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Comment by JohnFen | Hacker News Reader

Nope, I'm never going to tip for takeout.

The only place I might tip for takeout is a local cafe/diner, which has a tip jar labeled "For the Cooks." It sits at the end of the counter between the cooks and customers. Depending on the cook, I might tip for takeout. (If I dine-in, I might tip the cooks, too; as well as the server.)

Keep in mind that at least in a lot of places, the servers are the ones packaging your food. Those are the people who depend on tips and while they're putting your food in containers they aren't serving tables, so they are likely missing out on tips there.

So you mean they're doing their job?

Check out my other comments here. I'm very aware of this. But on the other hand, a line has to be drawn somewhere.

What about the people working in the kitchen or the cleaning staff? They usually don't get tips, but do they get better loans than servers?

They should definitely raise that with management, and it should be appropriately compensated.

See what I did there? I correctly made it a problem between the staff and management, rather than making it the customer's problem. This is actually the answer to all tipping/under-compensation problems.

At the macro level, I'm not advocating for tips at all. I think it's a bad system.

But the reality is a lot of people rely on those jobs and have very little bargaining power as individuals. Most don't have the luxury of refusing a job, unlike the highly in demand people here. I don't think it's my place to deny those people income they depend on out of a principal. It'll hurt the little guy and make very little if any difference to the big companies.

If you asked just about any waiter if they would forego the tip system + reduced minimum wage for straight minimum wage, they will tell you no, because they'd make less money.

If a waiter can only make minimum wage then perhaps their labor would be more productive elsewhere. I've never felt like the job of picking up a plate from the kitchen and putting it on a table was all that useful, but I also get that there's more going on in a restaurant; making proles perform for money obviously confers some status on the payer.

Then they should demand higher wages. And if that's too high a cost for the restaurant - they should raise their prices or close their business. Tipping does not make sense, and makes even less sense for takeout.

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