Today, an older man with a possibly-Italian accent asked me to recommend "a really amazing salami." This is always a tricky situation, because I haven't tried all the salamis and I don't remember what the ones I have tasted taste like. What's more, this guy wasn't prepared to accept my weak suggestions, and we're running low on a lot of varieties; ( Read more... )

Today I assembled containers of our Seven-Layer Dip. However, nobody could find "the green salsa," so they only had six layers.

If anyone asks? The seventh layer is "Love."

Higher-pitched than my normal voice, more folksy than my receptionist voice, almost as pedantic as my teaching voice: it's my customer service voice! It's chipper, it's perky, it's chirpy; it's a little loud, but it comes with a lot of eye contact and a big smile. Key words and phrases:

• "May/Can I help you/getchoo something?" or just a two- ( Read more... )

I spend a lot of time on the job packaging soups. (Today's Specials: tomato bisque and Thai chicken curry.) This means taking pre-cooked, pre-prepared soup that's stored in plastic bags, defrosting it if it's frozen, ladling it into small or large lidded containers, then weighing, pricing, labelling, and shelving it ( Read more... )

When did we all start saying "can I get"? Let's take a look at it.
Sample sentence, a customer: "Can I get about a pound of the picnic potato salad?"

Literally, yes, I suppose you can, if you come around the counter; the containers are easy to find, the spoon's in the dish of potato salad, there's no lock on the case door, the scale is in full view. ( Read more... )

-customers who ask for more than a pound of any sliced deli meat (like you need that much anyway. It's just going to go bad before you can eat it ( Read more... )