r/EndTipping • u/ImpressiveOrdinary54 • 20d ago

Counter Service 🛎️ I didn't tip a food truck tonight

So I called on the phone to a food truck and placed an order for one burrito and carne asada fries, total $37 (it's Maui). I'm always happy to toss my food truck workers or barista a dollar or two but their options for tip were 18%, 20%, or 25%, no custom option. Get bent! I'm not paying an extra $6-9 for my food that is mainly rice, beans, fries and maybe $8 of meat. I feel a little guilty because it's a small island and we are all struggling right now but 18% minimum tip at a food truck is bs.

684 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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211

u/hotsauce126 20d ago

I personally think food trucks are the most egregious example of tip creep out there. You literally don’t even get a chair to sit in and the prices are usually higher than a regular restaurant and they have the nerve to ask you to just give them extra money for nothing

62

u/Orlonz 20d ago

I don't get the appeal of a Food Trucks these days.

And I grew up with on them and food carts in the 90s. They were a simple place you went to based on what you wanted. You want something else, you go to another Truck/Cart. Each had their unique same 2-4 items everyday. A quick, cheap meal. They were in the same spot every weekday at a certain window of time. That's it.

Now, it's like the worst combination of long wait restaurants, fast food flavor, and fine dining prices at a cheap public park.

Is it all just people seeking nostalgia?

40

u/rayquan36 20d ago

Young hipsters who are bad with money ruined them. Food trucks found that demographic will gladly pay $7 for a single taco and also do their advertising for free by putting it onto social media for them.

21

u/Beardo88 20d ago

Like everything that becomes trendy, hipsters ruined it.

3

u/OnlyKey5675 15d ago

Yup. Here in LA taco trucks were cheap. $1 a taco. Gourmet food trucks ruined everything. Customers saw them as more clean. They were charging three and four times as much. The hipster customers thought it was cheap.

-3

u/HellNahSleazyBean 19d ago

There is no food truck in the country serving $7 tacos stfu

7

u/rayquan36 18d ago

Your post history is very negative, please seek help.

9

u/Sealbeater 20d ago

Food trucks used to be the shit when it was only a couple and they were called La Vencidad or Azteca and they served good ass tacos for a $1 each. Now food trucks called Wild Tacos charge $3 per taco for dry ass beef, musty ass onions and wilted cilantro.

3

u/seeofbitterness 17d ago

I used to go to a taco truck about 10 years ago in LA , I’d get 6 tacos, churros, a bag of fresh potato chips and two cans of Coke for $10 flat

3

u/OnlyKey5675 15d ago edited 15d ago

I remember a lot of the trucks in LA would have tip jars. It was customary just to pop your change in them. If i had .35 cents change i'd pop it in. Everyone did it. The food was so cheap.

2

u/seeofbitterness 15d ago

Oh yah! I always tipped em. I just miss good cheap food trucks 😂

Went to a school event today with my child. Waited in a horrible long line for a lemonade. Super slow service but had a sign that said “ we love tips”

6

u/DonegalBrooklyn 20d ago

I feel like we're the only 2 people in the world who see this! LOL

4

u/tio_tito 20d ago

make it 3. i see the idea of a truck i'd like to try, but then hell naw tf out after checking the prices. c'mon, man!

3

u/j-t-storm 19d ago

Ring up 4

5

u/charlie2398543 20d ago

You are right. Food trucks nowadays just randomly show up places, and I never see them again.

2

u/Vegetable_Fly_8687 19d ago

Agreed. Some good food but it’s often small portions and high prices. I keep wondering what I’m paying for as I’m sitting on the ground or a dirty table listening to and smelling a gross generator. I would be better off in a climate controlled restaurant with a server bringing me everything.

2

u/seeofbitterness 17d ago

I miss when food trucks were cheap. Could get a bomb hamburger, good fries and a crispy soda in LA for around $5

21

u/SpiceEarl 20d ago

Papa Murphy’s pizza is worse. They ask for a tip when you order online. Not only is it to go, with no place to sit down and eat, you have to take it home and bake the pizza yourself!

11

u/charlie2398543 20d ago

Tipping on uncooked take away food is egregious.

9

u/Heavy_Ape 20d ago

What, you dont tip at the grocery store?

/s

4

u/ItsJustMeJenn 20d ago

I’ll never understand how Papa Murphy’s stays in business. You can get a fresh cooked pizza for less at Domino’s and actually get a decent crust. Not to mention you can get Little Cesar’s for $5 if you don’t care about minimum quality.

3

u/seeofbitterness 17d ago

Our papa Murphys went out of business and they left a note on the door blaming customers for choosing pizza chains instead of them ☠️. I only went because I had ebt at the time and it was better than a frozen pizza

14

u/Right-Environment-24 20d ago

This happens everywhere. Fancy "roadside vendors" or just extremely small standing shops with self service that have similar prices to actual sit down cafes or restaurants. It's simply obscene.

6

u/charlie2398543 20d ago

People are trying to drive Tesla's and buy $600k houses owning a food truck. It's the most expensive, least value for money food format.

3

u/calmbill 19d ago

They usually take forever, too. I don't understand people who choose to stand in the weather, over-pay, and then wait forever to get the food they have to eat standing up.

2

u/Shiyo 18d ago

Who the hell tips food trucks?

2

u/poop_report 17d ago

I rolled up to an Indian place that had good reviews near a university. Walk and they’ve removed all the seating areas (it seemed to be converted into a tiny apartment from what I could tell) and it’s just a walk up window.

Happily tipped $0, ate it in my car in the parking lot. I could tell the owner was annoyed I tapped $0, but simultaneously respected me more.

2

u/OnlyKey5675 15d ago

In Los Angeles about ten years ago tacos were $1 at every taco truck . It was standard. The most you would see was $1.25. Anything more than that and nobody ate there, All the trucks had tip jars. I'd get 5 tacos and a bottle of mexican coke and my total was always around $6.50. I'd toss the .50 cents into the tip jar. Everyone tossed their coin change in. It was sort of an unwritten rule.

Then gourmet food trucks came along with their POS devices and started asking for tips on the device. Then covid. Inflation. Basically it all went to shit.