Who Pays For Lunch?

'I remember a decade ago when invited to a business related lunch that the person who invited paid, or the person that wanted your business paid. In the New economy the lines are much grayer and smudged it seems, it's all very confusing and could even end up causing bad feelings if the person who ultimately pays feels taken advantage of. 

My husband and I were looking at locations for a New store for our brand Turchin Love and Light Jewelry with a real estate agent the other day, we met her at her office at 11:15 and spent a couple hours in her car driving around the city, my stomach was growling by 1:00 so I mentioned that we should stop and eat. Our agent helped us choose a good but pricey restaurant she frequents and was silent as the bill came, but as usual in such situations my husband swiftly took the check and paid without missing a beat, I guess I wasn't so surprised that we paid but that she didn't offer or even say Thank You, that silence was the thing that truly bothered us so I started to do some research on business lunch etiquette and protocol.

In today’s economy According to a New York Times article about power lunches, Laura M. Holsen says, “Not surprisingly, the politics of the business lunch have tilted toward the haves versus the have-a-littles. Nowadays, picking up the check is often a reflection of whose corporate balance sheet is in better shape.”

Basically, when people pick up the check, they are asserting their company has more money than the other.  So does this mean the person who makes more money is supposed to pay?   Or should you employ traditional wisdom:  the person who arranged the meeting, pays for the meeting? Well If this is true our realtor's Company would be the bigger (by far) entity and according to this article should have paid. I would have been fine with us paying but a Thank You would have gone a Long way! 

People lets not forget the simple yet profound etiquette of Please and Thank You.😊

***UPDATE **** Our realtor sent us an email two days later ith some updates on properties and did say Thank You or lunch!! Phew.....I was really wondering!!!