Still Not Sure How Much to Tip for Pizza Delivery? You're Not Alone

[Photograph via Reddit]

Over the years, we've issued one or two posts and polls on tipping pizza delivery persons. Last month, mosteverybody was freaking out over a photograph of a receipt that revealed a measly $10 tip on a $1500 pizza order. And the press seems to have reignited the debate.

A number of outlets have issued polls and opinion pieces on the subject in recent weeks. The latest comes from Slate's Troy Patterson, who echoes our own feelings on the subject. Arguing for generosity, he directs readers to TipThePizzaGuy.com, which just so happens to be one of our favorite places to spend entire afternoons, too!.

So if you thought the Reddit post was as bad as it gets, take a look at this story:

In 15 years this is the worst I've encountered. We had a delivery to an off-campus housing development for 200 large pepperoni pizzas. Regular price is 2,500 dollars. I told them we would give them the current promotion which brought the total to $2,039.31. That's a $630 discount. The driver had to make three trips from the store, and 12 trips from car to address. Their doors locked each time so he had to be buzzed in, and none of the 15 or so staff helped him one bit. When the time came to sign the bill he pointed out the price, and also the major discount they received. They totaled the check at 2,040 dollars. That's right, a 69-cent tip on a 2k order. That's a tip of 0.034 percent. —Davey, via TipThePizzaGuy.coma

And that's just the tip of the iceburg, folks. It's pretty easy to get lost sifting through horror stories and stupid mistakes. There are tales of violence and robbery, not to mention a rather impressive archive of...racier...encounters that I won't link to directly, since I'm confident that any motivated parties won't have too much trouble locating them independently.

There are some valuable lessons to gleaned from the site. Like, try not to proposition or rob your pizza delivery person, and do consider clothing yourself prior to answering the door. But also, know that if you choose to ignore this advice, they will sometimes, but not always, find it slightly less terrifying and somewhat amusing if you smile and tip them very, very generously.

About the author:Niki Achitoff-Gray is the editor of Slice and a part-time student at the Institute of Culinary Education. She's pretty big into pizza. Also, she likes offal. A lot.