As my co-worker mentioned today: The holidays are great because, although they bring out all the crazies, there are so many of them they don't have time to really... sink in and stay awhile. Now move along, crazy, we have a whole line of neurotic awkward people demanding their baked goods behind you.
I don't think I've really taken the time to showcase what dealing with the public on a daily basis is like here on the 'ol blog. The problem with it is - most of the time it's a "ya had to be there" scenario and it loses a certain je ne sais quoi in the retelling. But ya know, just in case you were curious, I thought I would share a few.
Today there was a guy hell bent on getting a bran muffin. We don't sell muffins. Or bran.
"Hi, I'm looking for... do you have anything like a bran muffin?"
"Oh, no... we don't have anything with bran but we do have these pumpkin trail cookies" (ahh yes, the customer diversion. We don't have that but we do have this... BUY BUY BUY).
"Hmm... well I was really looking for something with bran... something healthy.... like a bran muffin."
"Yeah..... sorry about that."
I really did think he would leave. He also had a starbucks cup in his hand and I thought - dude - they have bran muffins... what the eff? But he stayed and kept stressing over our lack of bran and muffins. He eventually settled on some oatmeal raisin cookies. Almost bran, so there's that. But then upon paying he's still griping about the bran muffins. Yeah buddy, I wish that we had those too (no, not really, I don't actually care).
Anyways, this is a theme. People get really weird about the things they want, the things they expect to be able to buy. And the things they don't like. If we are selling something that doesn't sound appetizing to a customer - a kind of sandwhich, soup, etc - more often than not they make a face when I give them the options or describe something to them, or they actually make a yuck noise. Like BLECCKK or something. I mean really? This is not your mom's house. You don't have to eat what we make you, I'm not forcing you to buy anything, so what's with the attitude? When was the last time you went into a food service place and actually told a server that something you had yet to have was gross? And why does saying that even matter to anything at all? The amount of rudenss or weirdness I experience daily is mind boggling, but now I hardly notice it. If anything I laugh and give a coworker a look and then I forget about. Everybody's weird. Everybody has bad days. I don't take them personally unless it's a customer that is always a certain way and then I just dread serving them. I can't wait to put some of these characters in my writing. It's funny how growing up you assume the majority of the population is a lot like you - until you actually see them, and realize most of them aren't.
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Haha, god, the public. I used to work is this really small simple diner when I was in college. Like, menu on two pages and half of one page was kinds of shakes. But we'd always get these old people who'd come in and if the special was chicken but they wanted steak, they'd make that same kind of face. Like, who'd want to eat that? I mean, it's chicken.
ReplyDeleteBut of course, just think of the material! They might not make into the blog, but I hope they make it into the fiction!