I had 3 gifts wrapped at a holiday charity gift wrapping station. The gifts were small cube like objects, a book and 2 boxes of chocolates.
There was a sign that stated wrapping is free but donations are welcomed. I noticed a few females who were ahead of me didn’t tip.
I only gave them a $2 donation because the only other bill I had was a $20.
What is the proper tip amount?
Easily the $20. It’s for charity. Time + supplies.
Folks used the free wrapping and didn’t donate at all?
wow, over $20 is alot imo. Wrapping the gifts took about 1min each and supplies were just tape and wrapping paper.
Of the 5 people in front of me, 3 didnt tip and 2 tipped. 2 early 20 females as well as a 20something guy in front of me didnt tip. one older (50s) guy tipped $20 for wrapping some books. another middle age guy tipped a dollar for a cube like object as well.
maybe tip in multiples of $5?
Yeah $2 is proper if you give them those old school $2 bills because its cool and ‘vintage’. Otherwise, it’s all about the benjamins
not donating for charity Christmas wrapping is fucking stingey, and that’s coming from a Scotsman.
Doesn’t surprise me that girls in early 20’s didn’t donate.
We used to do volunteer wrapping around Christmas in downtown Calgary and it was a “pay what you think is fair” thing and all proceeds went to charity. I would feel very guilty accepting a tip. Had some people pay $100 to have something wrapped.
In the young ladies’ defense, the world is indebted to them for their willingness to grace us with their beauty.
If they really wanted everyone to pay a certain amount, they shouldn’t have called it “free” gift wrapping. I hate this passive aggressive shit. “Oh, you don’t have to pay… but if you don’t clearly you are an asshole”.
Anyway, I think $2 is fine for a courtesy tip. The kids spend 2-3 minutes wrapping your stuff, so this is potentially $40 to $60 an hour, which is far more than isildurr makes in his full time job. If you particularly support the charitable cause, then you should feel free to give more, of course.
But if you charge for gift wrapping, it looks like a commercial endeavor with a profit motive. Plus, this might also trigger other unwanted things (have to get a business license, pay sales tax, etc.).
And using the “free gift-wrapping service” and not donating is like going to a restaurant and not tipping. If you can afford to buy presents, you can afford to donate. If you can afford to eat, you can afford to tip.
If you can afford to eat, you can afford to tip?
That sounds like: if you can pay for something, you can pay 15% more. As long as your pocketbook is infintely deep, I guess that works. Otherwise, you might well think “I paid enough for this cube like junk, the least you can do is wrap it for me.”
I think a buck or two s is fine for wrapping something small. To me, it’s a bit like tipping the coat check person. If you have a ton of things to get wrapped or something unusually shaped, or the person does it exceptionally well, you might give it a boost. Tiffany’s will wrap your items for free anyways.
More and more things are starting to come with tip jars these days. One can look at it in at least two ways: 1) more people trying to squeeze extra money from customers, or 2) more employers telling employees to ask for tips in order to compensate for wage stagnation.
Well, I guess I see a difference between this and a tip, per say. #1, this is a charity fundraiser. #2, they’re providing a service. #3, its not about marginal cost, your cost of going to buy wrapping paper and tape and the time it takes you to go to the wrapping paper store, wrap the gifts, store the extra paper, etc. is most certainly more than $2. They call it free because its not a business, its a charity thing that relies on the good will of people to raise money for a presumably worthy cause. I would do $20, but I wouldn’t call you a cheap bastard for doing $10 for 3 gifts. But not donating anything is ridiculous. I actually would have said something to those freeloaders.
$2 is at best breakeven for the activity in question. clearly not selfish but clearly not aiding the charitable organization. i think it is at least close to a fair amount. obviously, $2 is better than $0 as the $0 must be subsidized by the high rollers dropping the Jacksons on charitable gift wrapping.
i probably would’ve done the same thing. i would’ve given $2-$5 for the service knowing it has a cost. if i felt obligated to give $20 to wrap some easy things, i wouldn’t do it at all, unless i was open to making the charitable donation anyway.
Any amount above $0 is still a net benefit to the organization - presumably the volunteers are working for free. I think the expectation for this gift wrapping service should be about $20 for each hour of volunteer time. If people give more than that, then that’s great. However, if people walk away without paying, you can’t be mad either - otherwise, you should have said up front, $X minimum suggested donation, like you see in NY museums (which by the way, seem to be quite well run), instead of saying it’s “free” (which implies no expectation of payment).
I do believe in giving money to charitable causes that you support - I personally donated a five figure total sum to various organizations in 2014. However, we do not owe charities anything just because they support some non-profit cause; maybe I don’t care about your church or whatever. For services like gift wrapping, we should be willing to pay the equivalent of commercial value; otherwise, we would be ripping the people off. However, anything above that is voluntary, and even zero additional dollars should be ok. The charities should establish this expectation up front, rather than mislead people into believing that they can get a free service without being guilt tripped.
^ I thought the “donations welcome–all proceeds go to X charity” set the expectations pretty well.
Expected donation != “Free”. If they expect a donation, then they should just say “Donations welcome”, or “Expected donation: $X”, as I mentioned.
It’s ok to say “Free” if it is actually ok to not give any money. Charities have a responsibility for proper publicity, just like any party.
“Free” + “Donations welcome” means that it is perfectly ok if every single person gave $0, which is probably not ok, if the fundraiser is to raise money for some cause.
Perhaps it is truly a zero cost service, and the “charity” is free gift wrapping to anyone who needs it. In which case, it is ok to say “Free”. However, if this is the case, there should be no judgment or pressure on people who don’t pay.
OK, I guess I just misinterpreted that. There is quite a difference between a sign that says _ “FREE GIFT WRAPPING!!!” _ and a sign that says “donations welcome”.
No one is forcing anyone to ‘buy’ the gift wrapping add on. You can go wrap your gifts yourself. But by willingly engaging in the transaction, you’ve got to be respectful of the process. People that don’t provide anything for that is garbage. I am a terrible gift wrapper and hate the process and maybe that’s why I set the bar at $20. Maybe $10 or $5 is fine. Whatever fair commercial value is, is a fair price. I agree with Chad there. That is not zero. And I doubt that someone would be willing to wrap gifts for you, including providing supplies, for $2. But some guy pulling up in an A8 or whatever and throwing $2 at the volunteers to wrap a handful of gifts is quite the picture. And I maintain the people that use volunteer services and refuse to even cover their costs are bottom of the bucket. As the charity is out the cost of supplies, they’re actually taking from the charity by using the service and not paying.
OP specifically said the sign said donations welcome.
I think giving at the rate of $20 an hour is fine for unskilled labor like gift wrapping. That is the expectation that I thought was fair, as I mentioned above. It takes maybe 2 minutes to gift wrap a small package. $60 an hour for volunteer time is very good.
If everyone in an Audi is obligated to pay $20 per gift wrapped, this could be up to $400 an hour. While this would be great, no one should be pressured to give that much.
As I mentioned earlier, it would not be nice to not pay for fundraiser services. However, the “Free” sign is then misleading with respect to this expectation. Again, I support people giving to charities and give a lot of money myself every year. However, in return, I expect the charities to be efficient, professional, and clear in their communications with the public.
Also (and I edited my earlier comment, so sorry if I did not put this earlier), people who take advantage of free services like gift wrapping are receiving a charitable service. It could still be in the spirit of the gift wrappers to provide this free service as a benefit to the local community.
**For emphasis: My issue is that the “Free” sign could be misleading, even if they say donations are “welcome”. Free should mean that expectation of donation is zero, not just that you have the option to not pay. Any non zero expectation is not “Free”. “Free” plus “welcome” should mean it’s good to donate, but still ok to not donate.**
I think the cost of what was bought factors in here. I don’t tip the sales lady at Tiffany’s for wrapping my purchase becasue it’s already highly priced, and I feel that the gift wrapping is part of the premium I paid for it.
You may be at a charity event, but if you paid $500 for a $200 thing, with the understanding that the $300 difference is a charitable contribution, I think it’s fine not to tip for gift wrapping.
On the other hand, if you bought a case of cookies for $10 at a bake sale, maybe it does make sense to tip the wrapper a couple of bucks if they do a nice job.