What things do you tip for?

Julee

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#1
When Rick moved here, he had NO idea that leaving tips for haircutters was a thing.

I tip waiters, haircutters, if my dogs needed professional grooming, I would tip for that as well. I tip Starbucks' workers. I would likely tip for petcare if I needed it, as well.

What things do you tip for?
 

Fran101

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#2
Anyone in the physical service industry that works personally with me really.

Pet groomer, hair stylist, waitress, movers, hotel staff, manicurist, guy at the grocery store that walks bags to my car, baby sitter, dog sitter, nanny, valet parker, bartender, housekeepers/room keepers, doorman, mover

I don't usually tip baristas or food take-out orders beyond what change goes in the tip jar.

some tips I believe are more priority than others, Waitresses of course get number one tipping priority since their wages are about $2/hr so tipping is basically their wages. Waitresses are my one thing, if I can't afford to tip my waitress, I don't eat out. period. Otherwise your waitress is basically paying for your meal. Not cool.

Hair stylists/pet groomers/manicurist come soon there after.

everything else is kind of just by ear.. some get tipped once around holidays, some not every time etc..
 

Southpaw

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#3
Groomer, waiters, and pizza deliveries are the only things I can think of that I use that require tipping.
 
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#4
Dog groomers, waitresses/bartenders, any food delivery, hair cutter/stylist.

I would also tip doormen, valets, movers, dog walker, etc, but I don't ever use those services lol.

At a restaurant/coffee place (or when I'm picking up food to go) where they're not actually serving you while you're seated, I'll round up the total on a credit card or put the change in a tip jar.
 
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#5
Essentially every one. I'm loose with the tips. Hell, if Fedex drivers wouldn't drop things at the barely visible side door and run without even ringing the bell I would tip them too. Hair stylist, baristas, servers, food delivery, the liquor store fellows, my tattoo artist, etc.
 

BostonBanker

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#6
Hairdressers, waiters/waitresses, motel housekeepers - everytime. I hit the coffee shop with a few dollars once or twice a week. I can't think of anything else I use that requires tipping. My life is pretty 'self-service'. Hotel/motel housekeepers are a big one to me. I can't believe how many people I room with who don't know that their pay is tip based like wait staff. Plus I usually have dogs, and I want those places to love dog owners!
 

JessLough

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#7
If somebody is providing me a service, they get tipped, basically.

Bartenders and waiters/waitresses get a guaranteed 20%, higher the better their service is. everybody else it would probably depend on their service, but those are really the only people i use, thinking about it. My life is fairly boring :p

Oh, I always throw my change in the jar at Starbucks.
 

frostfell

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#8
I agree with everything said-- if there is customer service being performed in any way, and it was good, they get a tip. Im always disgustingly nice to foodservice so if i get nasty attitude right off the bat, they clearly are bringing personal issues to the table and thats not my problem, and maybe they need to pick a different career. if I ever was to hire dogwalkers, petsitters, poopscoopers, they would get a tip too. i do not tip baristas, even though they are the most pushy about it as an industry, because they do MAYBE 15 seconds of work for me, and Im already paying $4 for the product i get. sloshing some milk into a canister and pushing 3 buttons does not warrant a tip *folds arms and glares*
 

*blackrose

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#9
I....tip people who bring me food. (Delivery people, waiters, etc.)

Now I feel like I've been slighting people my whole life. LOL I guess I view it as that unless tips are factored into someone's wage...they're already being paid to do their job. So, unless they go above and beyond the call of duty...doubt I'll add to that wage.

For example, I would tip my dog groomer if I had a dog that I knew was not going to be the easiest dog to groom, or if it was super stinky and reeked of skunk. (Which would probably be the only times I'd pay someone to deal with my dogs, as I do all of my own grooming.) But I wouldn't tip my groomer if my dog was brilliant and was an easy cut.

Idk. I'm just poor and am a miser. :p
 

Airn

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#10
I agree with everything said-- if there is customer service being performed in any way, and it was good, they get a tip. Im always disgustingly nice to foodservice so if i get nasty attitude right off the bat, they clearly are bringing personal issues to the table and thats not my problem, and maybe they need to pick a different career. if I ever was to hire dogwalkers, petsitters, poopscoopers, they would get a tip too. i do not tip baristas, even though they are the most pushy about it as an industry, because they do MAYBE 15 seconds of work for me, and Im already paying $4 for the product i get. sloshing some milk into a canister and pushing 3 buttons does not warrant a tip *folds arms and glares*
They do more work than waitress. Waitresses don't MAKE the food. And if it was just sloshing some milk into a canister, you wouldn't be paying $4 for it. They have to deal with people like you all day long. People who order **** they have no knowledge about, can't pronounce and generally just mess up the order. If you can't say Caramel Macchiato, that's fine. ASK. But don't order it and ask for more caramel syrup pumps. :wall:

I tip if I get food ordered to my door or if we go to a sit down restaurant. Or Sonic, which is a park fast food place, so they come out to your car. I'll also tip for hair cuts. A lot of places I would tip but they're not allowed to accept tips so thank you's will just have to do.
 
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#11
I do all the normal things mentioned, hairdresser/hairwasher, waitress, bartender etc.

Also though, postman, garbage man and UPS man, especially around Christmas but also if I've gotten a lot things lately or had a lot of garbage out. My dad is a mailman so I know how nice it is when people give him tips/gifts/baked goods at Christmas, just such a nice feeling.
 
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#14
I tip most service people, unless the service is abominable. It wasn't SO long ago that I can't remember what it was like to have those jobs and how much tips were appreciated and just a little extra could make or break a month.

In particular, at our "usual" hangouts my husband and I usually sit at the bar for dinner and we tip our regular bartenders fairly outrageously. But we also get stuff like... magically appearing open spots at the busy bar, or a free beer here and there. It also drives me crazy how many people don't tip housekeeping at hotels, so we probably overdo it there a bit, too. But we're at a point in our lives where we can do it without burdening ourselves.
 

Julee

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#15
I've only stayed in a hotel a handful of times in my life, I had NO idea you were supposed to tip! Will keep that in mind.
 

Fran101

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#16
They do more work than waitress. Waitresses don't MAKE the food. And if it was just sloshing some milk into a canister, you wouldn't be paying $4 for it. They have to deal with people like you all day long. People who order **** they have no knowledge about, can't pronounce and generally just mess up the order. If you can't say Caramel Macchiato, that's fine. ASK. But don't order it and ask for more caramel syrup pumps. :wall:
.
As someone who has worked in both a busy starbucks and as a waitress.
I've gotta disagree.

First off, baristas make minimum wage. So right off the bat, they are CERTAINLY not as dependent on tips as waitresses.

Baristas are standing or walking 4-10 feet from somewhere (especially when it comes to places like starbucks, they aren't even bringing it to you). They are not carrying heavy trays running to/from the kitchen, refilling drinks, checking up on customers, opening up, cleaning up afterwards, bussing tables, running between tables etc.. so just physically, more demanding. Baristas stand, they walk down the counter, they go to the back, they re-stock.. but it's hardly the blood sport in physical endurance that is waitressing.
Even in the middle of Boston, during the weekday rush.. being a barista was 900% easier than waitressing in city conditions.

"I'd like a umm.. what's it called.. caramel thing..I'm not sure what I want or what's it's called" "please look over the menu above, NEXT CUSTOMER!" annoying. but brief, they maybe you won't get tipped from that guy but there are 100 other people in line.
"Umm.. I'd like a thingy..a coke thingy.." run to kitchen, run back, "ok here's your coke!" "just kidding what I wanted was pepsi" "ok I'll go get that for you!" "I don't want pepsi anymore I want a root beer float..WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DONT HAVE THOSE??.. ugh fine I'll have a cherry coke. Now, come back in 30 minutes when I'm done looking over the menu, I don't know what I want..what's in the pasta? is it gluten free?"
you can't ask them to leave, you can't give attitude, you can't do ANYTHING other than deal with them. for a WHILE. They don't tip you? You've served 50 people that night, one table not leaving you anything is a huge problem.

they have to deal with people all day long. Yes, as do waitresses, except FOR LONGER. They get to deal with people's BS for hours. Mispronouncing things, miscommunications, bad attitudes, blaming you for everything from too much ice to a kitchen error. You get to deal with people, more than one table at the same time, for longer.. and then wait around til they leave to see if they tipped you or how much.
got a bad customer? It'll be over in about 4 times.
got a bad table? enjoy the next 2-4 hours of your life with them up your ass all while checking up on them every 15 minutes and making sure their needs are met.

They make the food. True.. but waitresses very often make coffee and frankly the work of making something at starbucks (from someone who worked there) is nothing compared to running around fetching food to/from, taking orders, delivering orders to the kitchen, bringing drinks, filling drinks, keeping an eye on 10 tables at a time.
I'd make 100 complicated drink orders and skim and foam and pump before I'd EVER want to deal with the joys of dealing with kitchens and people ordering food.

I'm not trying to paint either as being easy, both are in customer service so both generally blow.
That said, when it comes to just about every way.. from hours, to physical labor, to dealing with customers, to mental exhaustion..
waitressing is the much more difficult of the two.
It made me more money in the longer run (hours were much longer for one thing).. but the physical and mental toll was certainly higher.

My biggest annoyance as a barista was people who didn't know what they wanted or didn't put down their phones to talk to me. Or people just being short and grumpy in the morning.

My biggest annoyance as a waitress was losing my sanity and my feet having blisters and barely scraping by because one huge table didn't think tipping was necessary that night and I spent all night with them or people dined & dashed or the kitchen being slow and me getting blamed for it and making a total of $22 for 12 hours of WORK because the kitchen was slow and people blamed me.
 
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#17
I am trying to figure out why one would tip a barista and not your general fast food employee? They are not really serving you, they fulfill your order that you wait in line to place and then you walk up to get it and they are paid for their time. A big order, or a really specialty type thing I could see tipping a bit, but in general, I dont get it. I worked at a pizza place (that was both sit down and delivery) for years. I NEVER expected a tip for making the food and checking the person out. The only time I thought people should consider tipping us was when they had huge soccer parties for the kids in the restaurant and left a huge mess for us to clean. Otherwise, I was already paid by the company to do my job.

Waitressing is different. Stylists and manicurists are different as you are working directly with them and usually building a rapport.
 

Lyzelle

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#18
What Fran said. I get paid $2.15/h to learn a computer program, use it correctly, know how EVERYTHING on the menu is made, what it comes with, and possible subs. I have to know around 100 different beers off the top of my head, how they taste, what they taste best with, if they are ales, lagers, or wheat beers. Every cocktail known to man, how to garnish it, and how to suggest it to someone wanting something sweet, or not sweet, strong or weak, fruity or nutty. I run food, deal with the kitchen messing up orders, then get no tip because of it. People want to come in, ask for water, ask for a million lemons, use up all the sugar on the table, then get mad when I charge them for lemonade. I make the teas, the coffees, move the GIANT KEGS for the bartenders. I deal with the bad attitudes, the penny pinchers, the ones who get super drunk and either violent, inappropriate, or start vomiting everywhere. I clean up that vomit. I bus my own tables, clean my own dishes. The floors get cleaned by me. The store gets opened and closed, by me.

And I get paid $2.15 an hour for it. And I'll be there, doing all of that at least once or twice an hour, for 10 hours straight. Or more. Depends on how busy we are. I don't get a break, either. And on a good night, my sales can easily run over a thousand dollars....I might walk away with about $50.
 

Beanie

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#20
I didn't know 'barista' was only for a person working at Starbucks.
I thought it referred to, say, the guy who hauls a tray of thirty drinks and my basket of bacon along with my artichoke dip which I will eat with my bacon to the back of the bar for me and my friends too.
He gets tipped well. We like him. He also gives fashion advice.
 

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