Some customers may be okay with fees like this but even if 10% of customers are not okay with the fee the restaurant will not come out ahead from fees like this. I don't know why it is so hard to just push menu price changes forward.

As much as FT dislikes the idea, I fully believe that there'd be a lot less in the way of discouraging card use if there were interchange caps on both credit and debit cards--or at the very least, making it a lot easier to surcharge on the former. For instance, the requirement to notify the card networks first could be eliminated entirely (since I doubt that's being done now) and some sort of nominal surcharge could be unconditionally permitted if, say, the Federal Reserve does a study and concludes that credit cards are x% more expensive than cash across all merchants. Of course, merchants wanting to surcharge more than that x% would still need to prove that it's less than or equal to what they're paying to run the card, and ideally merchants would also be required to have customer facing terminals that specifically require the customer to accept the surcharge (vs. relying on verbal confirmation or the presence of signage). Not to mention that surcharging would be banned if the store didn't accept cash or at least some other less expensive form of electronic payment.

(On the flip side, if the Fed does conclude that credit cards aren't significantly more expensive than cash/debit for merchants, it'd effectively ban surcharging at the national level with hopefully something that would survive a court challenge. Additionally, regardless of what the Fed finds, these rules could eliminate a lot of the remaining resistance to stuff like contactless payment, meaning that it could finally end up getting turned on at e.g. Walmart and Home Depot.)

As for the restaurant gratuity thing, that's a completely separate issue related to the general culture of the restaurant industry and how it's run. Though mandating customer facing hardware at places that want to surcharge could very well increase pay at the table prevalence too, another plus.

I used to always tip for restaurant meals, both there and carryout. I know it’s polarizing.
now we rarely go to restaurants and with pandemic and/or bad Sf air, I tip more percent because it’s brutal. And I rarely get any form of carryout food now. I cook so much and I know how much less we spend for restaurants.

that said, for people who don’t want to tip for carryout, they shouldn’t have to deal with a sign about 20% and they can choose to eat or carryout elsewhere.

but I hope that the food was still yummy.

I have been tipping 15% for take out during the pandemic.

Ordinarily I don't tip for take out, or I tip 10% max.

I would never tip for takeout, unless the person I'm picking it up from does something more than just hand me a bag of food (throw in some extras or whatever).
Most of the takeout we've done since March was fully paid for in advance of pickup, I assume to facilitate contact-less curbside pickup if one is so inclined, so it hasn't really been an issue. I'm certainly not tipping in advance of receiving my order.

We've seen one restaurant advertise a 4% surcharge for COVID, regardless of whether it's takeout or dine-in. Even though it's a small amount, and it's on the menu, I find it tacky. Just raise the price. I don't see any other stores adding a surcharge, even the ones that were shut down for a couple months by the governor.

At the risk of opening a huge can of worms, considering that in-restaurant dining in general has dropped significantly in light of the pandemic, I think it's only fair to replace at least some of the tipping revenue lost by one gravitating towards takeout. Whatever percentage that ends up being is going to depend on the person and of course, should not be made mandatory via surcharges et al.

this is why I tip for carryout and it�s a brutal system. Now that I rarely get any restaurant carryout or dining, I tip more for those times that I do. I simply know that I�m not going to willingly return to restaurants on a general basis because I�m happier to cook. I probably used to tip minimum $100/week, spread out with many meals.

Yep, I've generally been tipping more when getting carry out since the pandemic began. Even before the pandemic at full service restaurants I usually would tip as if I were eating in the restaurant. For quick service/counter service places I typically would not tip. I still don't tip for fast food places even though tip jars have proliferated everywhere. (I even saw a customer facing terminal present a tip option at a gas station in Tahoe the other week for a convenience store purchase!)

I definitely agree with the last sentence. But I feel tipping is for the people serving me -- server, busboy, etc. Others in the restaurant should be paid fairly. If they're not, that's on the owner, and the employee is free to seek another job of course. A tip isn't replacing a restaurant's lost revenue, if they want to do that, they should raise prices. An individual's tip revenue technically shouldn't be affected either, as restaurants are able to staff at a lower rate, so that servers have a similar amount of tables. And of course, cashiers and others were never tipped jobs anyway.

In these times, I won't discourage charity in any form. Just my choice not to tip when no service is provided.

We got carryout last Friday, and I noticed on the bill that they discounted the food by the same amount as the tip. Tipped 20% and had 20% knocked off the bill.

That actually made it cheaper, as it lowered the taxable amount of the bill by 20%.

Win-win!

Well, except for the restaurant that lost 20%. But if they can afford it, I think it's a novel, and fantastic, way to pay servers while keeping taxes down.

Did an online order to fetch something and highest tip option was 20%. I would have given more if that option was available.

The tip culture in America annoys me where everyone has their hand out looking for a few bucks. I used a service to get my stuff from the room to my car in Vegas - with all the hand offs, it cost me 20 bucks and that was nearly 15 years ago. I dread to think what it would be like now.

stop it. Pay people properly and tip for good service for which tipping was properly intended!

you�re lucky that you live outside USA so that you can avoid USA cultural things. I probably want to return to uk more than British folk want to return to USA.