In Starbucks today, a patron who had just finished paying for his sandwich looked distraught. “I don’t have any change for a tip!” he told me. He decided to wait until I paid for my scone so that the cashier could open the register and give him change.
In all of my many, many trip to Starbucks stores in London, I never encountered anyone with this problem. The art of tipping is not generally on the radar screen of most Brits.
When my (British) husband and I stayed in a Boston Marriott, the maid failed to clean the room. I suggested to my husband that we reduce her tip to five dollars (we had stayed for one night).
He was incredulous. “But she didn’t do anything!” he said. ” We shouldn’t leave anything!”
We compromised on two dollars.
The gentleman in Starbucks today left a dollar tip once the cashier gave him change. Of course, I then had to leave one, too.
I thought I was a generous tipper…but a dollar for someone who handed him a plastic wrapped sandwich takes the cake.
Reverse Culture Shock 
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