Thursday, February 23, 2012

Please & Thank You

Dear all customers of the world,
I am writing to remind you of something you may have forgotten.  Your mamma said it once, said it a thousand times and yet it has not quite stuck in your mind. 
I'm not just talking about "kids these days."  Some of the perpetrators are old as well as in-between.
Now, I'm not talking anything crazy -- or am I? 
When I ask, "how are you/how is your day going?" I don't necessarily want to hear about your mom/grandma/cat etc.  However, "gimme a medium ameri-canna" is not an appropriate answer.  Ever.  Nor is, "I'll take a [fill in the blank.]"  A "fine, thanks" would suffice, or dare I say, a smile.  Just acknowledge the question and me as a human being rather than a slave -- please & thank you.
The magic word is still magic.  If you don't know how to get off your iphone and talk to me like an adult, then you don't deserve to be served.  If you don't say please and thank you, just know that I am hoping you burn that silent tongue of yours clean off!
We all have crappy days, but saying a few kind words cannot make it worse.  In fact, maybe it will make you happier. 
So please, mind your manners.  Thank you.
Sincerely,

Your fellow human being & barista

4 comments:

  1. This is how feel too. Maybe we should start obnoxiously asking "whaaaat do you say?" when customers ask for their "medium America-canna"

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  2. YES! Honestly, you worded this a lot nicer than I would have/have already done before in my head a million times, but seriously people. Come on. When people just bark their order at me (usually in Starbucks-ese) "TALL SOY LATTE!" I stop and look at them for a minute and then get a really confused look on my face and go "What about it? Do you... want one of those?" Being a barista is making me lose my faith in humanity.

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    1. Bahaha Sydney I definitely just LOLed at your "what about it?" comment, I could TOTALLY hear you saying that! But yep, I definitely feel your pain, Linds, I may not work in a coffee shop but I DEFINITELY think there are too few polite people in the world. Baristas look at ME weird for answering their "howya doin?", like I'm wasting their time or something. I JUST SAID FINE THANKS ITS NOT MY LIFE STORY haha.

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  3. Hahaha! THANK YOU LINDSEY!!!! I've gone off about this a few times on facebook and twitter before. I just don't get. Why are so few people polite anymore? And why do we have to put up with it?!?!

    xox,

    Elizabeth Voiles

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