I tried “curbside pickup” at Walmart today.

[Packard]

My back has been so painful lately that I am hard-pressed to finish my food shopping in one trip to the supermarket. Too much walking.

I tried Walmart’s curbside pickup instead. Not surprisingly, Walmart has mastered the learning curve on this. I don’t know what I expected, but this was too easy. They use the app and text messages to hold your hand through the entire process.

Their prices are significantly lower than the local supermarket. My weekly shopping comes to about $60.00 (one person).

I gave the guy who brought the purchase from the store to my car a tip of $5.00, which ate up about half of the cost savings.

What I don’t know is if he shares that with the guy who pulled the order (or if he was that guy). The Google A.I. guy says about 10% to 15% of the total order.

If he does not share with the guy who pulled the groceries, then a $5.00 tip seems OK for rolling it out to the parking lot.

Any thoughts?

 

[Crazyraceguy]

I am not a fan of percentage-based tipping.....ever.
There is not necessarily a correlation between the cost of goods and the work involved in serving/delivering that product, so why is the tip structured that way?
Would you tip more for a person to carry a $1000 laptop, in one hand or several bags of groceries, and a couple for cases of water, etc.... at 1/10th the cost?

 

[luvmytoolz]

Luckily we're not a tipping culture here in Oz, pretty rare you see a tip as a line item on a bill, although some cafes do have a tip jar for loose change near the register.

Just doesn't make sense to go someplace to pay for a product that includes the total associated costs, and then it's expected you'll also pay on top of that the staff's wages instead of their employer?

 

[Packard]

I am not a fan of percentage-based tipping.....ever.
There is not necessarily a correlation between the cost of goods and the work involved in serving/delivering that product, so why is the tip structured that way?
Would you tip more for a person to carry a $1000 laptop, in one hand or several bags of groceries, and a couple for cases of water, etc.... at 1/10th the cost?

I agree. I think $5.00 is a bit much if all he did was to roll the cart out to my car. At that rate he could earn tips on 10 to 12 trips an hour. Assuming he got a salary of $15.00 per hour, he could net up to $75.00 per hour. High for that type of work. If he also pulled the merchandise, then $5.00 might be fair or low.

The problem is that I don’t have enough data.

 

[usernumber1]

why do you, as a customer, need any data to tip someone else's employees?

 

[peter halle]

I had a tipping conversation with the Mrs. just the other day. Lowes has various tiers of customers based on expenditures and I now fall into one where free delivery is an option. I was putting up the pre lit Christmas tree in the kitchen (thankfully a smaller one) and of course, sometime between the unplugging in February to the plugging in now, the tree lights decided to piss me off and night light. A number of years ago I switched away from the cheap led lights and went for a Sylvania set that actually had two strings attached to each other and the ability to add two more. I loved the way they worked outside until in year one the squirrels decided to eat the wire, taking out part of a set. Year two had two sections eaten, repaired and then eaten again. I had already ordered spares (same SKU number for 4 years now!). So, since I won't be feeding the squirrels and lights this year (slow, yet eventual learner) I have some spare parts for repairs.

Anyway, I ordered some lights and in order to get quicker delivery I decided to pay the fee. When the driver arrived in a personal Cadillac, I actually met him at the car door and took delivery. My wife asked if I had tipped him. I said no. He didn't do anything that I was aware of that indicated going out of the norm for his job. He is paid to deliver and deliver he did. Now if he had stopped along the way to rescue a baby deer or something similar I might have reconsidered.

I am not cheap. I actually do tip well when I tip. But the entire "you customer, please tip our employee so that we can pay them less" approach to business is against my principles.

Peter

 

[Packard]

why do you, as a customer, need any data to tip someone else's employees?

Because I don’t know who put in the majority of the work. Did the guy who rolled out the merchandise also pull it from the shelves? Then he deserves a decent tip.

Did he do nothing more that deliver the bags to my car? Less of a tip.

Did he share it with the guy who pulled the stock? Full tip.

That data.

Addendum:

Tipping in general is getting out of hand. For most of my life, if I got a container of coffee to go at a delicatessen, no tip. But if I do the same at Starbucks they expect a tip.

Some tasks historically did not call for tips. Nowadays, everything seems to call for a tip. I am suddenly glad that I have to pump my own gas.

 

[rmhinden]

Regarding tipping, I only tip if I get some service. If I order at a counter and pick up the food/coffee/etc. myself I don't tip. If I sit at a table and order, and they bring me the food, I tip.

I sometime tip if I order at a counter and they later bring the food to my table, but probably less than a full service place.

Bob

 

[luvmytoolz]

Tipping in general is getting out of hand. For most of my life, if I got a container of coffee to go at a delicatessen, no tip. But if I do the same at Starbucks they expect a tip.

Assuming the Starbucks in the States have the same ridiculously high priced coffees as their very short lived stores here in Oz, they also want you to tip on top?

 

[Packard]

Assuming the Starbucks in the States have the same ridiculously high priced coffees as their very short lived stores here in Oz, they also want you to tip on top?

Big tip jars awaiting your deposit at the counter, typically at each register and also at the pickup location. But if you pay with the app or with the Starbucks card, tipping is not convenient at all. My suspicion is that Starbucks is happy when you leave a cash tip, but they would rather not be involved with handling the money on their card or app.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

Because I don’t know who put in the majority of the work. Did the guy who rolled out the merchandise also pull it from the shelves? Then he deserves a decent tip.

Did he do nothing more that deliver the bags to my car? Less of a tip.

Did he share it with the guy who pulled the stock? Full tip.



Some tasks historically did not call for tips. Nowadays, everything seems to call for a tip. I am suddenly glad that I have to pump my own gas.

The idea of tipping still existing today is that those people are getting a much lower, legally accepted, tipped wage. All of those "other" people (pickers, bus boys, dishwashers, etc.) are not paid that way. They are part of the normal hourly wage group. Sharing with them is inherently unfair.
Why should a person that makes less than $5/hr share with one who makes $15 or more?
It used to be that they only people who got tips were legitimate service workers, wait staff, bell boys, pizza drivers, etc
Way back in the day my now ex-wife worked at national chain sit down type restaurant, where there was a specific "no tipping" policy. It even went so far as to post a sign saying so. It hasn't always been this way.
Although I don't visit them often, they even expect tips in buffet places now. Ah, nope.

 

[peter halle]

My wife was a waitress for a few years after we met. One stint was at a seafood restaurant that might have been considered three stars in the early 1990's. Typical entrees were in the 12 to 15 dollar range with drinks (alcoholic) being 3 to 4. One night she only had three tables but one was a group of 5 contracting firm owners who came in once a month. She got that table. She played up to them and at the onset they did the same. They told her that if she took care of them they would tip equal to their tab. My wife made sure that they were taken care of to the extreme. A LOT of recommendations for menu items and drinks. They were true to their word and AFTER taking care of all the staff who helped, including the chefs, the bartender, the busboy, and the dishwashers (she didn't need to split with them) she came home with just over $600 from that table. She will always tip proportionately in a restaurant based on whether or not the waitstaff goes out of their way to make the meal more than just a meal. Just go thru the motions and be more interested in your phone and you will not be rewarded as well as if you really give a ...

 

[Packard]

I was a bouncer in a nightclub in the 1970s. There was a small bar, but table service was the bulk of the business.

There was a service bar for the wait-staff. The waitresses were supposed to share their tips with the bartender.

Every time we were very busy, one of the waitresses would cry that she dropped a $20.00 bill somewhere and make everybody look on the floor for the “lost” bill.

It got so I could predict, “Jennifer is going to lose a twenty tonight”, and she would. Instead of keeping twenty at the end of the night and giving the bartender his twenty, she’d give him the $5.00 that he would earn on a slow night.”

She was very pretty and she kept getting away with it, but it pissed me off.

In any case, I’m very much aware of the need to tip appropriately.

 

[usernumber1]

I still don't get it. The "service" is not tipped in all industries, and I don't know why a customer should pick up any wage differences to begin with.

some examples I always wonder why they don't get tips and they provide much more servicing. dental hygienist, nurses, health care in general, grocery store staff, mailman, butcher, parking attendant, deliveries -not food, , etc.
even offensive to give a tip to some professionals - doctors, police, fire. I don't think a bank teller would be happy with a tip or your mortgage broker or a notary or the main desk receptionists

not a new discussion it's always the same guilt driven percent based but it should be a gratuity only historically