Same here.

I sometimes tip for counterservice. Depends on my mood and the quality of food / staff.

I questioned my uncle on this. The $20 tip was NOT only for the 2 mile drive.

I tip if I am at a sit down restaurant or if I am eating at a counter... or if it is delivered to my home or hotel room.

However, I do not tip on take orders.

Tipping is for service. What significant service is provided by someone giving you a bag or box into which the kitchen has placed containers of food?

Making sure napkins and silverware are in the bag, along with ensuring the correct food and any condiments or substitutions are there.

It depends on the restaurant and how often I use them. For To Go Orders from traditional sit down places where a waitress or waiter is putting together the order I tip 10%, my rational being that they still have to spend time watching for the order to complete and take time away from their other tables.

If the hostess puts together the order, I usually tip her $5 or $10 depending on the size of the order.

If it is a place I go a lot, meaning my local Chinese and Italian mostly, and I go to those spots for sit down and take out, I tip well both on take out and dine in because I want people to want to be really helpful knowing that if they are, they will be rewarded.

Maybe it is the Brit in me, but doesn't making sure the food order is correct constitute a core part of the job?

I normally tip 10% or so for take out orders from sit down restaurants, based on the rationale that it actually takes more effort to package up a take out order than it does an in-restaurant order. No tip for typical fast food.

I don't tip for take out. I do tip for delivery.

Yes, but those who are usually preparing take-out orders are servers who usually receive tips to boost their hourly wage to something normal, at least in the US.

One pondering I have heard, is on a pay by time rate, the server / bar tender who rings in take out is making a killing.

It takes, maybe, 2 minutes to bag the food up, add cutlery, etc. Maybe another 1 minute to ring the order in when you phone up (or drop in) and another 2 minutes to cash the order, hand you the food etc. No refills, no chit chat, no table clearing, minimum dealing with kitchen mistakes (ie most take out errors found after they leave, and most people don't make the effort to come back). If people are tipping, say 10-15% on an order (take out for a family of four probably runs $50 or so?) then they are making $5 - $7.50 - that's $60-90 an hour if everyone does that (not to mention they may also be waiting other tables in between, with orders with wine etc bumping that tip amount a fair bit). For putting some things in a bag, and using a till. In otherwords, pretty much the same duties as the minimum wage walmart cashier, and they get paid a whole heck of a lot more than the kitchen workers who are actually cooking the food. It just seems out of whack that someone be paid a not insignificant six figure sum for putting food in a bag.

I guess my experience is different, in that most times, if I drop in to order or if I arrive before my food, I'm usually offered a drink, not charged for it, and then either given or offered a to-go cup with an additional drink.

There's a local chain here that allows online ordering for carry out. They require that you pay for your order when you place it. At no time does it give you the option of adding a tip, so I'm guessing they discourage tipping for take-out.

The drink does sound like a nice touch, and I probably would tip for that sort of thing. Unfortunately that doesn't happen much to me, but then I tend to order take out from take out specific places (thai, pizza, etc) (if I want the restaurant food I will eat in).

If I'm ordering from a sit-down restaurant, it's usually at lunch, or when we're in a huge hurry and taking the time to eat at the location won't work well for us.