Minor things that bother you

[mgk920]

Person A: "How are we today?"
Person B: "We're great thanks. How are we?"
Person A: "We're great too."

(smiles) "Alive!"

Mike

[SSOWorld]

But this is the dumbest two person interaction I could have ever heard:

Person A: "How are we today?"
Person B: "We're great thanks. How are we?"
Person A: "We're great too."

That's what McCoy said to Kirk in "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" (We is he and Spock's consciousness.)

here's my take:
- How are we today?
- I'm fine, I don't wish to speak for you.

Also:
- Are you finding everything ok?
- No, there's cleanup required on aisle 7

[vdeane]

This is one of the reasons I'm glad chip/tap and pin is catching on in the US, since people get unbelievably stupid about the zero effort that signing their name takes. Nobody's asking you to be Francis Spinner; just make it match what's on your driver license.

There's a minor thing that bothers me: being asked to sign even with tap to pay, which happens occasionally.  Or the fact that we went chip and sign rather than chip and PIN.  I'd rather input a PIN than have to sign.  In fact, when the US chip card rollout happened, my bank was one of the only ones to do chip and PIN, but it subsequently merged with another bank that is pure chip and sign; while my card retains chip and PIN capability (due to being an inherited account), it's not the default, and I enter the PIN so rarely that it's easy to forget the card can even handle such a thing.

[kkt]

A/the/your receipt is interchangeable.

Depends on the receipt. At the first casino I worked at we had triplicate paperwork on carbon paper where accounting was very particular about the white copy going to the cashier, the yellow going to accounting, and the pink going to the customer, and God help you if you mixed up which color went to who.

Obviously, for computer-generated receipts where you can print thousands of copies if you want, they're interchangeable, though.

Yeah, there's always a time where there's an exception.

But this is the dumbest two person interaction I could have ever heard:

Person A: "How are we today?"
Person B: "We're great thanks. How are we?"
Person A: "We're great too."

A king talking to the prince's kindergarten teacher?

[SSOWorld]

What's all this we shit?

You got a mouse in our pocket, or are you happy to see us?

[formulanone]

Would you like a copy of your receipt?

Why do they always ask if you want a "copy" of a receipt? You should be giving me the original receipt when I pay. That's what it is - acknowledgement that I paid. Whatever the seller keeps for their records is not a receipt.

Businesses keep a record of their transactions...if they did not offer a copy of the transaction, they wouldn't be a legitimate business for long.

Then either the slip of paper that comes out of the gas pump isn't actually a receipt (but merely a copy of the receipt), or else the correct response to the question is this:

— Would you like a copy of your receipt?
— No, thank you, just the original will suffice.

... also ... is there a difference between "the receipt" and "your receipt"?

Make up a whole nother word for it, then.

[1995hoo]

Would you like a copy of your receipt?

Why do they always ask if you want a "copy" of a receipt? You should be giving me the original receipt when I pay. That's what it is - acknowledgement that I paid. Whatever the seller keeps for their records is not a receipt.

Businesses keep a record of their transactions...if they did not offer a copy of the transaction, they wouldn't be a legitimate business for long.

Then either the slip of paper that comes out of the gas pump isn't actually a receipt (but merely a copy of the receipt), or else the correct response to the question is this:

— Would you like a copy of your receipt?
— No, thank you, just the original will suffice.

... also ... is there a difference between "the receipt" and "your receipt"?

This discussion is reminding me of one of my teachers in junior high school. When someone asked if they could borrow a tissue, she would say, "Absolutely not! [Kid looks shocked] But you may have a tissue. I don't want you to return it when you're done."

[GaryV]

Waitstaff: "Have we decided what we are having?"
Me thinking: "I know what I'm having, I don't know about you."

Are certain professions just taught not to refer to a person as "you"?

[formulanone]

Waitstaff: "Have we decided what we are having?"
Me thinking: "I know what I'm having, I don't know about you."

Are certain professions just taught not to refer to a person as "you"?

They're making it, I'm consuming it, so there's a "we" in it.

[kphoger]

Waitstaff: "Have we decided what we are having?"
Me thinking: "I know what I'm having, I don't know about you."

Are certain professions just taught not to refer to a person as "you"?

They're making it, I'm consuming it, so there's a "we" in it.

The cooks make it, not the waitstaff.  But I must assume they're taking a few bites before delivering it to my table, so there's a "we" in it.

(But hopefully there's not a "wee" in it".)

[JayhawkCO]

Waitstaff: "Have we decided what we are having?"
Me thinking: "I know what I'm having, I don't know about you."

Are certain professions just taught not to refer to a person as "you"?

I think the gist of it is that waitstaff aren't often trained in what "polite" verbiage actually entails. When I was running restaurants, servers weren't allowed to use certain phrases:

"Hi, my name is XXXXX, and I'll be taking care of you today."
"Are you still working on that?"
The word "guys" in any context
The "we" that we're discussing

I'm sure I'm missing a few more.

[kphoger]

"How's that burger treatin' ya?"

[JayhawkCO]

"How's that burger treatin' ya?"

Thankfully the servers I was able to hire were already past that level.

[Scott5114]

The word "guys" in any context

"Excuse me, sir, how do you get to the student union from here?"
"Oh, you're not too far from there. Just hang a left out of the parking lot, then turn right on Maryland."
"Oh, okay! Are there any landmarks at that intersection I should look for?"
"Yes, there's a Five...uh..."
"Five?"
"Five, um. Five Gentlemen."

[kphoger]

Here's a grocery store interaction that bothers me.  It happens at the checkout lane, with the cashier initiating.

— Did you find everything today?
— No, actually.  I didn't see any cans of Acme brand smackfruit.
— Oh.  Huh.

[Big John]

Here's a grocery store interaction that bothers me.  It happens at the checkout lane, with the cashier initiating.

— Did you find everything today?
— No, actually.  I didn't see any cans of Acme brand smackfruit.
— Oh.  Huh.

Do you still have any cashiers available as it now seems to be a moot point?

[kphoger]

Here's a grocery store interaction that bothers me.  It happens at the checkout lane, with the cashier initiating.

— Did you find everything today?
— No, actually.  I didn't see any cans of Acme brand smackfruit.
— Oh.  Huh.

Do you still have any cashiers available as it now seems to be a moot point?

Yes.

However, we almost always used the self-checkout now that they have the ones with full-length conveyor belt, because I want to pack the groceries myself.

[CtrlAltDel]

— Did you find everything today?

A dangerous question for the various continuing shortages of this and that.

[JayhawkCO]

— Did you find everything today?

A dangerous question for the various continuing shortages of this and that.

Yeah, during 2020, when half the shelves were barren, I still got asked this. I just said yes as it wasn't there fault and didn't want to introduce negativity to their day during an already tough time.

[J N Winkler]

Are certain professions just taught not to refer to a person as "you"?

I don't know about professional training, but so many people are now steeped in the pop-psychology dictum to avoid using the second person in difficult conversations that I think it leaks over into customer-service contexts.

Here's a grocery store interaction that bothers me.  It happens at the checkout lane, with the cashier initiating.

— Did you find everything today?
— No, actually.  I didn't see any cans of Acme brand smackfruit.
— Oh.  Huh.

Do you still have any cashiers available as it now seems to be a moot point?

Yes.

However, we almost always used the self-checkout now that they have the ones with full-length conveyor belt, because I want to pack the groceries myself.

We don't have conveyor belts at any self-checks at the AARP Dillons.  I use staffed checkouts since I realize I am not that much better at loading canvas sacks under time pressure.  My grocery-store annoyances have more to do with pricing and application of discounts:

*  If it's on sale, it's often unavailable.  (E.g., Dillons currently has a long-running BOGOF sale on Nature Made vitamins which actually requires buying two units to get the discount, and I've never been able to find more than one bottle of magnesium oxide tablets on the shelf.)

*  If it's expensive but heavily discounted, the discount doesn't ring up.  (This happened to me a while ago with flatiron steak.  I had to go back in with the receipt to get a refund.)

*  Electronic coupons disappear from one's digital wallet before they expire.  (This happened with another purchase of flatiron steak.  I now think that part of the reason store chains like digital coupons is that they can void them instantly if they see in real time that they are hemorrhaging too much money.)

*  An item gets rung up under the PLU for a similar but more expensive item.  The classic example is broccoli crowns (charged by weight) rung up as broccoli (charged by bundled unit, each unit having approximately the same weight)--this is how you wind up paying almost eight dollars for three tiny crowns.

[1995hoo]

....

*  An item gets rung up under the PLU for a similar but more expensive item.  The classic example is broccoli crowns (charged by weight) rung up as broccoli (charged by bundled unit, each unit having approximately the same weight)--this is how you wind up paying almost eight dollars for three tiny crowns.

One thing I like at Wegmans is that the scales in the produce department will print out a barcoded label if you punch in the PLU, so the cashier simply scans that barcode when you get to the checkout. No doubt some people cheat the system by punching in the wrong PLUs, such as punching in a cheaper type of apple because the cashier won't notice, but on the whole the system speeds up the checkout if people actually use it (and some people just flat-out won't print the labels).

[tmoore952]

....

*  An item gets rung up under the PLU for a similar but more expensive item.  The classic example is broccoli crowns (charged by weight) rung up as broccoli (charged by bundled unit, each unit having approximately the same weight)--this is how you wind up paying almost eight dollars for three tiny crowns.

One thing I like at Wegmans is that the scales in the produce department will print out a barcoded label if you punch in the PLU, so the cashier simply scans that barcode when you get to the checkout. No doubt some people cheat the system by punching in the wrong PLUs, such as punching in a cheaper type of apple because the cashier won't notice, but on the whole the system speeds up the checkout if people actually use it (and some people just flat-out won't print the labels).

Giant in Maryland (at least the one near me) also has the preprinted label for produce. I like doing this because I don't want the cashier to put in a wrong code. I don't have to punch in the PLU, though --- I push a picture on the screen above the scale to tell the scale what I am weighing (the PLU code is next to the picture and gets put onto the label when it is printed).

As I've said before and will repeat here, Giant in Maryland has also implemented a 20 item limit for self-checkout, so it's not something I can normally do unless I'm just dropping in outside of normal trip (see below).

Since I do the weekly shopping trip and always have more than 20 items, I try to go when there are usually fewer people there and I don't have to wait for a cashier, example being 5-6 PM on Saturday when most shoppers are at home thinking about or getting ready for dinner. But going at really off-hours like 9 PM can backfire, because there are fewer cashiers (sometimes one or two) and if multiple people are making large purchases, someone gets stuck waiting.

[thenetwork]

Waitstaff: "Have we decided what we are having?"
Me thinking: "I know what I'm having, I don't know about you."

Are certain professions just taught not to refer to a person as "you"?

When the wait staff takes your order:

"So, what are you thinking?"

[Big John]

When the wait staff takes your order:

"So, what are you thinking?"

I am thinking about performing a coup d'etat.

Or do you mean about the menu?

[ZLoth]

Returning from a four week vacation that I enjoyed and desperately needed, only to come back to four consecutive weeks of work feeling like I've been fed to the woodchipper. It feels like I was being punished for having fun and actually having a life.