Chef Alessandro Pirozzi of Alessa by Chef Pirozzi speaks to customers at an outdoor table on the Promenade on Forest in Laguna Beach, CA on Wednesday, January 13, 2021.
Pablo Bersebach | MediaNews Group | fake images
Even as restaurants and fast-food chains raise menu prices, customers still receive tips for servers and cashiers, according to a new report.
Diners tipped an average of 19.6% at full-service restaurants and 16.9% at quick-service restaurants during the second quarter, which was roughly in line with the prior year, according to the data. software vendor sales. Toast. In-person diners were generally more generous, with tips averaging 19.7%, according to the report. Delivery or takeout customers tipped an average of 14.5%.
The average amount of tips increased nearly 10% compared to the same period a year ago, slightly more than restaurant menu prices increased over the past year, Toast said. The cost of food outside the home increased 7.6% during the 12 months ending in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Although there is some anecdotal comment about whether inflation is affecting the rate at which people tip, we don’t see that in our data,” Toast co-founder and COO Aman Narang told CNBC.
Other payment software providers have reported that restaurant tips have fallen after rising earlier in the Covid pandemic. For example, Toast rival Square found that the average tip at quick-service restaurants fell from 17.2% to 15.2% from March 2021 through the end of February, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.
Both Toast and Square software can be customized to ask customers to tip at different levels, such as 10%, 15%, or 20% for a full-service restaurant or $1, $2, or $3 at a coffee shop.
“Certainly our technology is an enabler,” Narang said.
As inflation puts pressure on family budgets, restaurant chains, including mcdonald’s Y Chipotle Mexican Grill have reported that low-income customers spend less money at their locations and higher-income consumers visit more often. Others, like the owner of Outback Steakhouse flourishing brandsthey have said that diners have not changed their consumption habits, or that they have even shown a willingness to pay for more expensive options.
Toast compiles its quarterly restaurant trends report by analyzing data collected from the approximately 68,000 restaurants that use its software. Its customers range from independent restaurants to midsize regional chains.
The report also said full-service restaurant sales recovered to pre-pandemic levels for the first time in the second quarter. Sit-down restaurants bore the brunt of the crisis, as consumers cooked more of their meals at home or ordered through drive-through fast food lanes.
Source: news.google.com