Did you order takeout during Winter Storm Jonas over the weekend? I'm willing to bet that a lot of us did, since going to the grocery store in the middle of a massive blizzard isn't exactly an appealing idea to most. The big question, though, is whether or not we all tipped enough — so for the curious, here are the cities that tipped for delivery the best during Winter Storm Jonas. The data comes to us from GrubHub via the Daily Dot; despite roads closing, public officials telling residents to keep their cars off of the streets, and over two feet of snowfall in some cities, many food delivery services, GrubHub included, kept their doors open during the storm, delivering delicious takeout to keep customers' hunger at bay as they rode out the storm. GrubHub then analyzed their data from deliveries made during #Snowzilla to determine who tipped the best — and who tipped the worst.
The Daily Dot reports that, overall, tipping was in fact higher during Winter Storm Jonas than it typically is. However, the margin between tipping on a non-storm day and tipping on the days of the blizzard wasn't very large. We've already gone over what proper tipping etiquette calls for during a terrible winter storm — that is, while there's no rule that necessarily says that you need to tip more during these types of conditions, you probably should if you want to be a decent human being (if you're trekking through two feet of snow to deliver someone a pizza, would you perhaps want a couple of extra bucks for your effort? Probably) — but apparently not everyone got the memo.
Looking at previous data on how tipping changes during bad weather, shoddy weather conditions actually may not lead to better tipping: A 2010 from the University of California - San Diego and Vassar College found that there was no statistical significance between the amount of sun exposure and tipping rates. However, GrubHub also reported that after the 2014 Polar Vortex, tipping according to their delivery data increased from a rate of 13.9 percent to 14.1 percent on average during this time period. .2 percent may not be much to write home about, but hey, it's something.
This time round, GrubHub found that New York was the most generous city of tippers during Winter Storm Jonas, while the D.C. area was the least generous. New Yorkers tipped an average of 17.3 percent per order on Saturday, which was during the heart of Winter Storm Jonas, while D.C. residents only tipped an average of 15.6 percent. At least the people of D.C. are also the most generous tippers during good weather; apparently people there usually shell out a tip of 14.4 percent on the weekends when the weather is nice, while New York tips an average of 14.2 percent on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
Although people were generally a little more generous with their tips during Winter Storm Jonas, a 15 percent tip is still not all that great, considering that 15 to 20 percent is the recommended tipping amount in almost all instances of food service. Many have recommended tipping up to 30 percent during a winter storm, which makes these findings seem a lot more dismal.
The bright side is that people were more generous in the tipping overall during the storm, although perhaps not as generous as they could or should have been. Perhaps now that all of this winter storm tipping etiquette has been such a hot topic of discussion, people will be more prepared to open their wallets next year.
