What's new
  • Please note members who been with us for more than 10 years have been upgraded to "Veteran" status and will receive exclusive benefits. If you wish to find out more about this or support IcMag and get same benefits, check this thread here.
  • Important notice: ICMag's T.O.U. has been updated. Please review it here. For your convenience, it is also available in the main forum menu, under 'Quick Links"!

Does anyone tip a budtender?

OldSSSCGuy

Active member
Anybody tip their budtender? Like a barber, waitress, belhop, etc. seems that some budtenders deserve some 'thanks' beyond a smile.


Just curious... and if you do tip - how much?
 

Lost in a SOG

GrassSnakeGenetics
Ha yeah as if life isn't sweet enough selling bud all day.. With homeless rates on the rise the last thing id be thinking is that guy needs a tip lol.. Then again I cant and I'm not American and I dont really believe in coenabling vampire business owners through encouraging tips, I just found the concept funny..
 

Gry

Well-known member
I grow my own, but go to a local shop for genetics.
I get nice genetics from them, they are real good to me.
I get relief that big pharma and rockerfeller medicine are not interested in offering.

I feel incredibly fortunate and blessed.

I thank them kindly, and always tip them. apx 20%
 

green404

Member
No.

First of all I do not like to support employers under paying workers. It is not my job to pay the employees I am a customer supporting the business and then.. they want me to make up for them under paying workers ? If the workers have to beg for money they should just go out on the street and not support a business model like that.

Second I pay city tax, state tax, mj tax, rec mj tax and then the under paid worker is begging me for money ? It's like a jungle of blood/money sucking parasites.
 

Babbabud

Bodhisattva of the Earth
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Wife does very well with tips , but her knowledge of the plant is strong so im sure people appreciate her.
 

Switcher56

Comfortably numb!
Nope! I exchange favours in appreciation. e.g local shop clerk can't get her hands on Harlequin. I gave her a 3.27g nug and told her where she can find more. back in the day, that was a tip :)

PS: wanna laugh. I stumbled a go fund me page of someone trying to get into the industry! What has the world come to???
 
N

naturalbornkilr

I don't go in dispensaries anymore but when I did, most wouldn't allow you to tip even if you wanted to.
 

sdd420

Well-known member
Veteran
I grow my own, but go to a local shop for genetics.
I get nice genetics from them, they are real good to me.
I get relief that big pharma and rockerfeller medicine are not interested in offering.

I feel incredibly fortunate and blessed.

I thank them kindly, and always tip them. apx 20%

Yes but only if service was good otherwise prices are already pretty high
 

Switcher56

Comfortably numb!
Yes but only if service was good otherwise prices are already pretty high
Exactly! I remember leaving a waiter a penny. He told his mate I was a cheap fucker. His mate said no, he is sending you a msg. He said what? He didn't have to tip, he did. He merely gave you what he thought your service was worth. Now change your attitude. I gather he was in the wrong line of work.
 

AgentPothead

Just this guy, ya know?
Did anybody tip their drug dealer when it wasn't legal? I never did, but I always offered to smoke a bowl with them.
 

JustSumTomatoes

Indicas make dreams happen
Did anybody tip their drug dealer when it wasn't legal? I never did, but I always offered to smoke a bowl with them.

Always did the same. Most of the time I tried to get in and get out, but there were a few dudes I was very good friends with. I would usually end up spending half the night over there getting stoned stupid. A couple of times I forgot to pay them for the bud and didn't remember until I got home lol. They were of course cool about it and I dropped it off the next day.

Whenever I briefly sold bud I would always let people pick it right out of the bag and weigh it themselves. Never expected a tip but getting smoked out was always appreciated.
 

green404

Member
Exactly! I remember leaving a waiter a penny. He told his mate I was a cheap fucker. His mate said no, he is sending you a msg. He said what? He didn't have to tip, he did. He merely gave you what he thought your service was worth. Now change your attitude. I gather he was in the wrong line of work.


I have heard a lot of people in the restaurant industry say that customers "stiffed" them. They have the attitude that no matter what customers need to pay them 15%-20% and if they don't they are cheating them.

If I get almost no service I leave almost no tip. Why should I pay someone $15. to walk my food a crossed the room ? then neglect me and let my drink go dry. If they are "too busy" then the people they are helping can pay them.

Did anybody tip their drug dealer when it wasn't legal? I never did, but I always offered to smoke a bowl with them.

A dealer no but I would give middlemen a small bag to go home with.
 

JustSumTomatoes

Indicas make dreams happen
I have heard a lot of people in the restaurant industry say that customers "stiffed" them. They have the attitude that no matter what customers need to pay them 15%-20% and if they don't they are cheating them.

I've heard people in the restaurant industry say that 20-25% is expected and 15% is what you tip if you had shitty service. I'm all for workers making a decent wage but what was once courtesy for exceptional service is now a means for businesses to pay their workers below minimum wage and make the customer subsidize them according to their perceived performance. This I feel is unfair to the employees and the customers. I always tip fairly when expected to and will tip very well when it has been earned. I personally don't completely agree with the system, but if it was that big of a deal to me I would just quit going out to eat, ordering pizza and stopping by bars. Many retailers have a no tip policy and will fire their employees if they accept one.

The whole tipping the bud tender thing seems a bit hysterical to me because it's still illegal in my state and I've never once bought legal bud. Many of the street dealers I've bought from over the years totally sucked. Would pull all sorts of wonderful shit like tell you to be at an exact spot at a certain time only to call you 20 minutes after you got there and say they'll be there in 15 minutes and then never show up or answer your calls.

Once there was this guy who sold me some and his scale wasn't working so he had to eyeball it. The bag looked legit and right before I walked out his scale starting working again and he asked if he could weigh it. I made the mistake of handing it back to him and he plopped it on the scale, took a few buds out and returned the bag to me. Got home, weighed it myself, and what should have been an 8th weighed 2.9 grams. God damn it. Called him back and sure enough, no answer.

One guy got the weight right but he would sit there above his scale and slowly crumple the weed between his dirty fingers until it was right on the dot and not a .01 over. This other dude was a nice guy and sold amazing bud but for some reason was always out of bags. Wasn't anything major but a sandwich bag for $50 or $100 worth of weed is usually nice instead of getting it in a paper towel, leftover Mcdonalds french fry carton, or even just putting it in my hand.

As for tipping bud tenders I'll let you guys in the green states work all that out before it gets to me. Hopefully by then home growing on a small scale will be legal and I won't even bother with buying it in stores. Might have to do it once just to have the experience.
 

thailer

Active member
all the companies sending in their products always send samples to give to employees so they know what their weed is like. i don't know a single budtender who actually pays for pot. they don't know anything about what they're selling and are told to move certain merchandise so i don't feel like you can get an honest response either way. With tips, my friend makes $20 an hour while the other friend growing it only makes minimum wage ($11.50) sweating it out in a plastic suit under hot lights and they don't give out free bud at his work often but on holidays he gets a goodie bag. i wouldn't tip budtenders personally.
 

Lrus007

Well-known member
Veteran
tip #1
tie your shoes so you do not trip.

tip # 2
a lubricated tip * if she's cute.

bud tender no tip

Lrus007
 

green404

Member
As for tipping bud tenders I'll let you guys in the green states work all that out before it gets to me. Hopefully by then home growing on a small scale will be legal and I won't even bother with buying it in stores. Might have to do it once just to have the experience.

I don't go to many dispensaries, when dispensaries were new(2008 Med) I went to a lot of them, kid in the candy store syndrome.

A good dispensary will have about 10-15 strains all in jars. You ask the Budtender to look at a strain they will get the jar open it and let you smell it look at the buds. When you find what you want, you tell them the amount and they weight it out for you and label it. A good Budtender will have some basic "knowledge" of the strains and recommend what is the good ones.

A sur par/average dispensary will have everything prepackaged. The Budtender will just grab a package and move it to the cash register. If you ask about the strains they will tell you the "best" is what ever they are trying to move the most of.

Once you get past the novelty of cannabis a dispensary is like most other retail stores. A low paid retail worker standing behind a counter. Some stores attract nice people others, not so much. How much "knowledge" does a good Budtender have ? How much does the average retail worker know about anything they sell ?

Personally for me the key is Were they nice ? friendly ? and create a good retail experience ? or did they put a package by the register and act like I was a nuisance ? The retail world.
 

Babbabud

Bodhisattva of the Earth
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Just for the record ... there are no more buds in jars in California anymore ... everything is pre packaged . Little sample buds out to look at .. but everything is in sealed packages .. pre weighed ..... bud tenders just hand out packages now.
 

Latest posts

Latest posts

Top