Meijer is one of the most popular stores in the US with a huge $20b annual revenue across its 240 stores nationwide.
If you’ve ordered groceries or other items from Meijer and are expecting a delivery, you might wonder whether you need to dip into your pocket to tip the Meijer driver.
Tipping is an important part of US culture; get it wrong and you’re going to be either tipping too much and too often and wasting cash or not tipping or tipping too little and falling foul of common etiquette.
To help you there we’ve explored what the common custom is in the US when it comes to tipping Meijer delivery and will bring you up to speed with whether you need to tip (including pick-up services), how much if so, how much Meijer employees earn, and much more.
Keep reading on to find out…
Do You Tip Meijer Delivery? The Short Answer
It is a common custom to tip grocery delivery drivers including Meijer drivers. They earn modest salaries and rely on tips to supplement their income. A tip of $5-20 depending on the size of the order is sufficient.
We’ll cover more about this below.
How Much do Meijer Delivery Drivers Earn?
A key consideration for most people when looking at whether to tip is how much the recipient earns.
We’re all familiar with the need to tip certain workers such as those in restaurants, cafes, and barbers as they earn relatively low base income and need the extra cash to make up their earnings.
But what about Meijer workers?
We’ve pulled the data from the popular job site Indeed which shows that Meijer drivers earn $18.90 per hour or $39,312 per year on the basis of a 40-hour work week.
Meijer also uses Shipt drivers for some of its deliveries such as same-day or next-day delivery. Their drivers earn around $46,000 a year.
They also use Instacart gig workers who earn around $35,000 a year on average.
Whether it’s Meijer’s, Shipt’s, or Instacart’s drivers who make your delivery, they are unlikely to be on fantastic salaries and on the above data earn quite a bit below the US yearly average which stands at around $50,000.00
On that basis, we’d say that Meijer delivery drivers should be tipped as they’re likely relying on that extra money to boost their wages.
How Much is Meijer Delivery?
Another key factor for most people will be how much the delivery costs.
If you’re paying through the nose for delivery you might be less inclined to tip.
We’ve pulled up the data and can confirm that the delivery cost is $7.95 with no minimum for orders.
You can also use the pickup service where you pick up from your local Meijer store for $4.95.
$7.95 is fairly standard in our experience. For example, Kroger charges about $10 for the same service with Food Lion charging $3.99 or $7.99 for orders under $35 so Meijer’s charges fall somewhere in between.
Meijer’s pick-up fee is not the cheapest, however. Target offers this service for free and Food Lion only charges $1.99 for orders over $35.
In summary, Meijer’s delivery and pick-up fees are middle-of-the-road in terms of value.
How Much to Tip Meijer Delivery
The going rate in the US is 10-20% of the total cost of the goods or services.
This is usually bumped up to 15-20% in restaurants.
You could apply this to your shop but paying a $20 tip on a $100 shop when delivery is already going to cost you $7.99, might be a bit steep for many people.
Therefore, a simple fixed amount of, say, $5-$20 is often an easier way of doing things and will definitely suffice in most situations.
We’d suggest bumping that up if you’re order is bigger or around the holidays.
We don’t like to tip below $2 as the tip then becomes rather meaningless.
Do You Tip Meijer Pick-Up?
Whether to tip pick-up services is a bit more of a grey area.
Some people do and some don’t.
Some will argue there’s no need as the worker is only bringing the goods into the pick-up area and not to your home and you have to pay $4.99 for this service anyway.
However, we’d still recommend tipping even if you’re just using the pick-up service as Meijer employees who will be bringing the goods to your vehicle don’t earn great salaries and will appreciate a tip if you can stretch to one.
Just tip a little bit less for this service, say, $3-10.
When to Tip and Not to Tip a Meijer Delivery Driver?
There might be times when you want to tip more, not at all, or tip less.
We’ve covered a few scenarios when this might be below.
Tip more if:
- Your driver has gone beyond the call of duty. For example, by bringing your groceries up a frozen driveway or to a remote location in your home
- The driver has been professional and courteous
- It’s around the holidays
- You’ve received discount delivery (Meijer has regular deals on delivery fees)
On the flip side, you might decide to not tip or to reduce your tip if:
- The delivery is late
- The delivery is to the wrong address
- Food or other goods are missing
- The driver is rude or unprofessional
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, it’s definitely good etiquette to tip grocery delivery drivers like those at Meijer and we think $5-$20 is about right.
Whether to tip Meijer pick-up workers is a bit more open to debate but we’d still recommend that you do given their relatively low salaries.
