GrubHub Breaks Down Holiday Season Tipping Trends

Southern Cities Top List of Generous Tippers While Midwest and East Coast More Cost-Conscious

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Dec 11, 2012, 12:00 ET

CHICAGO, Dec. 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- 'Tis the season for cheer and generosity, and GrubHub, the nation's number one food ordering service, analyzed two years of data to determine if the holiday spirit had any influence on takeout tipping. Despite current economic discourse, year-over-year tipping data shows GrubHub diners are being as generous with their 2012 holiday tips as they were during the 2011 holiday seasonⁱ, with the average holiday tip hovering between 15-17 percent of each order.

When breaking down this year's holiday tips across GrubHub's more than 400 cities, data identified the following markets as allocating the highest and lowest percentages of their overall orders to tips:

Generous Holiday Tippers	Cost-Conscious Holiday Tippers
1. Charleston, S.C.	1. Dayton, Ohio
2. Columbia, S.C.	2. Syracuse, N.Y.
3. St. Louis	3. Ithaca, N.Y.
4. New Orleans	4. Hartford, Conn.
5. Virginia Beach, Va.	5. New Haven, Conn.

In addition to a market ranking by holiday tipping percentage, GrubHub data from 2011 and 2012 uncovered several other insights related to diners' payment and tipping habits:

Compared to 2011, the percentage of GrubHub diners choosing to tip with cash has increased by approximately five percent;
Orders from Southwestern, Tex-Mex, Bagel and Hot Dog restaurants are among those that bring in the highest tip percentages, while orders from Stromboli, Soup/Noodles, Barbecue and Burger restaurants elicit some of the lowest tip percentages throughout 2012; and
The tipping percentage is relatively consistent across GrubHub ordering platforms: iOS, Android and web.

For more information about GrubHub and to see what restaurants offer takeout in your area, please visit GrubHub.com.

About GrubHub
GrubHub is the nation's leading online and mobile food ordering platform that shows diners local restaurants available for delivery or pick up. Available in more than 400 cities across the nation, GrubHub features more than 17,000 ordering restaurants and, as the parent company of Allmenus, lists approximately 250,000 restaurant menus. Diners who order through GrubHub's free website or mobile apps can pay with cash, credit or PayPal™, and every order is supported by GrubHub's 24/7 customer service. Founded in 2004, GrubHub is a privately held company and is headquartered in Chicago.

ⁱ Holiday season is defined as 11/1/11-12/31/11 and 11/1/12-12/10/12

SOURCE GrubHub