I got into this argument with a friend and neither us knew the social standard so I am curious about other people's perspectives?
Depends. Lot of our take outs use taxis. Those I always tip.
Take out means you go there yourself to pick up? Then No. If someone comes to you then yes..
I do if it's a waitress that has to deal with it
Normally no, but if it's a waitress, yes. Host/hostess, no.
A place that does mostly take out business,usually has a cashier. I don't tip them. Unless it's an ice cream place, and then I throw change or a buck in the jar, but the person ringing you up just scooped for you. In hindsight, it all seems kind of random. Do you tip Starbucks? I swipe a Starbucks gift card, so I don't know how to tip, and don't. Maybe I should.
Not usually unless they go above and beyond or are working like a navvy.
But I'm a Brit and still haven't got all of the tipping situations sorted out.
When we went back to the UK 10 years ago, after only a year or so here, I found it really hard to tip British levels and left a large bill whoch all my relatives kept trying to get me to take back because it was a very large tip by UK standards :lol:
If I'm picking it up I don't feel obligated to tip. And I'm a tipping fool. I tip the drve thru peeps because I had a friend who moonlighted at a drive thru and she might end up with some change and since they're running around for you I almost always leave the 'silver' and a buck more. If I didn't want to pay for the convenience I could just go to speedway.
For the uninitiated i mean beer/beverage/cigs/lot tickets drive thru. I don't tip mcdonalds.
I worked many 'party bars' at events at the country club and such and the unwritten rule was: if it is a cash bar you can put out a tip jar (or glass) but if it was open bar that's tacky. But we wouldn't refuse an offered tip.