I delivered for a couple years after high school. We knew who tipped and who didn’t. Guess who’s order got bumped to the top of my route whenever possible? But from time to time I did get a heartfelt apology on why they couldn’t tip more.
I got one such apology from someone that still sticks out in my mind. It was a man in a small unkept house (at least on the outside) who had ordered a small cheese pizza. He was profusely apologetic that he could only tip $1 (still not a no-tip like some other more well off people).
Then I saw through the door to the kitchen all 4 kids and a teenager that were waiting anxiously for their pizza. 6 people sharing a small pizza because that was all they could afford… It broke my heart. My shift was just about over so I went back to cash out and made 2 large pizzas, wings, chicken tenders, grabbed some sodas, the whole 9.
It looked like this grown man was going to burst into tears when I gave it to him, he was just super appreciative. He offered to come down and pay for it all another day which I flat out refused. Yeah I didn’t do anything to get them out of their situation and it was the restaurant footing the bill anyway. But my hope is that he remembers that and maybe his kids learned that when you treat someone like a human being good things can happen.
