Part of the highly successful Williams-Sonoma group, West Elm is one of the most popular high-end home furnishing brands in the USA.
Together with their sister company, Pottery Barn, they turnover more than $1 billion annually.
If you’ve ordered goods from West Elm and are expecting a delivery, you might wonder what the etiquette is for tipping this kind of delivery driver.
To assist you with that, we’ve done the research and will bring you up to speed with whether you need to tip, how much you should tip if you do need to, when you should withhold a tip, what West Elm delivery personnel earn, and much more.
Keep reading to find out…
Do You Need to Tip West Elm Deliver? The Short Answer
In summary, you should generally tip West Elm delivery drivers. The fact that the goods are normally heavy, cumbersome, and hard to maneuver usually warrants a tip and we’d suggest a sum of $5-20 depending on the bulk of the items being delivered.
Below, we’ve covered more details about why you should tip West Elm delivery drivers.
Please keep reading to see what we think.
West Elm Delivery Driver Salaries
If a worker earns a measly salary, the more likely you are to tip right?
Yes, in most cases – for example, most of us tip at restaurants, if we get grocery delivery or when we go to the barbers.
Most workers in these roles rely on tips to boost their poor basic rates.
But what about West Elm drivers?
Unfortunately, we couldn’t find the salary details for West Elm drivers but we did manage to find those for West Elm’s sister company, Pottery Barn.
According to Indeed, they earn a fairly poor yearly salary at $37,886pa.
Whilst it’s not minimum wage (or even close), it’s well below the US average which according to PolicyAdvice.net is $57,456 per year.
On that basis, we think it’s a good idea to tip West Elm drivers. Indeed that’s the conclusion we reached when looking at whether to tip some of its competitors like Crate and Barrel, Living Spaces, and Rooms to Go.
How Much is West Elm Delivery?
This is usually another key factor for most people.
If you’ve paid a king’s ransom for delivery, you may be less inclined to throw a tip in on top.
So we took a look at West Elm’s delivery charges for delivering to an address in LA.
They are eye-watering at $259 for a delivery taking 4-7 days:
If extortionate delivery charges are the killer blow that will make or break whether you tip, then perhaps choose somewhere like Costco where standard delivery is free.
However, saying that, we can’t be too unkind to West Elm as most other high-end stores do charge for delivery and charge big.
For example, we found similar delivery prices when looking at delivery costs for Raymour and Flanigan.
How Much Should I Tip West Elm Delivery?
If the delivery charges haven’t put you off, then you’ll be wondering what to tip the West Elm guy when he or she arrives at your door.
Generally tipping is done at a rate of 15-20% of the cost of the goods in the US.
However, this isn’t always suitable. If you’ve purchased a $2000 bed then you’re unlikely to want to provide a $400 tip.
The other option, of course, is to apply the percentage to the delivery charge which would result in a tip of around $50 on the basis of the above delivery charges.
That’s still probably too steep in our view.
On that basis, we’d suggest a fixed sum of say $5 – $20 is plenty.
Perhaps add a little more around the holidays or if you’re blown away by the service.
When and When Not to Tip West Elm Delivery?
There will be occasions where you might think that the West Elm driver should receive a bit more and also when you should give less or not tip at all.
We’ve had a look at some scenarios.
When to tip more:
- Aroun the holidays such as ThanksGiving or Christmas
- If the driver has delivered in bad weather like snow or ice
- If the driver has gone beyond his call by taking the items into a remote place in your house or up an icey driveway
- If there’s assembly included
- We’d suggest tipping more if the item is especially large
When to tip less or not at all:
- If the driver has been rude or discorteous
- If the delivery is late or to the wrong address
- If the items are damaged
Do West Elm Permit Their Drivers to Take Tips?
Some companies outright debar their drivers or personnel from taking tips.
This is usually due to ethical grounds.
However, we couldn’t find anything to suggest that West Elm prevents their drivers from taking a tip.
If you’ve experienced anything different, then please let us know in the comments section.
What about West Elm White Glove Assembly Service? Should you Tip for That?
Like many companies these days, West Elm also provides an assembly service for an extra fee (also known as a white glove service).
We’re of the view that this is usually a bigger reason to tip as, let’s face it, no one likes assembling, do they?
We’ve looked at whether to tip assembly services provided by Wayfair, Amazon, and Ikea and the consensus is, yes, you should definitely tip.
We’d suggest adding $10 or so if you’re making use of assembly services as well as delivery.
Final Thoughts
Given the bulk of the items, West Elm’s fairly poor salaries, and the general etiquette within this industry, we think it’s only fair to tip your delivery driver.
$5 – $20 is ample and there really is no need to stick to the standard 15-20% like within other industries.
Remember to tip a little extra around the holidays especially if the driver has blown you away with the quality of the service.
I feel like this is written by a west elm delivery driver. Lol