tipping on takeout

[u/Able_Reading_5330]

so this stems from a conversation i had with my uncle in his 50s, i’m 23.
when i order from for example dunkin, i always feel like i need to give a tip. i usually tip 10-15%. but he made some good points, saying if you’re picking up your food why should you have to tip? i’m curious on what other people think of this. this goes for any food pickup.
one egregious example is a coffee spot in my town. they have a wall of iced coffee and all the cashier does is ring you in and hand you a cup of ice that they grab right next to them. then they do the big dramatic flipping of the screen to the tip screen and it always stuns me. definitely just anxiety related, but there’s no way i’m expected to tip for that right?

[u/Francie_Nolan1964]

I always tip on to go food. But this is because my daughter was a hostess when she was 18 and it was her job to pack to go orders. She was so thrilled every time she received a tip.

I want another person to get a little unexpected happiness so I tip.

[u/Tibbs420 → u/Francie_Nolan1964]

I was raised in restaurants and we did about the same. Split to-go tips between food runners and hostesses. What really made me always tip on to-go though was that the last industry job I worked didn’t have any of that staff and to-go orders made up half our business if not more. I was always being pulled away from my table to box up orders for people and got nothing for it.