WARNING: long post, 2 parts; contains ranting.
I hate tipping culture. It infuriates me. I think it's unethical and exploitative to all parties involved beyond the people at the very top of the wealth heirarchy including wealthiest shareholders (ie those owning majority of shares) and highest levels of management in the giant evil corporations that own all the businesses where the poorest among us are forced to shop ...
Because choosing ethical retailers with higher prices is either a literal impossibility or means starving more often and/or doing without other necessities (like wound dressings, basic health monitoring gadgets like pulse oximeters, blood pressure monitors, spacers for inhalers, feet/wheels/repairs for mobility aids, injection supplies [ironically your vial of injectable necessary-to-not-die-or-to-avoid-severe-and-maybe-permanent-physical-damage-from-uncontrolled-disease medication is usually covered but the needles, syringes, alcohol swabs, and sharps containers are not - and in the space of a few years the price of these things has quadrupled (increased by approx 400%) while benefits and wages have increased maybe 2-4% if at all] or medicines that public health insurance doesn't cover and you absolutely need).....
It depends on where you live and on factors like whether you can go to the store yourself and haul your groceries home (which I cannot anymore) .... in many places in Canada that are the least population dense, you might have only one or maybe two stores within any realistic/reasonable distance (ie an hours drive or less one way) for purchasing food and basic hygiene supplies and more often than not these days both will be owned by the same huge corporate conglomerate....so "voting with your dollar" is not always actually possible even if you have enough dollars to use them in this way.
I usually tip the bare mimimum amount if I order heavy grocery items or quite a lot of bulky things at once, despite that I cannot afford it at all ... And only because I know lots of people in this world including many delivery drivers are judgemental, ignorant, and petty, with zero social awareness or imagination who presume if you order groceries to be delivered to your home, or your order contains anything prepared or spendy allergen-free anything, its because you're a lazy and rich person with money to burn ordering "lifestyle" spendy items as a privileged preference and not actually according to a real need (like having food allergies, mobility impairments, and severe lifelong adaptive functioning challenges that limit choice and how much you can realistically prepare meals from scratch ingredients without simply wasting a lot of food and money and going hungry anyways expecting impossible things of yourself) (FACTS:
MY INCOME IS GUARANTEED FAR LESS THAN THE DELIVERY DRIVER'S IS IF THEY ARE SELF-SUPPORTING, AND MY EXPENSES GIVEN FOOD ALLERGIES AND UNENDING MEDICAL EXPENSES AND MOBILITY AND ADAPTIVE FUNCTIONING ISSUES MEANS MY BARE MINIMUM SURVIVAL EXPENSES JUST FOR MYSELF ALONE ARE PROBABLY HIGHER (NO GUARANTEES ABOUT EXPENSES, THOUGH, BUT IF SOMEONE MAKES
THE AUTOMATIC JUDGEMENT THAY NO-TIP OR LOWER-THAN-WANTED-OR-EXPECTED-TIP MUST MEAN I AM A LAZY, SELFISH, PRIVILEGED JERK, THERE IS A PRETTY GOOD CHANCE ITS BECAUSE THE JUDGER HAS NO PERSONAL EXPERIENCE THAT MIGHT PROMPT THEM TO IMAGINE OTHER POSSIBLE REASONS FOR MY NOT TIPPING THEM 20% OR ANYTHING AT ALL);
GIG ECONOMY DELIVERY DRIVERS ARE EXPLOITED AND STRUGGLE, NO DOUBT ABOUT THAT (e.g. UBEREATS; DOORDASH; INSTACART -- THESE COMPANIES ARE USED BY MOST MAJOR GROCERY STORES IN CANADA BECAUSE THEY ARE EXPLOITATIVE OF DRIVERS AND THEREFORE USING THEM IS CHEAPER THAN HIRING THEIR OWN EMPLOYEE-DRIVERS) -- BUT THE FACT IS THESE FOLKS HAVE TO EARN ENOUGH TO OWN AND OPERATE A CAR THAT THEY MUST BE ABLE TO FUEL UP WITH ENOUGH GAS TO DRIVE AROUND LITERALLY ALL OF THEIR WORKDAYS, AND I COULDN'T AFFORD TO OWN A CAR I DROVE MAYBE 2- 4 TIMES A MONTH FAIRLY SHORT (MAX 40 MINUTES ROUND TRIP W/UP TO 2 STOPS, AT SLOWER CITY DRIVING SPEED WHEN HITTING AT LEAST HALF RED LIGHTS) DISTANCES EVEN IF I LIVED IN MY CAR AND ALSO HAD NO FOOD ALLERGIES OR MEDICAL EXPENSES OR ADAPTIVE FUNCTIONING ISSUES! ALSO:
I DO NOT HAVE INTERNET IN MY HOUSE BECAUSE I CANNOT AFFORD IT;
I DO NOT HAVE A TELEVISION AND HAVE NEVER IN MY ENTIRE ADULT LIFE HAD ONE, NOR CAN I AFFORD CABLE OR ANY PAID STREAMING SERVICE;
I DON'T EAT OUT, I DON'T ORDER TAKE OUT FOOD OR DRINKS;
I DON'T GO TO THE MOVIES NOR RENT MOVIES;
I DON'T HAVE ACCESS TO ANY FORM OF LEISURE ACTIVITY THAT REQUIRES SPENDING ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY;
I HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO DRIVE AND NEVER WILL BE ABLE TO DRIVE;
I CANNOT EVEN USE NORMAL PUBLIC TRANSIT ANYMORE (AND IT WAS STRUGGLE EVEN BEFORE I ACQUIRED SERIOUS MOBILITY IMPAIRMENTS BECAUSE OF COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENTS AND EXTREME SENSORY ISSUES);
MY PHONE PLAN IS $35/MONTH (for perspective -- because Canada has some of the highest cellular service rates in the world: the cheapest alternative would be at least $25/month and with that you get strictly limited local only minutes, no data, etc -- and data is actually a need because its the only way to order groceries, hygiene stuff, bandaids, and facilitates my only significant connection to the other people)
I ONLY EVER GET NEW CLOTHES WHEN MINE LITERALLY FALL APART AND ONLY HAVE RUNNING WATER BECAUSE MY FATHER PAYS FOR THESE...I ONLY HAVE MOBILITY AIDS BECAUSE HE PAID
FOR THEM....AND EVEN MINIMAL CONTACT WITH HIM LEAVES ME IN AN ENDLESS STATE OF FEAR AND REAL VULNERABILITY -- I WOULD ACTUALLY NOT HAVE A HOME AT ALL OR WOULD MAYBE BE INSTITUTIONALIZED IF NOT FOR SUPPORT FROM MY FATHER (OH AND MY HOUSING COSTS ARE LESS THAN I WOULD PAY FOR THE FILTHIEST, MOST DANGEROUS, LOUD, BEDBUG INFESTATED ROOM SHARE I COULD FIND -- AND MY
HOUSE IS A NIGHTMARE FILLED WITH ASTHMA AND IMMUNE DISEASE EXACERBATING MOLD THAT WAS HIDDEN ON PURPOSE BY THE PREVIOUS OWNER-OCCUPANT -- AND I AM STUCK HERE ...I DO HAVE PRIVILEGE, MANY ARE FAR WORSE OFF THAN ME -- BUT STILL: AM NOT A WELL-OFF JERK LIVING THE HIGH LIFE BY ANY STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION, ESPECIALLY NOT COMPARED TO THE DELIVERY DRIVERS WHO ENACT PETTY REVENGE AGAINST PEOPLE LIKE ME AND GLOAT ABOUT IT ALL OVER THE INTERNET IN MUCH MORE DISPARAGING RANTS THAN THIS ONE);
I could go on...
The sad fact is that people tend to be extremely presumptive and irrationally judgemental; And with grocery delivery, if you don't tip some delivery driver (and actually, I have often found -- even when you do -- presumably because a $5 tip doesn't meet their expectations, even if they only had to carry one non-cumbersome, light-weight bag or box from their car to your door... and yet they accept the order [they have choice in which deliveries to accept] and apparently don't try to find less exploitative work with better and more reliable pay while assuming housebound poverty-income people they deliver to are lazy and entitled -- ironic) then they enact revenge by damaging your items or taking some of them -- or more passive aggressively in my case by leaving items as far away from my door as is possible.
(I never should have politely asked in the delivery notes I am repeatedly required to refill, for them to please leave items right in front of the door -- or should have elaborated why -- some people will, despite my clearly stipulated selection for no-contact delivery [meaning leave the stuff and go away, I don't want to interact with you] call me over and over and over and over as I slowly make my way to the door, I think probably because they are expecting a cash tip...
And on occasion I have ended up explaining I have mobility issues and they suddenly become less huffy [thing is: if i go to the door with my crutches, many try to just push their way into my house -- likely trying to be helpful, to bring stuff in for me but NOT allowed nor wanted...and it's actually easier to just support myself on the doorframe or handle as I drag stuff in than to try to move boxes or bags with crutches attached to my arms [they are full cuff elbow crutches]....or to lean on the front step railing if they leave things as far away from the door as possible)...
The store will typically reimburse you for damaged or missing items but its a pain in the butt going through everything, taking photos and filing an online report or going through the 5+ minute long series of automated phone menus designed to divert you to the website reporting form (which btw can take hours to appear and often doesn't work), before you are allowed to be put on a long hold and eventually speak to a person (because you can't take a photo of something that ISN'T THERE, and good luck capturing in a single photo exactly how many of, say, the hundred pack of bandaids clearly opened and harvested from are missing)...