Submitted by Michael Meiskin on the 2017 winter session program in Italy sponsored by the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics…
As my third week in Italy comes to a close, I am beginning to notice more cultural differences. Is a failing economy a cultural difference? I am not sure, but this difference is so vital and evident in Italian culture that I feel it necessary to mention. Unless we are in a big city, every store or restaurant we visit is barren. The group of friends I show up with to a restaurant is almost always the entire customer base while we are at the venue.
What’s more interesting is that even though the group brings what I would assume is more than a daily pay to the restaurants or stores, we still receive sub-par service. At restaurants, requests are constantly ignored and items ordered consistently forgotten. One factor that might attribute to this is the automatic service charge instead of a tip, which encourages staff to care about their performance. Now this lackluster performance isn’t always true, some of the places we have visited have been adequately accommodating and quite pleasant.
This difference further encourages the idea of a relationship based transaction. This concept was introduced to the group when we were told by our host campus that if we wanted seconds during our meals, we would have to befriend the cafeteria staff (I have literally been told that I cannot have more food more than once) during our 35 minutes for a meal. To me, this foreign concept is astounding, but for Italians it is just another day on the job. Money seemingly doesn’t push their economy.