Adrian was tired of being asked inane questions by shop assistants. He’d pop into the supermarket to get a tin of cat food and be asked how his day has been.
“How’s your day been?” was the inevitable question. “How’s your day been?”
The shop assistant was barely out of diapers. She didn’t give a brass tack about how his day had been. She was trained by trainers in these massive food chains to take a personal interest in the customers, and this was achieved by asking how their day had been.
“It’s good, thanks,” Adrian always replied with a smile. “You have a good day yourself.”
The response to that was always, “Have you any coupons?” Coupons cut from fliers could be scanned for an automatic discount. There could be a good 18 cents knocked off the price of a can of asparagus.
“How’s your day been?”
“It’s good, thanks. You have a good day yourself.”
“Have you any coupons?”
Indeed! Adrian was tired of being asked inane questions by shop assistants. He decided to change his response:
“How’s your day been?”
“Look, my wife’s away and I spent all morning surfing the net and looking at porn and now I’m totally exhausted.”
“Have you any coupons?”
To listen to the story being read click HERE!
Brilliantly written…hilarious…and true!
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Thank you! Enjoy the rest of your day. I don’t mean the rest of your day, I mean the REST of your day.
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The rest of my day will not be very restful since I am keeping vigil over my little old cat Beau as he slips into his final rest.
And I don’t have a single coupon to redeem.
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Oh – that’s very sad…
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Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that.
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Thanks, Yvonne. Been here before, but it’s something I’ll never get used to.
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It just tears your heart to lose these very loved parts of our lives.
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Yep.
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Oh Cynthia – that’s hard! But good too, that you are with him. I’m with you in spirit xoxo
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❤
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The one that gets me is ‘Have a good evening’ when you leave a restaurant at bed-time. There’s not really a good response to that
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Not one that’s clean anyway…
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Quite
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Another most enjoyable read, as expected Bruce.
Just out of curiosity…”How’s your day been?”
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Thanks Bob – I’ve been surfing the Net!
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As one does Bruce…as one does!
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😀 !
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Perhaps the human element is no longer required in supermarkets? I think the self-service check-outs are a great idea.
Another wonderful little piece, Bruce! 🙂
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Thank you. I always go to the self-service check-out – but because I frequently buy wine, it needs age approval so I get asked “How’s your day been?”!!
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Lol!! I would get that every time I bought medication: “This item requires approval”. So I’d wait patiently, not that they ever checked, but somehow the attendant always assumed that it was for a bottle of wine due to my gender and age! Cheeky oiks!
Like your character however, I would always answer them in full detail if they asked how my day had been…
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LOL!
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The poor shop assistant probably thinks the same 🙂
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Yes – they probably hate it!
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I would if I were in their shoes 🙂
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We’ll all have our answers ready for the next time we go to get groceries. I can hardly wait!
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Yvonne! Stay polite!
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But of course!! Well, sort of.
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😀
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Well, the young lass said “Gooday, mate. Howzit goin?” So, I had to say “She’s good, mate.”
I had no chance to tell her about my failed attempt to catch the mouse my darn cat brought in, and promptly let run away. It’s hiding in the lining of my recliner chair, which any of you can have for a very good price, including delivery.
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That’s really funny, Yvonne, good laugh!
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EKE!
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Is that sort of like EEK!, but done in a frugal fashion?
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EKE is what Archimedes said when he discovered an eel in his bath water.
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So, that went with “eureka”, but is less well known, obviously.
I’ve got the traps set for the mouse. Then, I have to worry about what to do with the little critter.
So, how’s your day been??
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My day’s been fine, thanks. But the poor quality of porn these days! What’s the government doing about it? Come to think of it, what’s the mouse doing about it?
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You big goof! The gubbermint is giving us the NBN in Oz, to access poor quality porn more quickly.
Flippin’ mouse, it’s given me something to obsess about, anyhow.
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Our shop assistants obviously haven’t had the same training, they don’t ask anything!
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I’ve just returned, and got a variation: “How are you?”
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Hilarious. Empty words. Didn’t even skip a beat. …any coupons? 😀 😀 😀
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Ma’am – these coupons are for asparagus and you haven’t bought any asparagus!!
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An excellent response. I once witnessed an old man in front of me respond in full to that phatic question and watched gleefully as the checkout boy’s smile faded and eyes glazed over and he nodded in all the wrong places as the quavery old voice enumerated the adventures of his day. I wondered if the old fella was doing it deliberately as he stoicly went on and on and then, as he pushed his trolley away, I received a little smile and a nod from him as the distinctly shell shocked assistant guardedly enquired how my day was going………..
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LOL – I have answered “Terrible bout of diarrhoea earlier” – but not a long string of stories!
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love it! good one, Bruce!
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Thank you, Indah!
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With THAT good looking customer, I’d be asking him a whole lot more than how his day was!
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Yes – I really must stop posting selfies!
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Ha Ha Great story. Reminds me of when I worked as a telephone operator
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You’re THAT old??? ! I remember those days!
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Number please? Trying to connect you. These became Bumble bees? Trying to correct you. When the lines were bad
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Did you do party lines? We had 14 on our party line – and our number was 11M !
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Some but not very common in England. More in Oz and Canada – 14? That’s a real party
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You could pick up the phone – no matter who was using it – and know that Mrs Leach was listening in!
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ha ha!
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My grandparents had a cabin on a lake, where everyone on the lake was a party line. Our number was 204ring13 (One long and three short). Once, when my grandmother was eavesdropping on two ladies swapping a recipe, she forgot she wasn’t part of the conversation and blurted out: “How many teaspoons of baking powder was that?”
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LOL! My father used to pick up the phone and (on farming matters) say something like “Harry, just while you’re there…”
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“Maybe people only ask you how you’ re doing ‘Cause that’s easier than letting on how little they could care.” Jackson Browne
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I never thought of the quot. but it’s very ad rem!
“But when you know that you’ve got a real friend somewhere
Suddenly all the others are so much easier to bear.”
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I’ve always liked that bit very much. Always nice to have a real friend and I’ve been blessed that way.
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Here they are trained to ask, “Find everything?” What everything??
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😀 Everything is everything you didn’t want!
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😀
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Adrian was out Hit-Wicket and there isn’t any thing known to be more disgraceful than that on the planet! Those idiots are worse than mannequins. A lovely piece on customer service.
PS: I had been contemplating to buy a Mac Airbook for a while but thanks to those super-trained assistants, I exited the showroom in somersaults and bought a PC laptop. No, they didn’t ask me how may day had been, or if they did, I didn’t care about that. What they kept insisting in knowing what was it I was planning to use the Macbook for? Oh, I was planning to sleep with it but they were so skinny, I told them!
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PC any day! An Apple a day invites the doctor!
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Have a nice day! 🙂
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You’re welcome…
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Yeah, so that’s why I totally hate it when they ask “how’s your day” or “how’s the weekend been” – I’m not sure they give a hoot about anything you’re saying. Or, or, if they bother to listen, they freak out about the details and run away. Bah.
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