When friends give me free food or drinks, I usually tip the full cost of what I was given. So if you gave me an $8 drink, I would tip you $8.
This still benefits me in that I don’t have to pay that $8 plus another tip, but I’m wondering if there’s an expectation or standard that would save me some $
Sometimes this one place gives me $20 of food before closing when I only intended to spend $5 so the upsell kinda hurts
Don’t? It’s a gift. Why tip? If they expect you to then that’s hypocrisy on their part.
Sounds more like a roundabout way for the server or bartender to steal from the company.
It’s balanced out by the wage thefts from employers though. Sub minimum wage compensation is unacceptable
I agree, but maybe leave the industry?
Sometimes this one place gives me $20 of food before closing when I only intended to spend $5 so the upsell kinda hurts
But that upsell is strictly self-inflicted. If it’s before closing, I can almost guarantee the staff are just hooking you up because a large amount of that food is just going to go to waste since most restaurants require things to get thrown away (e.g. if it’s a deli, some of the meats may have hit their shelf life limit).
I’d just tip what you can comfortably afford and what you feel isn’t insulting (e.g. tipping someone like $0.50 on a $20+ order). I always follow the 15-20% rule, and possibly higher in some circumstances. But I don’t know, I haven’t worked food in 20 years, so maybe the manners/expectations have changed nowadays. Also depends where you live.
I don’t know what the culture is where you are, but I don’t give people money for friendly gifts. If anything, that just implies our relationship is transactional and shallow, rather than a community who care about each other more than money.
What I do is return the favor by giving them free things later, just like they did. Like buying them a drink at a pub.
I would usually tip based on the total including free food. So if the total was $20 I would give 15-25% - probably 3 to 5 dollars. In the case of getting just a free drink, I usually tip the price of the drink, similar to what you mention.
