Title: “Alternative Tipping Methods”
General Information about Item:
- Verbal Lore, Domino’s Lore
- Language: English
- Country of Origin: United States
- Informant: Angel Trejo
- Date Collected: 11-10-19
- Location Collected: Oro Valley, AZ
Informant Data:
Angel Trejo is a restaurant worker in Tucson, AZ. He was born and raised in Tucson, AZ, and graduated Canyon Del Oro High School in 1999. During his time in high school, he worked at Domino’s Pizza for three years as a delivery driver and pizza line cook.
Contextual Data:
Like every fast food chain, Domino’s prides itself on its quick and quality service. Anything that can be done in order to speed up the process of making and delivering pizzas is key to each individual chain’s success. It can become monotonous for workers to repeat the same process over and over in order to create quick and quality fast food. So, workers would share stories of customers they delivered pizzas to in order to entertain and pass the time by. Unique customers and associated delivery stories would begin to circulate during all the shifts.
Item:
A certain apartment complex was known to have a group of stoners that would buy a lot of pizza. Smoke would come barreling out of the room when the driver would arrive with their pizza. They would invite the drivers into their apartment to “come hangout”. Their method of tipping was to invite the drivers in and smoke with them. This group of guys became very popular and well known amongst all the domino’s drivers. The mere mention of them would arise a positive comment from drivers and they would mention how they know the guys there and how much they enjoy them.
Interpretation:
Delivery drivers love to share stories to pass the time by. Their jobs can be monotonous always being stuck in traffic and having to deal with unique customers. Stories like this one become popular amongst drivers because customers like those mentioned above present an opportunity for each driver to experience interactions with these specific customers and be apart of the overarching story/folklore surrounding these guys.
Collectors Information:
Names: Christian Trejo
University Name: Dartmouth College
Course’s Title: Russian 13
Instructor’s Name: Professor Victoria Somoff
Term and year: Fall 2019