A single word does not a question make. So why do customers feel it is appropriate to say a word, team it with a quizzical look and expect to find what they want? It is the bane of my existence.
Yes, it may be petty for me to get annoyed by this, but it is my belief that as English is not an inflection language this behaviour is inexcusable. If I were working in a Spanish department store, I’d understand. It’s all about inflection. A word would suffice. Los trajes? Yeah, down the end of this aisle. I can deal with that. But if another person walks up to me and says “shoes” I may resort to violence (or more likely, go on a vitriolic rant on their complete lack of knowledge of the English language).
So as I’ve explained, it annoys me…a whole lot. But last Boxing Day I came up with the perfect solution! People of all service industries rejoice!
Word. Association.
Let me take you back. It was mid-afternoon on Boxing Day and as a retail worker I felt like I had been raped and pillaged. A man walked up to the counter, gave me an earnest look and said “shoes”. I looked at him; half pissed off, half humoured and thought this is it. My response? Feet. He stared at me. Socks? He continued to stare. Oh, sorry, we aren’t playing word association? I’m so sorry shoes are just down the end of the corridor. His response? No I’m sorry, I should have made it clear I was looking for shoes. Now at this point, I felt like a jerk…but it worked (and he seemed too nice to have noticed my jerk ways) and has numerous more times.
What is the moral of the story? If you are going shopping and ask the employees a question, at least put in the effort to string together a sentence, I don’t even care if the syntax is appalling.
How would / do you deal with one worded questions?
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