officers are called 'sir'

[Nerys Myk]

Being friendly and greeting the customer is usually a job requirement in most service positions. Your supervisors expect it and will evaluate you on it. It's not really so horrible to be greeted with a hello or how are you and a smile, is it? It's supposed to a way to start a conversation that can help the customer find what they need.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

There are many reasons online shopping has conquered the world.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

For a while my local supermarket had a new manager and the check out girls would ask everyone, "so what have you been up to today?" and "what have you been doing this weekend?" and EVEN making specific comments on what you might be doing with the groceries you were buying.

Some of my coworkers talk like that. I fucking hate it. I wish they'd just shut the hell up already. I'd make it a workplace law if I could. "Thou shalt not bullshitteth the customers."

 

[Nerys Myk]

There are many reasons online shopping has conquered the world.

For me its convenience. I dread having a problem though. Too many hoops to reach a human being. Even when you do reach one, it can be a bigger problem that when dealing in person.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

For a while my local supermarket had a new manager and the check out girls would ask everyone, "so what have you been up to today?" and "what have you been doing this weekend?" and EVEN making specific comments on what you might be doing with the groceries you were buying.

Some of my coworkers talk like that. I fucking hate it. I wish they'd just shut the hell up already. I'd make it a workplace law if I could. "Thou shalt not bullshitteth the customers."

This manager must have been a real piece of work because for a while they ALWAYS chatted you up about what you were buying. "Oh steak for dinner?" "Wow, you must really like broccoli!" "I guess your family will be clean tonight!" (when I was buying a bunch of soap on sale).

I was soooo tempted to buy several boxes of condoms, plonk them on the counter after one of these groceries comments and say "and AFTER dinner you know what I'll be doing!"

 

[scotpens]

. . I try not to be mean to the customers in my store. If they need help, I'll give it. If they ask me a question, I'll answer it. But it is not my place to give small talk.

Most of the store clerks and other retail workers I've encountered are pleasant and polite. They'll chitchat with customers only if the customer initiates it.

What's silly, though, is when supermarket checkout clerks ask if you need any help carrying your purchases to your car, when all you've bought is a loaf of bread and a roll of toilet paper. I know it's store policy -- it just seems pretty dumb.

 

[iguana_tonante]

I think I'm picking up a pattern. You (perhaps as a group) deride actual customer service, then wonder why you don't receive it as a standard?

I think I'm picking up a pattern. You purposefully misinterpret what people say and then reply in the most sneakingly insulting way possible, then end it with a smile so you can pretend you were joking?

 

[MacLeod]

What some people have said anything over and above being polite and offering assitance to a customer, should be initated by the customer. It should be upto the customer to initate small talk, that way they don't feel obliged to do so if a member of staff initates it.

Sure staff get to know the regular customers and what kind of interaction they like.

 

[Ian Keldon]

I can understand that you are not a jingoist as there is nothing much to be proud of in the old BRD.
As a fellow landsmann I feel your pain.

You can only be proud of personal achievements, not of the state of an entity that consists of millions of people. Only nationalists feel pride or pain concerning a nation (hence the term nationalist).

There's nothing wrong with feeling pride about your nation when you are a citizen of a great nation, such as most Western nations and many Eastern ones. Conversely, if you are a member of a bad nation you SHOULD feel shame at the fact.

Oh, and horatio, the only reason keyboard philosophers (You know the type...) are able to sit and badmouth great nations and the militaries that protect them (and sometimes entire ungrateful foreign nations) is because better men (and women) than they were willing to offer their time, effort, and even lives if necessary in their defense.

 

[horatio83]

Lovely anti-intellectualism. Screw the philosopher, hail the soldier.
You ever read Hamlet? Probably not but if you actually have you might have realized that there are two guys left in the ending, the soldier AND the intellectual.
About your jingoist remarks concerning the great USA having protected ungrateful Euroscum from the grips of Stalin, no American soldier died in the process. Nuclear weapon did the job. You really gotta use that thing inside of your skull more instead of ranting about "keyboard philosophers".

Talking about anti-intellectualism, only pathetic creatures who have not achieved anything in their life and nothing to be proud of feel pride concerning the achievements of others, the anonymous social as such, the nation or however you wanna call it.
I admire and abhor many people but pride and shame are personal feelings.

 

[Ian Keldon]

Lovely anti-intellectualism.

As opposed to what? Your intellectual elitism?

Screw the philosopher, hail the soldier.
You ever read Hamlet? Probably not but if you actually have you might have realized that there are two guys left in the ending, the soldier AND the intellectual.

I'm well aware of that. The only "intellectuals" I'm decrying are those who don't realize that their world of the mind does, indeed must stand on the shoulders of the "down to earth" world that does all the drudge work (including defense) that makes their ivory tower existence possible.

About your jingoist remarks concerning the great USA having protected ungrateful Euroscum from the grips of Stalin,

Never mind Stalin...he wasn't the first thing Europe had to be protected from in the 20th century...that would be a little nation that just couldn't manage not to make a mess of everybody else's nations not once, but twice...a little nation called Germany. Maybe you've heard of it?

no American soldier died in the process. Nuclear weapon did the job.

They were still willing to die for you. By your own words, you wouldn't be willing to do the same for them.

So who is the better man?

Talking about anti-intellectualism, only pathetic creatures who have not achieved anything in their life and nothing to be proud of feel pride concerning the achievements of others, the anonymous social as such, the nation or however you wanna call it.
I admire and abhor many people but pride and shame are personal feelings.

Without those nations and nationalists, you would not have the freedom to sit there and insult their honor and their sacrifices.

You can't escape that fact.

 

[horatio83]

Nationalism hasn't created 60 years of peace in Europe, it has created two world wars. Not that I expect some jingoist militaristic right-winger who lives in an anti-intellectual, post-factual world to understand this.
Bad trolling attempt by the way. Unlike you I am not a nationalist who gets wet pants when hearing the name of the nation he lives in due to the accident of birth so you cannot insult or provoke me via saying something bad about it. Revealed your lack of empathy, your lack of ability to think about how or what another guy thinks. It is not a weak word by the way, any good general (to bring in your favourite topic of wars, guns and soldiers) has to be empathic, has to be able to think like the enemy thinks.

 

[iguana_tonante]

There's nothing wrong with feeling pride about your nation when you are a citizen of a great nation, such as most Western nations and many Eastern ones. Conversely, if you are a member of a bad nation you SHOULD feel shame at the fact.

Lulz. Good nations? Bad nations? What is this, elementary school? I guess US good, Germany bad, right? What about France? Meh? And the UK? They were baddies, but now they are buddies. So I guess... so-so? Wait, wait! Riddle me this: Gabon. Good or bad?

Oh, and horatio, the only reason keyboard philosophers (You know the type...) are able to sit and badmouth great nations and the militaries that protect them (and sometimes entire ungrateful foreign nations) is because better men (and women) than they were willing to offer their time, effort, and even lives if necessary in their defense.

Stay classy. But what should I expect from an ungrateful American? If it wasn't for Christoper Columbus, you'd be all speaking Injun!

(To anybody who's not Ian Keldon: I hope paradoxical intent is clear in my post. No offence intended. Well, except against boorish jingoism: in that case, the offence is fully intended.)

 

[beamMe]

...that would be a little nation that just couldn't manage not to make a mess of everybody else's nations not once, but twice...a little nation called Germany. Maybe you've heard of it?

Perhaps it would do you some good if you cracked open a history book once in a while.
Germany was not responsible for the first world war. It didn't do anything to prevent that war, but it didn't start it.

 

[T'Girl]

Germany was not responsible for the first world war.

That whole invasion of Belgium, and then on into nothern France? Probably someone elses armies right?

Prior to the German invasion of these countries there was no "First World War."

 

[MacLeod]

From memory the catalyst for WWI was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in the city of Sarejevo by Bosnian Serb.

And some would say that it was the Treaty of Versailles and some of the provisions in it that some nations held stronger viewpoints than othes that allowed a feeling of ill will to foster in Germany, leading to WWII.

 

[beamMe]

Germany was not responsible for the first world war.

That whole invasion of Belgium, and then on into nothern France? Probably someone elses armies right?

Prior to the German invasion of these countries there was no "First World War."

Yeah, just ignore everything else that was going on back then.

iguana_tonante was right about your MO.

 

[bluedana]

And none of this has anything at all to do with the topic, Enterprise, or Trek in general. So, please get back on topic, thanks.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Yes, sir! Right away, ma'am!

 

[iguana_tonante]

Signorsì, signora!