This is how to tip other services like a pharmacy, grocery store, or others in similar, low paid jobs. For those who don't know, in the USA, service staff like waitresses are not covered under minimum or much less, a living wage. Tips are a significant part of their income and paid in cash has always avoided 'tax issues.' I use "hot donuts." A member of a donut club (Krispy Kreme,) I can't eat them but I get notices about discounts and special events. So this is how I thanked the staff who solved a medical appointment problem: I bought a fresh, hot dozen and drove to the employee entrance when they were about to open. Someone went to go in and I announced,"Hold the door, I have a delivery." So with the note attached to the box of donuts, everyone that wanted one got a hot, sugary treat on a cold morning and no one argued about splitting a cash tip. Bob Wilson
The Ford Bronco II that I once had was a small SUV built on the Ranger pickup frame, with a 5-speed manual transmission built by Mazda and probably more suitable for a passenger car. After any significant trip pulling GF's sailboat, I would end up replacing the bearings in the transmission. There was a local transmission shop I went to the first time, just to crack the thing open (it was very stubborn that first time) and clean the parts. I would then come and pick up the box of parts, and do the overhaul and reassembly on my own. They never charged me for that, so a big box of hot donuts from the local bakery was how I compensated them every time.
i generally leave 20-25% at restaurants, depending on food cost and service. i hate the places where they give you a device with the recommended tip amounts and stand there waiting for it, or even before you eat at places where you order at the counter or online.
I do not eat Krispy Kremes, so I absolutely do not tip with them. I was not actually BORN in the South - a fact that I'm reminded of daily, but that does not mean that I cannot enjoy the benefits of living in a town that still has honest-to-goodness BAKERIES (plural!) instead of what I call, without the least bit of affection, 'doughnut stores.' I've worked for tips before, and so I know what I know. When I was living in Charleston I delivered pizzas in an area that featured a golf resort and older single family detached dwellings on the same barrier island. The latter has now mostly been scrubbed away by hurricanes or high insurance costs in the last 40 years but I remember that the people who tipped the best were people who, like myself, once worked for tips. I give cash, and when I'm in a group I always tip in cash even when the table pays with a card. I do not use pharmacies and I check out and bag my groceries for now - so I guess I'm deprived of the opportunity to tip in those cases.....
Pharmacists are usually the highest paid workers in the store (or on the block, for that matter.) DECA stores (military Commissaries) have baggers who work for tips only. It used to be a very lucrative job for the young'uns or older people on a fixed income. HOWEVER (comma!) Self checkout lanes have appeared in many of these stores and the remaining baggers spend more time waiting for somebody to serve than they do bagging and bustling. Whenever I go there, I self-bag - because I like to do so but I also walk up to the baggers and give them $5. The conversation usually goes like this: "What's this for?" "Bagging, of course." "But we didn't bag your groceries." "Would you have bagged them without a tip?" "Of course!" "Well then I have the right to tip you without you bagging anything." ------- I'm old and I'm a military retiree. AND....I've worked for tips.
