I was shocked by all the cultural differences when I was going to see relatives overseas recently.
- The two of us were all in a restaurant and our bills had been split individually.
When I asked about the local exchange rate and how much I should leave as a tip, I was told that leaving a tip isn’t a practice in this certain country. As an American, this was a huge surprise. I assumed that tipping food staff was a respected thing that all people practiced. My family explained that wait staff makes more per hour in this area of the world to make up for not getting tips. Because hourly wages are so feeble in the US, wait staff have to survive on tips left by customers. This is often the same for delivery drivers as well, although it’s still expected even if the drivers make more than a minimum wage. But when it comes to purchases made at the medical cannabis dispensary, this issue isn’t at all cut and dry. In an ideal world we’d all have money to leave tips no matter what kind of repair that we’re receiving or benefitting from. But should we tip a few bucks at the grocery store as well, or pharmacists when picking up medicine? That’s where I land on medical cannabis. It’s a step below an actual physician’s prescription, so I believe it’s wrong to expect low income medical cannabis patients to leave tips. I still feel this way even if the patient gets their order through a cannabis delivery service. If people can afford tips, I believe they should. But if someone is barely making ends meet, shaming them into leaving tips is an exhausting look in my honest opinion.