How Much Do you Tip for Takeout Food?

How Much Tip for Takeout (if anything)?

A while back, I asked readers the question, “how much do you tip for food delivery?“. It inspired an interesting, and somewhat heated debate! The differences in opinion in that debate highlight the ambiguity around tipping in the U.S., particularly in the restaurant industry. There seems to be no defined standard for anything.




Well, I have a related confession to make. Until recently (and maybe this is just me being completely clueless on my part), I didn’t realize that some people make it common practice to tip on takeout, or carryout orders that you pick up yourself. Wow! Who knew? Obviously, not me. But am I alone on this one? I don’t think so.

Do you Tip for Carry-Out what you Normally Tip at a Restaurant?

how much do you tip for takeout

For a sit-down meal with waiting service, I usually stick to 15% tip, but go up to 20% if the service is good and I like the waitstaff. I go down to 10% if I get crappy service or feel like I have been disrespected. And I’m afraid I have no idea what, if anything, is customary in the United States to tip for takeout food?

I think my whole thought process was that I pay around 15-20% for sit-down meals because of all of the added service that the waitstaff adds to the meal. I didn’t realize until recently that some waitstaff in sit-down restaurants that manage the register actually make the same low waiting wages and rely on takeout order tips to make a fair wage. And to be honest, I have no idea how rare or common this is in the restaurant industry.

So, I have two questions for the readers:

  1. Do you tip for takeout?

  2. How much do you tip for takeout?

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