Wait, the city actually pays these guides? That blows my mind. I always figured the whole point of a "free" walking tour was that the tip was their only pay, so skipping it felt like stiffing them. If they're already getting a check from the city then the tip push at the end is basically double dipping and that changes everything for me. Honestly that hostel worker did you a solid, and 60 bucks is real money, that's a whole day of travel right there. The Porto guide thing would bug me too but if he got paid either way you didn't leave him with nothing.

Two teens walking out with zero books is a sale problem, not a comics problem. My local shop in Austin did the same thing for years and the owner finally ran the numbers: new readers who grabbed a $5 first issue came back about 40 percent of the time, movie watchers almost never did. Handing someone a login costs him nothing but it also earns him nothing, and those kids were already standing in the store ready to spend. A single issue is cheap, it's right there on the shelf, and worst case they're out five bucks instead of two hours of homework they didn't ask for.