since all of our business is take out and we do own the business i have followed this thread which i find rather interesting. as bass rocker points out the packing material costs have skyrocketed. as bt correctly points out we would be fools if we didn’t take that into account in our pricing. we do not have a tip jar. what we do is this. every 90 days we review the packing costs. if they are within reason the customer price remains the same. on the rare occasion my wife recieves a tip she stops the customer from leaving and discreetly advises me of the tip amount. i then package an extra portion that comes close in volume to the tip amount and then that customer is given that and she tells them that since he was charged a fair amount this is her way of saying thanks for the tip. our steady customers have learned this little trick and they know it is a good value for them. the others who are in line are taken aback and a few had the bad manners to ask for extra when they left no tip and wanted to know why the person ahead of them got extra. we offer no explaination as it is our way of rewarding our good core of customers. apparently this is having some effect as we are noticing an increase in tips. but we have found this is a good way to offset higher costs to our good customers who come back week after week. as i explained to one great customer it is a way to let the snowbirds subsidize their meal. she loved it
jack