Do drive-thru clerks expect tips now?

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Originally Posted by Totally bored

I just had a thought:

Next time you go to a Sonic , pretend you went to a place that has $5 hamburgers instead of $3 Hamburgers and throw the po girl a $2 tip.

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I guess I should also pretend she came to my table, took my drink order, brought me my drink, took my food order, brought me my food, came back to see if the food was okay and if I needed anything else, refilled my drink, brought me the check, took my money, and brought me my change.

That's what a waiter/waitress does. That's why they deserve a tip. I'm afraid I can't stretch my imagination enough to pretend the chick who opens a window and hands me my food is a waitress. And why would I give someone extra money if I have to pretend they deserve it?

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Originally Posted by Totally bored

I must be amongst a minority because most people are very grateful for a tip so I'm thinking many of use people don't tip.

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:eyes

TB, it's not that many of us don't tip. It's that most of us only tip where it's traditional and makes sense to tip. Like I've already said twice: I'm a good tipper when it makes sense to tip. But like most of us, I don't think it makes sense to tip somebody for sticking his or her arm out a window.

I nominate Fripperton's post #37 as "Post of the Day"

I live by two rules:

1) Don't go into places in nature where you are not at the top of the food chain.

2) Don't piss off the people who handle your food.

So OA, does that mean you regularly tip the person at the drive-thru window?

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Originally Posted by elicross

So OA, does that mean you regularly tip the person at the drive-thru window?

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I haven't ordered from a drive-through in years. Mostly because they serve garbage that's bad for you and second because my personal gas-hog is too big to make the corners at a lot of drive-through windows. The only drive-up restaurants I go to are the ones that will serve you on the boat and yes, I tip the bikini girls well. I take that back - there is a privately owned coffee shop near me I stop by sometimes that has a drive-through I can negotiate. I always tell the gals to keep the change or throw them a buck as appropriate. What the big deal? They are standing there all day with the snow coming in on them for not much money.

There are a few restaurants that I can call and they will send someone out to the car with a care package if I ask, and again, in those cases, I tip since the server is going above and beyond to go outside and hand me my food.

There's a Thai resturant I'll go into and pick up and order, and I tip the even for the takeout, because when I bring in folks for a sit-down meal they will do anything I ask of them - to the point of going to the market to get ingredients for a special request.

With restaurants, you need to look at the long-term relationship you establish with them as a patron. You can wait in line with the hit-and-run customers, or your table can always be ready.

Semi-off topic but a couple of weeks ago on my anniversary the singer in one of my bands gave me this advice:

"Take her someplace where she doesn't have to look up to see the menu."

So that's a no from OA -- he doesn't tip the drive-thru clerks at the major fast-food joints because he doesn't go to them.

So far, we've got several people who seem to advocate tipping the drive-thru girl, and just one, TB, who actually does. And he apparently tips people on the sidewalk for not bumping into him. :laughing:

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Originally Posted by elicross

So that's a no from OA -- he doesn't tip the drive-thru clerks at the major fast-food joints because he doesn't go to them.

So far, we've got several people who seem to advocate tipping the drive-thru girl, and just one, TB, who actually does. And he apparently tips people on the sidewalk for not bumping into him. :laughing:

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I dont go to drive throughs either.

I tip any place that serves good food and has a good staff. Quiznos is my numero uno place and everyone there knows me and hooks me up on my turkey subs.

And my point about hourly workers getting paid less than minimum wage still stands. Maybe sonic does not register their workers as tipped workers but my point was not specific to sonic.

its that if your boss gives you less than min. wage because you can be tipped you absolutely should expect a tip. maybe you dont but I still consider waitresses and waiters to be hourly workers (as are factory workers and temps).

I dont really care about things like "deserve" anyway since I dont think anyone deserves jack shit, I only care about how I would want people to treat me.

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Originally Posted by redb

I dont go to drive throughs either. also sonic is not a drive through.

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Wrong.

I said multiple times that this happened AT THE SONIC DRIVE-THROUGH WINDOW. Every Sonic I've been to in the past 15 years -- at least -- has had a drive-through that works exactly like the drive-throughs at McDonald's and every other major fast food joint.

Maybe the fact that you don't go to drive throughs is the reason you got that wrong. That and the fact that you apparently don't read posts very closely. :laughing:

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And my point about hourly workers getting paid less than minimum wage still stands. Maybe sonic does not register their workers as tipped workers but my point was not specific to sonic.

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It's also a purely hypothetical point and has nothing to do with what we're talking about -- unless you can point to one major fast food chain that pays its drive-through clerks less because they're expected to collect tips.

Sorry, but I've got to put you down for a no, just like OA: You don't go through drive-throughs, so of course you don't tip people at drive-throughs. No credit for what you say you would do if you did go through a drive-through. :D

And that still leaves us with just one dude who actually does it.

Here's my point: I posted my experience at the Sonic drive-through window to ask if it had happened to anyone else, and if clerks at drive-through windows now expect to be tipped.

Most people replied with some variation on "No, drive-through clerks don't get tips."

But a few called the rest of us cheap and/or defended the idea of tipping in general and/or implied that anyone who's against tipping the kid at the drive-through window is against tipping anyone at any time.

And, when pressed, it's turned out that only one of those people can actually say he goes to drive-throughs and tips there. Everybody else is apparently just arguing for the fun of arguing. Which gets back to my earlier point: On the Internet, absolutely *anything* can become an argument!

(Not that I'd ever argue against he fun of a good argument. :D)

In the restaurant world, there is a definitely an adjusmtent to the normal labor laws regarding minimum hourly wage to account for tips. It goes as far as special income charts that presume a restarant worker is actually getting a certain amount of tips bsed on how how much is on their w-2.

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Originally Posted by elicross

Wrong.

I said multiple times that this happened AT THE SONIC DRIVE-THROUGH WINDOW. Every Sonic I've been to in the past 15 years -- at least -- has had a drive-through that works exactly like the drive-throughs at McDonald's and every other major fast food joint.

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What.

Mine has no such thing, just pull ins and a sitting area. Its not that old either. The one I went to back when I lived in texas didnt have one either.

Youre right, my second post was eroneous but I didnt realize that there was even a drive through option at sonic. Out of curiosity, why do they even have that when you can just go park and turn off your car?

Also our whole argument on the matter of deserving tips was not based on your original post but the one you made about you working specific jobs. You say its hypothetical and irrelevant, yet you were the one that brought up this whole matter of deserving and/or expecting a tip. I will not back track on that one.

I shall ammend my second post then.

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Originally Posted by redb

Out of curiosity, why do they even have that when you can just go park and turn off your car?

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Presumably it's because it's faster than parking, if you're not planning on staying there and eating in your car -- and it's easier to hand food out a window than to carry it on a tray to a car, then collect the empty trays.

At any rate, I mentioned that this happened at the drive-through in my first post. It's in the subject line of the entire thread. And I used some form of "drive-through window" in almost every post after that -- about 15 times -- before you made your post telling me Sonic doesn't have a drive-through window. I even underlined it in my second or third post! :laughing:

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Also our whole argument on the matter of deserving tips was not based on your original post but the one you made about you working specific jobs. You say its hypothetical and irrelevant, yet you were the one that brought up this whole matter of deserving and/or expecting a tip. I will not back track on that one.

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I'm not 100 percent sure what you're saying here, but I only started talking about which jobs I think deserve a tip after people started suggesting those of us who don't tip at the drive-through window are somehow mean or cheap.

I think people's natural tendency to argue on the Internet led to the discussion trying to turn into a generalized debate over whether anyone ever deserves a tip -- but that's irrelevant to the thread, because no here has said they don't *ever* tip under any circumstances. That's a completely different argument...and a straw man, really.

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Originally Posted by elicross

At any rate, I mentioned that this happened at the drive-through in my first post. It's in the subject line of the entire thread. And I used some form of "drive-through window" in almost every post after that -- about 15 times -- before you made your post telling me Sonic doesn't have a drive-through window. I even underlined it in my second or third post! :laughing:

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yes and Ive now already mentioned that I was responding to your second post. where I was wrong, I corrected myself.

you can either accept my admission of failing to read your original post carefully enough or not, it doesnt matter much to me.

additionally, I came into this topic quite late, after you had already made the post in question, which I happened to quote. sorry for assuming the thread had moved on on your volition. Im not exactly sure what you are trying to accuse me of doing, I was talking to one of your points, if you didnt want any discussion on entitlement then you shouldnt have posted about it. to expect me to apologize to you for that is silly.

Oh, come on. I don't expect an apology any more than I expect a tip!

And nobody's accusing you of anything. I corrected you on one point -- and, yeah, I gave you a hard time for "correcting" me when it looked like you hadn't read anything I'd written. You said you got it wrong because your Sonic doesn't have a drive-through, so I couldn't help pointing out that I'd already said a dozen times that this happened at a drive-through. Kind of annoying, that...but if you think I'm pissed off or otherwise upset, you must've missed the :laughing:, too.

This is an Internet message board discussion. Let's keep some perspective here. :D

Redb has a talent.

He can piss off both sides of the aisle!
:D

Back on topic.
Our Sonic's has the roller girls and the drive through.
I tip the gals on roller skates, I don't tip at the window.

And their burgers stink!

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Originally Posted by Cygnus X1

And their burgers stink!

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Ill drink to that

I've lived in this town since 30 December 1984. It has a Sonic. I think I've eaten there twice......

Their burgers really are pretty poor. But I like me a chili dog every once in a great while, and that's a hard thing to mess up. :D

I'd rather have one from a local place called Skin Thrasher's, but Sonic's just around the corner from my house, and Skin's doesn't have a drive-through. I've never parked at my local Sonic, but I don't think my local one has girls on skates. Just girls on Nikes. If I parked and they brought me my food -- skates or not -- I'd tip. :laughing:

ellicross - if you read my post you'll see that I said I DO tip the girls at the driver-thru.