the line business owners figured out they can magically increase revenue by 10% just by upping the pre-selected tipping options. In DC I noticed a mandatory 20% service fee added to bills at restaurants—and they still ask you to tip on top of that! When does it end? 50% tips? 100% tips? Why not just let the restaurant keep your wallet?

(Non US) With Deliveroo, I didn't use to pay delivery or service fees, until the arrangement they had with my card company stopped a couple of months ago.

I used to order a lot and tip cash.

The other day I tried to order:

- Pizza: 13€ (9€ if bought directly from an equivalent restaurant)

- Service fee: 1,5€

- Delivery fee: 4€

So I'm paying 18,5€ for a 9€ pizza and I'm also expected to tip +20% (~4€) that makes the entire endeavor too expensive and not worth ordering (even before tipping).

You made me very happy by specifying "USA" in the title instead of assuming that all readers were American :-)

Most restaurants around me doubled their prices in the last three years. How can they be struggling is a mystery to me.

I tip fat for everything. It's my way of evening everything out a tiny bit.

Doordash has started automatically suggesting ridiculous tip amounts. One time it recommended $10 tip on a $20 delivery. I now pick up my own meals by myself now instead of using Doordash because the cost is more than double now, and I refuse to pay that much. Their greed has removed the entire idea of food delivery from my head now.

I tip 0 if all you’re doing is handing me over food that I drove to pick up.

Dine in: 15%, more if I mess up ordering or I'm a regular. Dine in includes order at counter and take a number to your seat cafe-style.

Bar: $1/beer, $2/cocktail, more if I'm a regular.

All counter/self/coffee shop/etc serve: no unless it's big/complicated enough that it's basically a dine-in order.

Delivery: 15%, but a delivery fee (from the restaurant) will replace that, I'm not doing both. Doordash/etc fees are my problem for being lazy, and I generally try to avoid using those services.

I'm fond of cash. And it's a handy way of directing the tip at the person who deserves it, in the amount they deserve. How they handle that internally is NOMB.

Absolutely not. Tipping is a cancer and needs to stop. Tell me what the food costs. Tell me what it costs to deliver. I'll pay that or I won't order.

tech income and no kids = automatic tip every time i see a tipline and release the burden of having to even think about it ever again

Panera - Order a cup of coffee, put the credit card in the reader. "Would you like to tip today?"

No. The staff literally handed me paper cup.

Am I tipping the person who brewed the coffee and put it on the shelf(where I pour it myself)? I just paid 2 dollars for a cup of coffee. Is that not enough?

It's so crazy.

I know OP has mentioned USA. But I’ll chip in. Because like a lot of questionable things this culture is exported everywhere. I am from India and fortunately tipping culture is not prevalent yet, but unfortunately it’s picking up.

Tipping is dehumanising for both the server and the served. It often is downright humiliating to the served as well.

Even the simple question that pops up in mind — am I giving high enough, is it too high, will I be looked down upon if it ended up being less. Do servers greatly prefer who tip more or “look like” will tip more anyway — yes, they do! I don’t want to be part of this game. Fix the price - let me be done with it. In India, restaurants have something called “service charge” (not service tax) and if it’s there I don’t tip - it’s an official thing. I just don’t. I usually don’t tip anyway. And I understand beyond reasonable doubt it has nothing to do with income disparity. That’s a truth and it’s everywhere - from hospital, grocery store, etc to kid’s school etc that you and the server both might approach. I don’t want to make this habit of “wondering” about tip every time. In fact at the end of the meal it was becoming a not so good experience.

My worst experience around tipping was in Paris. I had politely asked “Can I have a shake?” and the young lady on the counter said in a terse loud tone “please!” and baffled I said “excuse me?” and then she pretty much shouted “please!!!” and for some reason my brain worked and I realised it was for demand of a “please” being added in my request. I was really embarrassed and I apologised and asked again with a “please”. She then moved and brought the glass and put in on table with audible force (few people turned towards the counter) while sternly looking at me, with bill. I paid the exact amount. Then she said in semi raised voice “tip?”. I again politely said "no tip" and left. The tip has become a misplaced entitlement.

(I asked around. I was told that it was shitty of her to demand a please especially in that manner. My hostel manager said that a Parisian would have had given her “piece of mind”).

So I am not even talking about minimum wage and better labour practises (that’s actually pretty shit in India by the way). In fact it should be kept as far away from tipping as much possible! Tipping should have nothing to do with labour practices and minimum wage. Nothing!!

One of my favourite places here is a cafe that mentions “We do not accept tips!” and guess what that’s the only place where I have not seen entirely or many new staff if I don’t visit for 2 or a even full 1 month.

Most recently, some small merchant website started asking for tipping for your shopping.

Desperate times.

My rule, if you hand delivered stuff to me, either you already got paid via shipping fee or you'll get tipped.

Oldest form of gratitude, making it complicated should be duly and overtly shunned.

Yes. I always tip 15%, every time, for everything that has it as an option, even before COVID.

Maybe a more interesting question, especially for those that are tipping to support service workers through a tablet at the counter, is how much of that tip employees are even getting...

Yes. I tip and tip heavily in almost all circumstances. I consider myself very lucky to have a comfortable job that pays me very well. Tipping is one infinitesimally small way in which I can say thank you to folks who work in the service industry.

I’d encourage anyone who can afford it to do the same.

Pretty much always, I can afford it and hopefully it makes the lives of the workers better. Of course I would also like employers to pay a livable wage, but I can still tip and do whatever I can to help advance the cause of improving wages, they are not mutually exclusive.

I used to tip 20+ for dine in. Never tipped take out.

Now, I only dine at places with no tips.

I find tipping always works out