$10 tip on $1400 pizza delivery

[olyolyy]

The internets are abuzz over this receipt posted showing a ten dollar tip on almost $1500 worth of pizza. First of all, that's a lot of pizza! What would you have tipped?

Link to the receipt image and story

http://gawker.com/5988720/pizza-deliv...

[Midlife]

A couple of thoughts on this, beginning with the disclosure that I DO tip on takeout as well as delivery .........

1. It says, specifically, in the linked article, that a separate cash tip may very well have been given, so this may just be another exhausting academic discussion on this subject.

2. "Emily Post says pizza delivery tips should be based on size of the order and difficulty of delivery, but sets the maximum at $5." - The actual online quote is "Home Delivery: 10-15% of the bill, $2-5 for pizza delivery depending on the size of the order and difficulty of delivery."
a. i haven't a clue why the service tip for delivery would be based on whether you're getting a pizza or spaghetti and meatballs. Perhaps they mean to set a MINIMUM tip of $2 for, say a $10 pizza........... that would work.
b. If it's a flat fee, and not a minimum............. well, Emily Post has been dead for 50 years and it sounds like the people who edited this 2011 edition may have been dozing as well.

;o]]]]

[italianyc84]

This is bizarre, I just realized I somehow have been posting under two different names...for the record, italia84 and italianyc84 are both me.

[EarlyBird]

My instincts are pretty much with the rest of you: $50 minimum, $100 tops, and probably would have come in at $80. Those tips would not just be for the delivery, but for the extra intensive work of the kitchen prep people, hopefully.

[cgarner]

It is very possible that the person tipped the rest in cash…

We don’t get delivery often, when we do we tip 15% or a minimum of $10. I’ve been a server and my son picked up extra money on a few occasions delivering for a pizza joint, so we’re a sympathetic bunch

$215 or 220 (rounded to the nearest bill you have on hand) would be the tip here, but if possible we also tip cash… that receipt from our house would say “-0-“ and they’d have the cash in hand

[dave_c]

For 85 pizzas, I would go $1 per pizza.

[BiscuitBoy]

whoa, whoa...it came from reddit (red flag right there)...it's on the internet so it must be true, right? What pizza place is equipped to pump out, what, 100 pies all at once? Comments claim 85 pies? Okay, that would be about $17 per...uh, yeah. Too may things with this story do not ad up...just like Manti Teo, Benghazi, and aliens attacking the WTC

[Kontxesi]

$17 per pie is not unreasonable. I paid that for one last night, and it wasn't even a super great place.

[BiscuitBoy]

Yeah? $17 for a delivery pizza seems damn high to me...What was on yours, and I'm guessing it had to be a large? Anyway, the story is complete bullshit, dontcha think?

[Kontxesi]

It was an extra large with five or so toppings. It wasn't from a place that delivers, but it definitely wasn't high end. I could pay 18 for a large pizza with two toppings from a nicer place in town.

[olyolyy]

A delivery pizza is about $25 here.

[manraysky]

Same here. A $17 delivery pizza would be a bargain.

[BiscuitBoy]

$25 bucks for a pizza, wow almost as crazy as the purported story

[Lillipop]

Having a pizza delivered here in N California from Round Table which is three blocks south of my house has cost me a minimum of $25.00 for a large pepperoni (horrid stuff) in the past to feed unexpected guests.Complete rip off! They add a delivery charge and I of course tipped the driver a couple of dollars.

[ohmyyum]

A large plain cheese pie from the only decent pizza shop near me is $14, and that's in NC, in a city known for its extremely low cost of living. So in a larger city, I don't think $17 is unreasonable at all.

[BiscuitBoy]

Huh. Thanks for schooling me...To tell the truth, I have never had a delivery pizza in my life, just going by what all the chain ads claim for price...and I know NC can be a wasteland for good pizza

[westsidegal]

in my area of los angeles, the neighborhood pizzeria that i prefer charges $18 for a plain, cheese, pie large enough to fill 3 people up.

the gourmet pizza places, with one exception, usually charge about $13 for a personal size (12inches to 14 inches) margharita pizza.

[alwayshungrygal]

I once ordered 200 XL pizzas in one night for a client. It was a lot of work finding a pizzeria that could do it, and fun taste-testing the various contenders.

[westsidegal]

when the pizza place that i frequent for lunch was deluged (at lunch time no less) with an order for 30 pies to go for a nearby company lunch, they handled it by making five at a time and interspersing the company's pies with those that were being made for their regular lunch crowd.

of course, by the time the company's pies walked out the door, most of them were no longer hot, but the pizzeria was not going to screw with their regulars in order to accommodate this one time order.

the owners of the pizzeria, being very experienced restaurant owners, know the importance of prioritizing the needs of their regulars.

[BiscuitBoy]

Yeah, that's one of the other things that didn't add up....Those pies also had to be stone cold upon delivery. And $18 for pizza...If it's delivery, it sat around the shop until the driver was available, then queued with a bunch of others for the trip, did the dance in the driver's car, then got dropped to you...all for the privilege to shell out 18 bucks. I feel for you. Makes frozen pizza seem like a viable option

[westsidegal]

<<Makes frozen pizza seem like a viable option>>

so, if you needed 85 pizzas at one time, how, exactly would you work it by using frozen pizzas? how big is YOUR oven?
would you get 10 of your closest neighbors to let you use their ovens too? how would you do it? run around between your house and your neighbors' houses? enlist your neighbors to cook for you as well as lend you their ovens? are all the ovens that would be involved convection ovens?

are there any cheap pizzerias in your area that have enough oven space to turn out 85 pizzas at about the same time?

[BiscuitBoy]

No, I meant frozen pizza looks like a good alternative to paying $18 for a delivery pie...for one's personal consumption. I doubt there are any pizza places near me that could churn out 85 pies, have them all ready for a specific function, at a specific time, that's why the story is bogus. May be plausible that one could call 5 or 6 domino franchises, and spread the load that way, but that would further falsify the delivery claim and tip. Besides, it came from reddit...only 16-20 yr olds could believe complete nonsense like that

[BiscuitBoy]

or to effectively communicate with the lidded eye slack jaws in their own language (all of us cognoscenti excluded, of course!)

[westsidegal]

<<frozen pizza looks like a good alternative to paying $18 for a delivery pie...for one's personal consumption>>

beg to differ. there is a huge difference in taste and ingredient quality between a frozen pie and the $18 pie.
(there's also a huge difference in taste and quality between the $18 large pie and the $13 individual pie)
if i'm going to deal with the aftermath of consuming that many calories, i want the good stuff.

there must be others like me because when the $18/pizza place blew into town, one of the other cheap-pizza places went out of business.
now the $18/pizza place has two locations within a 5 mile area both of which are successful. i'm waiting for the next cheap-pizza place to fold.

when faced with the choice of frozen pizza or skipping a meal entirely, i opt to skip the meal.

[BiscuitBoy]

True, but how good can it be after it sat around the shop, drove around god-knows-where with other deliveries, then came to your door? Maybe it's a west coast thing, and you're just used to it? If I want a pizza, I order it, show up at the place when it comes outta the oven, and go home to munch. If I feel 'specially extravagant, I go eat it on the spot. Similar to what you said, if I'm gonna take the calorie hit, why screw around hitch-hiking pie?!! Delivery pizza is such a sad thing....where I live anyway. We're on a tangent tho, westside...do you believe the events even happened?

[westsidegal]

yes. having worked in restaurants and having roommates who were servers, i believe every bit.

re: delivered pizza
i'm with you in terms of my preferences: i like eating the pizza at the restaurant as soon as it comes out of the oven.

that said, when i'm with my "friday night" group of friends, it isn't all about me, it's about what works for the group.
several people drive great distances to come to our little "salon" and it isn't always feasible to get the whole group in gear to go to a restaurant late on a friday night with no reservations and with some group members already exhausted by their long drive.
this is when we order delivery pizza.
when the best neighborhood pizzeria only had one location, i would go out to pick up the pie to avoid the pitfalls that you described.
now, though, they have two locations, one of which is very close to us. the pizza comes hot. it's nice for me to be able to stay and converse with the group instead of excusing myself to go out to pick up the food. the delivery boys (we're near two colleges, so, yes, they are usually boys) know us and are sweet and appreciative of our generosity.

[BiscuitBoy]

ah, "delivery boys"

[italia84]

BiscuitBoy, you seem very...emotionally invested in this.

[BiscuitBoy]

ah, just having a little fun...seem to have struck a nerve

[italia84]

Wait, so you think getting pizza delivered is "second rate", but eating a frozen pizza isn't?? Even a second rate delivery pizza beats the best frozen pizza, I would think (not much experience with frozen pizza...as I said, I live in Brooklyn!)

[gingershelley]

The insulated bags that pizza's are delivered in can keep a pizza pretty hot for over 1/2 an hour. If you have a big delivery operation with multiple drivers, you could easily have 30-40 of those bags around, so one batch goes into the bags when out of the oven, second batch gets cooked, etc. Each insulated bag holds 2 pies, so it is feasible to keep them hot for delivery.

And in SEA, $18 for a large pizza is cheap (for a decent pizza). Pizza can easily run over $22.00, for one of our most popular local chains, Pagliacci's.

[Dax]

Those bags are able to keep them hot but they don't stop the pie(s) from sweating in those cardboard boxes sealed within those (mostly) enclosed bags.

And those bags must be kind of expensive as (way back) in college a friend who was also a delivery person left hers at our place following a pizza delivery so I called her back and she let me know how awesome that was as she would have been docked the apparently considerable cost had she not returned with it.

[italianyc84]

I'm in Brooklyn, a large pie from my favorite delivery place is $16 (no toppings), so yeah, I believe it.

[westsidegal]

$150 or so.

[Bill Hunt]

I would offer US $80 for the entire entourage to deliver that many pizzas. I would guess a dozen drivers?

Hunt

[jlhinwa]

$170--$2.00 per pizza x 85 pizzas. $10.00...what the heck were they thinking?!?!!

[treb]

Given numerous trips the delivery person(s) needed to load and unload their vehicle(s), and if they were delivered in good condition, $50.00 per person.

[LeoLioness]

Good point--I wasn't even thinking about this being a multi-person operation.

[olyolyy]

It was a one person delivery.

[treb]

Bet that person worked pretty hard to load and unload. Seems a bit questionable that one person delivered this considering it may have been close to 100 pizza pies..

[LeoLioness]

Probably between $100-$150.

[Cheese Boy]

All in one trip ?

Five bucks for the first 4 pizzas that come through the door, and then two dollars for every four pizzas thereafter. So if 85 pizzas were delivered (all in the same trip -- using the same gasoline), the tip should be about $45 to $50.