I'm usually very polite to serving staff in shops, cafes and pubs. I've been the other side of the counter and it's horrible when customers are rude to you, especially considering the low wages. If you're polite and a regular customer, it comes back as good karma. Actually, those sentences are merely post hoc justification of what should be unthinking natural instinct.
But today, I was snappy with a serving person in a coffee shop, and it's not the first time in recent weeks.
I go into a coffee shop and I look around before I order. This may be because there's a queue to be served, or just because I look anyway. I decide what I want. If it's in an accessible display cabinet, I pick it up and present it to the server. If it's not accessible, I request it.
This morning I went into Caffe Ritazza, but it could have been Cafe Nero, because I no longer shop there for this same reason. There was quite a queue, so I had some time to peruse the goods on offer. Not just hot drinks, but cold drinks, sandwiches, paninis, cakes and pastries. Eventually, it was my turn.
"Hello! Can I have a large latte to take away please!"
"Large latte!" says the server to her colleague, who proceeded to heat the milk, whilst the server did the espresso. Whilst we were waiting, the server faffed around behind the counter. She said something, but it didn't particular register with me, because I was waiting for her to say "£2.65", or whatever. Next thing, she's waving her hand in front of me to get my attention, and asking if I wanted a cake or a pastry. I wasn't entirely with it at that point, so I said,
"Erm, no, I ordered a coffee..."
"But do you want a pastry or cake?"
"No. I would have asked if I did," I snapped.
Okay, I know she's 'only doing her job', but, actually, she's not. If she had any nous at customer service, she would have heard my coffee request as a closed sentence. Not one where there's clearly an 'and a cake or pastry...' lurking. My being miles away really should have suggested that I wasn't waiting anxiously for an opportunity to order a cake or pastry.
In my favourite coffee shop, I would have paid and got my change, and been able to put my purse away before the coffee was made. Instead, she's so busy faffing around desperately trying to push a cake or pastry, she's failing to serve customers promptly and there's a queue building up behind me. Multiply that by every customer and the queue just gets longer and longer, when the process of taking an order for coffee, preparing and serving the coffee, and any other requested product, and taking the cash should be a smooth operation. All the time I've heard this ridiculous routine in a cafe, I've never heard anyone say:
"Well, yes, now you mention it, I wasn't going to buy an overpriced baked good, but now you've persuaded me."
I have often witnessed people spending a long time ordering assorted baked goods. Baked goods which are already laid out to tempt the eye. It's even worse in Nero, when they don't just nag you to buy a random cake or pastry, but they select a pastry of the week, leaving me to wonder why I would specifically want an almond croissant, when there are apricot danishes, double choc-chip biscuits etc also on offer. And that's after she has failed to add the extra-shot to the coffee I had specifically requested.
I suspect that either I am totally unique in getting very annoyed by this pushing onto me of goods I don't want, or else, there are legions of customers getting just as annoyed as me, but not snapping.
As a sort of post script, last Saturday we went into Starbucks in Fleet services. I grabbed the only available table whilst Jimmy went to order. It wasn't until we were leaving that he told me he hadn't paid. The server took his order, walked away, told the espresso maker, and then took the order of the next person, so he thought he had to pay the person who pours the milk and shouts what's being served. Who didn't request money, either! It would have been quite funny to take the coffees back and say they were shit, which they were (but they were just much-needed caffeine on the motorway).
And as a post post script, on holiday we went into a coffee shop that looked tempting from the outside, but turned out to be a bit rubbish. I think it was set up in the 80s and they've only reluctantly moved into the late 90s. My scrambled egg was an insult. But what made me laugh was that the menu included 'expresso'. So Jimmy ordered a double espresso, and the serving woman - a bit posh, thought she was a cut above mere customers - corrected him like a school teacher, almost with a glare 'Double exxxx-presso'.
Like when I was on Cape Cod years ago with my friend who at the time worked at CERN, speaking French day-in day-out. She ordered a croissant and the server corrected her to 'croy - santttt'.
