MAKING A MOUNTAIN OUT OF A … PIZZA ORDER
By WILL FOLKS || Pizza can’t help it. It’s brain fuel. It’s the ultimate late night, “I know you’re tired as hell but c’mon – we gotta get this done” food. If you’re working late at night with a group of people – on anything – pizza is the magnet to which all of you will eventually be drawn.
There is nothing you can do to stop it … so go ahead. Place the order.
That’s precisely what happened on election eve at S.C. Democratic Party (SCDP) headquarters in downtown Columbia S.C. – a day before the party received a historic beat down at the polls
The party placed a pizza order with a local Domino’s franchise. An order that totaled $53.29. And when the pizza was delivered (sometime before 8:00 p.m.) the pizza guy (girl?) who made the delivery got tipped … $2.00.
Is that a bad tip? We’re not sure. Emily Post (or her online reincarnation) suggests pizza delivery workers receive a gratuity ranging anywhere from $2-5 for the typical order, so in some universe we suppose a $2.00 tip on a $53.29 order is justifiable.
If you’re an ass.
Who knows … although we think (and thought) it was funny how the political party demanding that government raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour would stiff a pizza delivery person. So … after obtaining a copy of the receipt from the order we included it in a catch-all post that same evening. Specifically, this post.
“Looks like the party of the little man didn’t leave much of a tip to this particular delivery guy,” we wrote, adding a photo of the receipt.
(Click to play)
As you can see from the image above, we cropped out the company name, the name of the server, the order number and the name of the individual who took the order (all at the request of the source who provided us the information).
What happened next?
Chaos. On multiple fronts.
Most relevant as it relates to us, a local Domino’s pizza manager by the name of Andy King – possessing a glaring lack of media relations training – did three things during a phone call with our founding editor: First, he confirmed reports passed along by our sources that the Domino’s franchise in question was considering terminating the employee who allegedly leaked the receipt to our source.
Second, King demanded that we remove not only the picture of the receipt – but the entire post in which it appeared – and issue a “retraction.”
Um … what?
Third, King accused us of “making a mountain out of a mole hill” over the pizza receipt – even after we indicated that our intent in calling was not to publish a story, but to try and keep anyone from getting fired.
Needless to say, King’s heavy-handedness in dealing with this situation prompted the article you are now reading – thus fulfilling his mountain-making prophecy.
Specifically, after learning that King was speaking with the head of the SCDP about the incident – ostensibly to determine whether the employee who allegedly leaked the receipt should be fired – we reached out to determine the outcome of that conversation.
“No harm no foul from our end,” SCDP chairman Jamie Harrison told FITS. “I know how hard it is to find a job these days.”
Harrison added he had “asked (King) not to fire” the employee.
Good …
So … will King follow through on Harrison’s request? Or is he too busy launching a legal jihad against this website?
Time will tell …
Oddly enough, just last week this website wrote favorably about Domino’s Pizza in an article about U.S. Sen. Rand Paul – an aspiring presidential candidate. And while we haven’t had the opportunity to sample its recently reinvented pizza, we have heard good things about it – and would love to give it a try.
(Hint-hint, Dominos …)
Anyway props to the SCDP for recognizing that getting an employee fired over something like this would be ridiculous … sort of like Domino’s suing us over the whole thing.
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43 comments
Will, you just don’t understand the power a Domino’s store manager has. He looks down on Dollar Store managers.
Will, you just don’t understand the power a Domino’s store manager has. He looks down on Dollar Store managers.
In another life, Kim Jong-un would totally be a pizza chain manager. Still get to be a dictator, still gets to stuff his face with carb-laden food.
In South Korea Kim would be luck to get a pizza store job as a buss boy.
You didn’t ask Mr. King what a typical tip was. The employee obviously thought it was low. Did the SCDP guy get fired for the low tip or poor election?
Typical tip at Domino’s? How about what’s left on the food stamp card?
No, they don’t tip at all. Not even poorly.
Maybe if we’d lower the corporate tax rates, then the Domino’s CEO could trickle-down pizza delivery opportunities to make up the difference.
Don’t smell what is trickling down on you, though.
Trickle down lifts all Kochs.
Nope. Not these days of unbridled greed. They’d just add it on to the CEO’s bonus.
The SCDP make Randolph and Mortimer Duke look positively generous.
Domino’s
“For most of our corporate existence we’ve sold you second rate pizzas using inferior ingredients. All that’s changed now. Trust us.”
Kind of fitting this is where the Democrats order their pizza, eh?
“Is that a bad tip?”
Yes it is!
“Emily Post (or her online reincarnation) suggests pizza delivery workers receive a gratuity ranging anywhere from $2-5 for the typical order, so in some universe we suppose a $2.00 tip on a $53.29 order is justifiable.”
When was this, 1970?
“If you’re an ass.”
BINGO!
The young lady should have gotten at least a $10 tip. But the liberturds are cheap, cheap. Guy was using a credit card and it could have been almost maxed out. Most are eating at the taxpayers trough and using credit cards. $2 bucks, if I had delivered I would have told the pecker head to shove it up his liberal ass. Just saying
Our forefathers would say that knowing you delivered the pizza on time and provided a service to your fellow countryman, is a lifelong value. That is a tip within itself. Liberals think money solves everything.
The assumption is that the driver delivers one order at a time, returning to Domino’s to pick up another individual order. Hasn’t anybody been at an apartment complex or business gathering where there are multiple orders? The driver, on one trip, gets multiple tips.
True, IF the driver is lucky and has multiple deliveries to one small area at the same time. Somehow, I imagine that kind of luck is more a sometime thing than a rule.
SCDP had to order from Domino’s
Domino’s is the only pizza joint in the midlands that makes/delivers Crow Pizza
http://tipthepizzaguy.com/general/amount.htm
The common courtesy is 15% for normal service.
On small orders of less than $20, the proper amount is the $3 minimum standard. It should be a $3 minimum to have someone come out to your house.
20% or more if the service is excellent.
10% or less for poor service. Nothing for very bad service.
If the order is large, like $100 or more, at least 10%.
It’s considerate to tip slightly more during bad weather.
In rain, snow, extreme cold, or extreme heat, at least $1 more. It’s thoughtful. The service is greater.
It’s also considerate to tip slightly more for long distance.
If your location is more than three miles from the store, it’s considerate to tip $1 more.
If more than five miles, increase by another $1.
Remember that a five-mile drive through a residential area can take 30 minutes for the ten-mile round-trip.
Even this seems a little stingy, given wear and tear on personal vehicles, gas, etc. I still would not tip less than $10 for a pizza delivery. I figure if it is worth it to me to have it delivered rather than get in my car and go pick it up, they deserve it.
Also consider a generous tip as “ALI” (Anti Loogy Insurance).
So how do you enjoy those $25 Domino’s pizza’s?
I don’t order them often. On the occasions I get one, 9 out of 10 times I pick it up at the store, myself. When I have to order one out, whether at work or at home and if I am THAT hungry, they’re damn good.
When i was in college, I delivered for Domino’s. We were the only delivery game in town, as that predated Papa John’s etc. Drivers received a stipend for mileage, at least they did then.
Not getting a tip at all was not uncommon, particularly if it was a low income or high income area. 80% or more of the tips came from the middle class. In that way, it was kinda like our current tax system.
Tips rarely exceeded $1, or $1 plus the difference to the next dollar (i.e. 10 bill and keep the change, for a $8.78 pizza).
It wasn’t that way just for me, but for all the drivers. That was back in the early-mid ’80’s but actually pizza prices haven’t really gone up that much since, considering how long ago that was. The smallest cheese pizza was like $5.
About 15 years ago there was a pizza place at the corner of St. Andrews and Broad River Roads where my daughter delivered pizzas several evenings during school weeks. She would average $ 20 – $ 40 per night for a few hours effort. BUT– keep in mind that about 95% of the deliveries were to the apartment complexes nearby mostly within a two mile distance. That makes a hell of a lot of difference.
TOO EASY, Papa Johns rules.
Wow, Andy King sound like a supreme fucking asshole. King Asshole to the lowly drivers he employs.
The SCDP wants every business to pay a living wage, and fortunately for them, they aren’t a business.
Not a successful one anyway.
Is the tip for carrying 10 boxes of pizza instead of 1? Reimbursement for total caloric depletion of the manual labor involved, the extra gasoline required to move the extra mass and the inconvenience of balancing pizza boxes while pressing the door bell?
That’s good thinking, Max, and I will keep that in mind on my future orders, Someone else has commented on weather.
Believe me.The best pizza chain around is,Marco’s.Look up their coupon codes,and get 25% off.Domino’s SUCKS ASS(although that feels good).I never tip less than 5 bucks,unless it’s the cute blonde dude;he gets a little more…
The last few pizzas I had came from Marco’s. They’re generally good but the last one had something in the “hamburger” on it like bone fragments or something. That kinda grossed me out.
If you complain,they’ll most likely make it up.The Pepperoni Magnifico is excellent,but very spicy.Their subs aren’t very good,though.
Those bone chips are in most take out hot dogs,and make me a little nervous,so I usually make my own,with Nathan’s or Hebrew National.
The SC “DP” will screw you more ways than one!
Pizza delivery folks don’t make a lot, so I tip them and offer them sex.
I hope they take every nickel u have to your name. Go Domino’s Go!!
To think after my nice trip to the Papa John’s bowl i was anti-Domino’s!!!
surprised he wasn’t tipped an Obamacare card and an Obama Phone…
surprised he wasn’t tipped an Obamacare card and an Obama Phone…
Free market, bitches.
If ordered online, it may have already included a tip, and if so, the $2.00 was just extra on top of what had already been given. I don’t order from Domino’s, but other pizza chains with online ordering allow this, and then require a signature on the credit card receipt. All receipts print with a tip line (the credit card printer doesn’t know if tip was pre-given or not).
Just for fun: driving time from Domino’s at 1124 Devine is 2 minutes to cover .81 miles at a cost of $ 0.22 for gas – (mapquest)
No doubt Mr. King is a Democrat and thus feels as though this incident has the potential to make the SCDP and his party look bad. He wanted to stop it before it became an issue that Republicans/Libertarians could use to flip some voters who might change their minds dependent on how a Democrat might tip a pizza delivery person.
Of course he would be concerned about that because that is exactly what a Democrat would do and so it is real to him. Democrats think people aren’t concerned about issues only the next made up “scandal” that their news media will continually harp on until it has a life of it’s own.