Through the Eyes of a Delivery Goddess |
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First, allow me to wish everyone a safe New Year's Eve, and a prosperous, healthy and productive NEW YEAR from Curbside Etiquette. Thanks to everyone who has given feedback through the past year, and made my head too large for our doorways, and my ego unmanagable. I had a choice of two ideas; I decided to send through the shorter of the two for your enjoyment. I occasionally have folks ask me what an appropriate gratuity would be for a newspaper carrier, or a pizza delivery guy ... and honestly, most times, we even just appreciate the fact that someone even thought enough of us or our "service" to offer any kind of gratuity (or tip, for those like me who barely survive on a fourth grade reading level.) As Pizza Delivery goddess, around Christmas or New Year's time, occasionally, folks will throw an extra five in the payment, which is unnecessary, but appreciated. Most pizza guys use their own cars, their own gas and their own insurance. Depending on the pizza shop, sometimes you get a small reimbursement per delivery that's used (for tax purposes) to cover the gas per delivery, for instance, $.75 or $1 per delivery. Otherwise, wear and tear and maintance and insurance is the driver's responsiblity. Same goes for most paper carriers. I don't know of anyone that has a car owned or maintained by the paper company, so even an extra buck is much appreciated. As each passing year's economy has declined, we realize that the extra offerings also, understandably, decline accordingly. Throughout this past week, we were reminiscing about some of the more unique gratuities we've received. There are always things like home-made cookies, and pumpkin rolls - we have one customer who makes pumpkin rolls around 20" - 22" long... we've measured because we just can't believe it! There are gift cards for groceries, coffees and restaurants, lottery tickets and raffle tickets supporting local groups or charities, and once in awhile we find bottles of wine or champagne in our paper tubes (boxes). I've found milk bones from folks who know we have dogs. One year, I received a bandana sporting the Pittsburgh Steeler's logo. I vaguely remember pulling a pair of gloves from a tube once, and if they hand't had the price tags still attached (prices crossed out, of course) I might not have assumed they were for me. In years past, we've also been known to pull cards out of paper tubes that, when we get home, are NOT addressed to "paper carrier", but to the family who owns the tube, and unfortunately, we are familiar with everyone's addresses, but not necessarily their last names, and aren't always certain from where we took the card. I think some of the most unique gifts have been things like a caramel apple, a popcorn ball, a tea bag, a jar of "home-made brownie mix" with instructions to add an egg, oil and water, then bake. I don't know that I can pick a "most unique" award, but I think the one that made us laugh the most, was the year I got a gift card for a local gas station, it was marked $25, but when I took it to hte counter to cash in, there was only around $3 left on the card. It was already mostly used. I'm certain that was unintentional; but it was humorous all the same. So far, thankfully, we have not been given someone's unpaid speeding tickets or utility bills, although, we HAVE received payment to a credit card or utility instead of payment for the newspaper. We just return the check and try not to embarrass the sender too much. We're all busy these days. We sincerely hope and pray you all have a very safe New Year's Eve, and hope we all have a shiney new beginning waiting for us after midnight, 2008 into 2009.  |