Should You Tip Your Budtender?

tips for budtenders

The Legalization and acceptance of cannabis as a beneficial compound needed by many for medicinal and recreational purposes in many areas and states in the United States has further improved the number of cannabis dispensaries in the country. As expected, the increase in the number of cannabis dispensaries has resulted in an increase in the number of budtenders that are available.

Budtenders are the center of attraction in a controversial topic in the cannabis world presently, as questions are being asked on the need to tip budtenders in cannabis dispensaries. To fully answer this question, we must first look into who a budtender is, and what roles do they play in the cannabis dispensary. This will help us in determining whether it is necessary to tip the budtender.

Who is a budtender?

As a bartender is to a bar, so is a budtender to a cannabis dispensary and with a bit more. The budtender is the person that you meet in the cannabis dispensary to help with all your needs with a view towards ensuring customer satisfaction. The budtender plays a good number of roles in the cannabis dispensary which first begins with assisting customers to find particular strains. It is common for cannabis users to come to cannabis dispensaries with a less than perfect idea of the strain they want to procure which is where a budtender comes in to assist them in finding such cannabis strains.

The budtender also helps to provide cannabis users with information regarding the cannabis products that they have on display in the cannabis dispensary. They do these while answering questions that the customers may have concerning those products which is where they usually display their wealth of knowledge concerning all things cannabis. Budtenders guide customers by providing them with necessary info on the strengths of strains and they can also help the customer to select the strain that best meets their desired results.

Budtenders also help in ensuring that cannabis dispensaries meet up with the regulation necessary for operations and they help in educating and equipping new customers with the necessary information concerning cannabis. This explanation of the roles of a budtender is important so as to explain the reason why the question of if it is necessary to tip your budtender needs to be addressed.

Is it necessary?

A tip as we know it to be is nothing more than an incentive and it is mostly given by customers who are satisfied by the quality of service being offered to them. There are different views on the ongoing debate on the need for tips as different cannabis users and purchasers are on both sides of the topic. The presence of the glass tip jars which are commonly a feature of cannabis dispensaries makes this a topic that needs looking into.

First, we need to look at the pay structure of the budtender in relation to the services that are being offered to the cannabis user before we can ask whether tipping the budtender is necessary or not. The pay structure of the budtender is in line with the minimum wages of different states and the range for this across the legal states in the United States is between $11 and $16. Budtenders are quite different from clerks at liquor stores or attendants at fast food joints because they do more than just sell to customers, they offer additional services. The reason why bartenders and cab drivers are usually being tipped is due to their ability to offer satisfying service that is pleasing to their customers.

The question of whether it is necessary to tip budtenders begins to take a different shape as we all know that since tips are incentives, they are not imposed on the customer. However, a dutiful workman is worthy of a reward and a budtender who is able to offer the necessary service to a customer is worthy of a tip as well. This is because for budtenders that go out of their way to explain and educate cannabis users on strains, concentrates, kiefs, cannabinoids, terpenes, and so on, they are doing more than just selling and if they are able to add more to the user, then a tip might be a worthy compensation.

How much is enough?

It is a common feature to walk into the cannabis dispensary and see the tip jar filled with different ranges of bills. This is the time when questions like just how much is enough to tip the budtender after a satisfactory service has been rendered, and how much is too much?

Most cannabis users who ask these questions ask because a substantial amount is usually being paid to purchase cannabis products and this ultimately affects the willingness of cannabis users to tip budtenders and how much they are willing to tip.

When it comes to how much to tip a budtender, the ball as expected ultimately lies in the court of the customer. This is because the value and volume of the tip depend on the level of satisfaction of the customer and how much of a help the budtender has been to meet the needs of the customer. A budtender who does not attend properly to the customer and doesn’t provide any added assistance in terms of information about the products should not expect a substantial tip. The drive to tip a budtender only arises from the cannabis user as a means of showing gratitude for a job well done. So budtenders! Take note. If you desire decent tips bring your A game everyday.

One other salient point that can affect the tipping etiquette of a customer is their finances. While some are financially buoyant enough to drop a substantial amount as compensation for a good service rendered, others might not be able to due to personal finances. This is why when it comes to tipping the budtender in a cannabis dispensary, there are a lot of factors that come to play in determining whether a budtender will be tipped or not.