Do you tip for curbside pickup?

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

My trunk door swings outward, not up, so I wait until the person is coming and get out to open it. I could see someone driving through the parking lot taking it off if I just left it open while I waited.

I think Petsmart and any other company understands not all trunks are the same so yes if you need to get out to open it you would do it. It's implicitly understood if your vehicle has whatever that you as the car owner do whatever (like a special tailgate, trunk, etc) the intent is still the same regarding curbside. If I were you I would probably not use curbside pickup for Petsmart or any other place where you'd be parking at the curb with your trunk door especially if it swung towards traffic but that's just me.

Some of the Walmart curbside pick ups are drive-thrus in my area, most however look like the area where semi-trucks go to warehouse style. Petsmart around me the locations you pull up to the curb itself, other places have assigned spots in the parking lot.

Regardless of the talk about specific trunk styles that portion of my comment was towards the scoffing part of the comment in relation to helping.

 

[Karin1984]

I always find it interesting when people explain their rationale for who they do or don’t tip. You know that everybody on your “does get a tip” list is just doing the job they’re paid to do, right?

And that is my exact confusion with tipping your barber / hairdresser, porter, valet, handyman and everyone else you can tip.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

And that is my exact confusion with tipping your barber / hairdresser, porter, valet, handyman and everyone else you can tip.

There's cultural and societal norms at play.

The pandemic just took what was once not really prevalent (curbside pick up) to something that was necessary in many places. I remember ordering in April 2020 from JoAnn's and they had the entire store closed off no one was allowed to shop inside (not a city ordnance just what they decided to do) so the only way to get something was to ship it to home or do curbside.

Some companies had curbside like Walmart (which is what the OP's story started as) and others adopted it and smoothed out their process for it as time went on (like Home Depot who at first in my area had a curbside sign that was being held up by one of their buckets with concrete in it lol).

So in the world of societal norms surrounding tipping it's got some people suddenly wondering should they start tipping these people who bring their orders out to their car. If you look around though at enough stories people would realize that by doing that with curbside they aren't doing as good of a thing as they think, they are short-changing other workers who are doing things in the background to get your order. Companies are efficient vast majority of the time and rarely would 1 person just be doing the start to finish work.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

in the US supermarkets have people at the register putting the groceries in bags for you.

The cashier does that majority of the time these days. To have a separate bagger is much rarer. It's been years since stores around me had this. I remember there being a worker that would bag back when paper bags much very common but not in a long while

Do you tip these employees?

You wouldn't nowadays just by the act of a person bagging up your groceries, but there was more of an older thing where a bagger could, depending on the grocery store, bring your groceries to your car and in those cases tipping was more common. These days with shopping carts you'd be less likely to see that as your bags just go into the shopping cart and you wheel that out to the parking lot.

 

[Moliphino]

And that is my exact confusion with tipping your barber / hairdresser, porter, valet, handyman and everyone else you can tip.

I don't understand it, either. The hairdresser I've gone to lately owns the salon and sets her own prices, why does there need to be a tip on top of that? I do tip her, but it seems stupid.

 

[tobikaye]

I always find it interesting when people explain their rationale for who they do or don’t tip. You know that everybody on your “does get a tip” list is just doing the job they’re paid to do, right?

Yes and I really wish that the US was like many other countries and did not have tipping as a norm because it has gotten quite out of control on when/who/why. Granted, it means business would need to really start paying living wages. I basically will tip if I get a tip line or section of an app. I rarely have cash so if I cannot do the tip on the app or slip if I actually pay in person, there is no tip. It used to be so much simpler. I know earlier I mentioned quick service and I was thinking places where you go to the counter to order and they bring the food to you not fast food. I maybe eat fast food once or twice a month, especially since I work more from home now. Many of these type of places I go do not have drive thru and have tip jars inside or on the card slips.

 

[dez1978]

Why wouldn't one tip these people. They have to pick out your items, scan them, pack them in bags, and cart them out to your car and you probably don't get out to help them even put them in your car. Minimum wage slaves so you don't have to flex a muscle and do it yourself. I have gone through this entire Pandemic and have always done my own shopping. Not for any reason other then I want to see what I'm buying before I buy it, especially if it is food. In the beginning I wasn't vaccinated and was first in line when it came out and just a couple of weeks ago I had my regular yearly flu shot and my third Covid shot. I don't want to feel like I own a bunch of underpaid people to do my stuff for me.

Because it could get them fired??? Seems like a pretty good reason to me. Idk why you have to bring slaves and owing people into this. good grief.

Also the person who'd bring your stuff to your car that you'd give money to isn't the one who got the stuff from the shelves, scanned and bagged it. It's just the person who rolled the cart out to you.

For what it's worth, I think they should be able to accept tips, and I have only recently used this service because none of the stores, even our Walmart, offer this in our town.

 

[dez1978]

Have you been to Walmart? They have people who go through the store and pick up the items, then you have people who bag them then ones that go put it in your car. Then you have curbside for in store pick up like when you order something and have it sent to the store, Walmart has shifted to most of those being fulfilled by curbside.

You aren't supposed to get out of your car. That's the entire premise of curbside, like literally the entire point. Some people seem to not understand what curbside is. This isn't decades ago where a bagger at your mom and pop grocery store helps bring your groceries out to your car.

When I order from Petsmart the directions even say pop your trunk for curbside.

I always get out and help put the stuff in my car. 1 because it feels wrong and lazy to sit there and let some minimum wage worker do that while I play on my phone and 2, I like to be sure my bread and fruit doesn't get crushed in the bottom of the trunk under the soda, which has happened.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I basically will tip if I get a tip line or section of an app. I rarely have cash so if I cannot do the tip on the app or slip if I actually pay in person, there is no tip.

Petsmart partners with DoorDash for same day delivery but when they started this for months and months they didn't have any way to tip the DoorDasher. The orders were designed to be contactless (and they would send you text messages to alert you of such because of covid) and often I wouldn't even be home when the delivery would come (they would give you a several hour window when delivery was to be expected and then sometimes I would receive a text when the driver was getting close, one time I received a phone call and the driver asked me where I wanted it left).

Eventually though they added the function of being able to tip, you tip during the transaction of selecting same-day delivery. They also alert you that the tip goes exclusively to the DoorDasher.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I always get out and help put the stuff in my car. 1 because it feels wrong and lazy to sit there and let some minimum wage worker do that while I play on my phone and 2, I like to be sure my bread and fruit doesn't get crushed in the bottom of the trunk under the soda, which has happened.

Good for you but here they tell you not to get out of your car (other than if you have a car specific thing that was already spoken about), you're in their way and they aren't minimum wage at Walmart, as far as making sure your bread and fruit don't get smushed...if I was that way I'd go in and do self-checkout. YMMV. We've not had smushed bread in all the times we've done curbside grocery pick up, maybe it's regional??(please know I'm not claiming it doesn't happen to others but if I need that much control I'd just go in and do it myself, seems counterprodutive to order curbside and then direct them how to load your car, just go in and do it yourself).

Somehow it makes you feel lazy to just sit there but you don't view it as lazy to not do the grocery shopping yourself? That just doesn't compute.

**Sorry snark not necessarily intended just finished my and it hasn't kicked in yet

 

[LuvOrlando]

I always slide cash under something in the trunk sort of peeking out and downlow inform the attendant it is there for them regardless of the policy, I am not interested in trying to decode each store's rules. Some places say no but if they choose to palm it then it's OK by me, sometimes they leave it and sometimes they take it but it's there. Never less than $5 but it goes up from there based on how many items.

I also tip gas station attendants these days by asking for $19 and handing the person a $20 and tell them the difference is for them.

These are tough jobs and a lot of people are awful so it's my thing to try to balance it out

 

[ronandannette]

I love a good tipping thread so let's keep it going: Based on the various comments, what type of minimum wage earners do you all think should just be content with their wages? Many here mention tipping because minimum wage earners deserve more. Who and why or who and why not?

And that is my exact confusion with tipping your barber / hairdresser, porter, valet, handyman and everyone else you can tip.

Honestly Karin, when I travel in the States I just consider it some sort of irksome vacation tax. Just go ahead and tip anybody and everybody who slows down enough for you to hand them some money and don't overthink it.

We do have a tipping culture of our own here in Canada but it's not near as far-flung. Tip waiters, salon staff, taxi drivers all the time and your housekeeper, mailman and dogwalker (if you have them) at Christmas. The expected amounts are getting to be a bit ridiculous though. At $15/hr. minimum wage here in Alberta, wait-staff make as much as many retail workers, factory workers, clerical staff, manual labourers and even school support staff and daycare workers - none of whom would ever expect a tip. The automatic tipping options on digital payment machines in restaurants are now up to 18%/20%/22%. Why?

 

[Karin1984]

I love a good tipping thread so let's keep it going: Based on the various comments, what type of minimum wage earners do you all think should just be content with their wages? Many here mention tipping because minimum wage earners deserve more. Who and why or who and why not?

Honestly Karin, when I travel in the States I just consider it some sort of irksome vacation tax. Just go ahead and tip anybody and everybody who slows down enough for you to hand them some money and don't overthink it.

We do have a tipping culture of our own here in Canada but it's not near as far-flung. Tip waiters, salon staff, taxi drivers all the time and your housekeeper, mailman and dogwalker (if you have them) at Christmas. The expected amounts are getting to be a bit ridiculous though. At $15/hr. minimum wage here in Alberta, wait-staff make as much as many retail workers, factory workers, clerical staff, manual labourers and even school support staff and daycare workers - none of whom would ever expect a tip. The automatic tipping options on digital payment machines in restaurants are now up to 18%/20%/22%. Why?

When I first travelled to the US, almost 20 years ago, all the travel guides advised to tip 10%. Now I see people here advising 20 or even 25% on some occasions...
I do budget for tips when travelling to the US, but not 20% per table service meal.

Here in NL it's only restaurants & bars with table service and you round it up to whatever you feel like (if you feel like it ;-) ). Not sure why we do tip these people.

 

[spiders]

Unless it is customary to tip then I’m not going to tip. Servers get tipped because they are receiving a low wage with the expectation that they will be tipped…hence why they are on a minimum cash wage. Stores offering curbside do not have their employees on a minimum cash wage. Therefore, no — I’m not tipping you for doing your job. If you go above and beyond then I’ll consider it. If you want to tip then go right ahead.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

receiving a low wage with the expectation that they will be tipped…hence why they are on a minimum cash wage.

And if we're talking about Walmart the people who do curbside are paid $13-$19/hour depending on location and market. The Federal Minimum Wage is $7.25/hour so people are making anywhere between 1.8 and over 2.5X the Federal Minimum Wage. Everyone can jump in and say "well that's just not enough, COL, livable wage, etc" but until the definition of the Federal Minimum Wage changes from what it is it's not an accurate portrayal to say "minimum wage workers".

I even see a range of up to $21 for Online Orderfilling and Delivery on Walmart's website.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

The automatic tipping options on digital payment machines in restaurants are now up to 18%/20%/22%

Now I see people here advising 20 or even 25% on some occasions...
I do budget for tips when travelling to the US, but not 20% per table service meal.

Honestly it is actually up to 20% being more the standard norm. I think the pandemic sorta cemented that when all of a sudden so many were out of work and people had to do more curbside pick up and so when people were allowed back into places there was sorta a vibe of tipping more generously and in some places that was bumping it up to 20% when before it was more accepted to do 15-18%. 20% had sorta but not sorta been the more base amount but hadn't been as prevalent as before the pandemic, at least IMO.

There was just a news story locally about this like literally this was the headline: "Tip at least 20% and don't no-show". The no show part was because reservations have become increasingly more utilized or "call ahead put your name on a list".

That article went on to explain
"It used to be standard to give 15% tips on every dining bill. No more. Now, the baseline is 20% — and that's just the start. If you talk to somebody a lot and they give you great recommendations, or maybe you got a little something extra," Niemeyer explains, "or maybe you got a special drink that the bartender whipped up for you, then 20% becomes like, 'Oh. Just adequate?'" Everyone I talked to agreed: There is definitely nothing wrong with a 20% tip. But they urge customers to acknowledge extra time and attention with a tip closer to 25%. People are tipping a little bit more because working in restaurants is not the safest job," says Niemeyer. "It's not the most dangerous, by any means, but it's not the safest job. If you're in a busy restaurant, you're around maybe 1,000 people a week, all with their mouth unmasked and breathing and chatting and eating. Earlier in the pandemic, many customers tipped for to-go food just as much as they would have tipped in the dining room. For the most part, customers seem to have returned to tipping less for carryout."

I don't agree with pushing the "urge customers to acknowledge" part of the above quote because while that is absolutely true it's like a backhanded compliment saying "oh it's fine to tip 20%" but not really meaning it.

 

[dez1978]

Good for you but here they tell you not to get out of your car (other than if you have a car specific thing that was already spoken about), you're in their way and they aren't minimum wage at Walmart, as far as making sure your bread and fruit don't get smushed...if I was that way I'd go in and do self-checkout. YMMV. We've not had smushed bread in all the times we've done curbside grocery pick up, maybe it's regional??(please know I'm not claiming it doesn't happen to others but if I need that much control I'd just go in and do it myself, seems counterprodutive to order curbside and then direct them how to load your car, just go in and do it yourself).

Somehow it makes you feel lazy to just sit there but you don't view it as lazy to not do the grocery shopping yourself? That just doesn't compute.

**Sorry snark not necessarily intended just finished my and it hasn't kicked in yet

Generally when we do Walmart online we order once a month and we add things to the cart as we go thru the month and are running low. Not going into the store keeps me from buying crap we don't need lol. At the one walmart we have near that does it it's all younger college age kids doing it, so maybe not min wage, but they def don't care that much about how they load your stuff. But I don't really think it's controlling to want your bread and bananas to not be smushed. Like it all comes out on the cart in blue bins and they unload it into your car in order of the bins. I have asked if they'd like some help or if they minded and they've all been grateful. I don't know how I'm in the way by getting it done that much faster honestly. 2 people doing it are faster than one. I'm not directing them how to do it, I just say oh, I'll put that up here if I see the eggs or bread or whatever. Its not like I'm standing there saying ok, load the soda first, then put this in, then this. There are 2 stacks of bins on the cart, they unload one while I unload the other.

Also, I do sort of feel lazy not doing my own shopping. But in addition to trying to not spend the extra $, our local walmart is poorly stocked, even pre covid and doesn't do curbside anyway. So to get most of the things we get we have to go about 40 min away. So while I'd love to do my own shopping I don't have the extra time to drive 80 mins AND spend an hour shopping (bc I have to look around at everything lol). So when I do curbside, it's not because I don't want to go to the store or bc I'm lazy, it's because thats the only way I can fit it into my schedule between kids and work and sports. It does feel indulgent to just pick things up but it feels lazy to let someone else load it into my car while I'm sitting right there.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

But I don't really think it's controlling to want your bread and bananas to not be smushed.

Well of course not but that's not what I said But if you want it a certain way there are just services that make less sense to utilize them.

they def don't care that much about how they load your stuff.

Services are give and take sometimes. We get a crap-ton of plastic bags from ours like we don't understand why they put 1 one ounce taco seasoning in a bag by itself but they do. At least I recycle the excess bags back to Walmart when I go into the store next.

But I wouldn't get out of the car to tell them to consolidate the bags. If it was like "nope can't deal with this many excess bags" we would just shop ourselves, we survived before curbside came around we'll survive after. It's def. a convenience to use though and we use it quite frequently although Walmart has upped it's minimum order from $30 to $35 now. So if I had a location around me where they don't do as much care into it I'm not going to get out of the car I'm just not going to use said service because I wouldn't want to deal with the worry over it. That's like going to the regular checkout lane like the olden days and have people who would insist on telling the cashier (or bagger) the groceries being placed in the bags certain way and certain order. The easiest solution is to use self-checkout but often those people won't by principle.

Also, I do sort of feel lazy not doing my own shopping. But in addition to trying to not spend the extra $, our local walmart is poorly stocked, even pre covid and doesn't do curbside anyway. So to get most of the things we get we have to go about 40 min away. So while I'd love to do my own shopping I don't have the extra time to drive 80 mins AND spend an hour shopping (bc I have to look around at everything lol). So when I do curbside, it's not because I don't want to go to the store or bc I'm lazy, it's because thats the only way I can fit it into my schedule between kids and work and sports. It does feel indulgent to just pick things up but it feels lazy to let someone else load it into my car while I'm sitting right there.

I'm 100% all for curbside online order grocery pick up. But when someone tells me that they don't want to be lazy by sitting in the car while someone is loading their groceries so they actively get out (during a worldwide pandemic no less) to get right up next to a worker (mask or no mask vaccinated or not vaccinated doesn't matter) so they can say they weren't lazy by either directing where the bags go or putting some bags in their car it's just sorta a contradiction. You're doing online order pick up for a reason those reasons you've listed out For every employee that might be grateful for the assist there are ones who view it as you're in their way, it makes their process longer, etc (there's enough stories online to get both sides of that). I'm sure you've run into people who have been quite happy genuinely so and then others where you're the customer, you're always right and normal customer service behavior. Sometimes you'll never know.

Usually when people would view it as lazy they would just shop themselves regardless of the reasons. I know some DISers have expressed their negative viewpoint towards grocery pick up and they just shop themselves for the groceries. Anywho I get why you personally would want to do this but you quoted my comment where I said the point is to not get out of your car, curbside by design is that way. It doesn't make one a jerk (which is sorta the vibe of the other comment) to do something that was in line with the design of the service. If it makes you personally feel lazy I get it but it doesn't make people lazy by not getting out of the car.

 

[goofyernmost]

Why wouldn't we tip these people?

Because they're not allowed to accept tips.

In my area, the ones who deliver the groceries or items to the customer are not the ones who did the shopping.

Yes they deserve more but if they go against the company policy and accept a tip they will be fired.

That sounds like an unusual situation. Why would a company not allow that unless they are paying a huge hourly wage. Most do not encourage it, but don't block it either. You almost never tip anyone in a grocery store, but that is because you go into it, you push the cart around, you pick out your own items, you run it through check out, either self or cashier and you bring it out to your car and load it yourself. Why wouldn't you tip some poor stiff a couple of buck for all the work they saved you. I'm sure you didn't get a reduction in the cost of groceries. If I knew that they blocked it and I knew if they were not paying extra to the help for doing it, then I simply would do my shopping elsewhere.

 

[goofyernmost]

Well of course not but that's not what I said But if you want it a certain way there are just services that make less sense to utilize them.
Services are give and take sometimes. We get a crap-ton of plastic bags from ours like we don't understand why they put 1 one ounce taco seasoning in a bag by itself but they do. At least I recycle the excess bags back to Walmart when I go into the store next.

But I wouldn't get out of the car to tell them to consolidate the bags. If it was like "nope can't deal with this many excess bags" we would just shop ourselves, we survived before curbside came around we'll survive after. It's def. a convenience to use though and we use it quite frequently although Walmart has upped it's minimum order from $30 to $35 now. So if I had a location around me where they don't do as much care into it I'm not going to get out of the car I'm just not going to use said service because I wouldn't want to deal with the worry over it. That's like going to the regular checkout lane like the olden days and have people who would insist on telling the cashier (or bagger) the groceries being placed in the bags certain way and certain order. The easiest solution is to use self-checkout but often those people won't by principle.

I'm 100% all for curbside online order grocery pick up. But when someone tells me that they don't want to be lazy by sitting in the car while someone is loading their groceries so they actively get out (during a worldwide pandemic no less) to get right up next to a worker (mask or no mask vaccinated or not vaccinated doesn't matter) so they can say they weren't lazy by either directing where the bags go or putting some bags in their car it's just sorta a contradiction. You're doing online order pick up for a reason those reasons you've listed out For every employee that might be grateful for the assist there are ones who view it as you're in their way, it makes their process longer, etc (there's enough stories online to get both sides of that). I'm sure you've run into people who have been quite happy genuinely so and then others where you're the customer, you're always right and normal customer service behavior. Sometimes you'll never know.

Usually when people would view it as lazy they would just shop themselves regardless of the reasons. I know some DISers have expressed their negative viewpoint towards grocery pick up and they just shop themselves for the groceries. Anywho I get why you personally would want to do this but you quoted my comment where I said the point is to not get out of your car, curbside by design is that way. It doesn't make one a jerk (which is sorta the vibe of the other comment) to do something that was in line with the design of the service. If it makes you personally feel lazy I get it but it doesn't make people lazy by not getting out of the car.

I don't think I said anyone was a jerk, but to reply anyway, it is not because of lazy it is because you are having a stranger stick his head in your possibly highly contaminated car interior and all you have to do is put on a mask, (they usually are required to unless you live in one of those places that are trying to cut down on population) and making them spend more time with their head stuck in your car when you could have helped them get out quicker.