I’ve noticed that my friends in the States now address their waiters/waitresses/taxi drivers/what have you by their first name. I find it a little weird, almost as weird as when the waitstaff at Outback Steakhouse sits at your table to take your order. (Not that I frequent restaurants with things like "Walkabout Soup.) I am not talking about staff you know or friends, but reading their names off their tag and then constantly addressing them by their name. Is this a new trend? Maybe the theory is that you’ll get better service, but isn’t that what the tip is for?
Flicka, the whole world is on a first name basis now. Where you been?
It’s corny as hell. If I need a ten minute friend I’ll go down to skid row.
And where in Taipei is that to be found?
Good question. We should start a new thread.
I doubt that the whole world is on a first name basis now…or may I ask what you consider being the whole world…?
What? You question Lane119? He’s wired into things… he knows things.
And where in Taipei is that to be found?[/quote]
MTC, Heping E. Rd…
Just don’t call me Alleytwat or Wallycat.
Hold on. I’ve never heard of this steakhouse. They SIT at your table to take your order? What if there is no room? What is the significance of this?
It is this chain in the States that seems to be getting pretty big now.
outbacksteakhouse.com/
They’ve got Australian-themed food on the menu. Not Australian food, mind you, but things like Ribs on the Barbie, Ayers Rock Strip, etc., in a Friday’s type setting. The waitstaff sits at your table while taking your order, unless there is no empty seat, of couse, and apparently this is part of their “No rules, just right” concept.
I was thinking about opening up a restaurant called “Bottomless Bob’s Breakfast and Brunch.” It would be like one of those topless restaurants except different. Anyway I imagine it would be a big hit with the office ladies somewhere around Carnegies. Now I just need to find some handsome bobs…
Bob,
Daddy!?
I despise familiarity from strangers. I prefer formality from people who don’t know me, especially if I am a customer.
If the waiter doesn’t introduce himself to me when he’s seating me, I’ll address him: “Excuse me, could I have another bottle of wine please?”
If however, I get a: “Hello, my name’s Tristan and I’ll be your wait assistant this evening,” I’ll make a special point of addressing him: “HOY! You! Another bottle of the electric soup over here! Pronto!”
In the part time job I just quit I had to wear a name tag.
I hated it so much whenever people called me by my name, as if they knew me.
It was also pretty shocking. As soon as someone said my name I glared at them and said, “How do you know my name…?” :fume: Then I remembered the tag.
Aaaaand bingo! That would get you an extra large tip from me!
Well…as for the U.S. it is perfectably acceptable to address someone by their first name the first time you meet them…and equally so at a restaurant…as a matter of fact, most restaurants that provide name tags don’t only list the first names…
It wasn’t when I used to live there. Maybe at a cocktail party where people have name tags on their shirts (which I hate, because I always forget to take them off, then end up taking the subway home or something). But a porter or a taxi driver who takes you down the strip at Vegas?
I think this may be mostly related to 2 things, both of which operate within a context of political correctness run amuck, and both of which are in turn related. One, the current employment mix now in the US economy, and two, the tendency towards social populism in the US, especially in the face of the “war on terrorism.”
I think the way it works is kind of like this: your waiter may well be the guy/gal who sat in the cubicle next to yours only a month ago, before your job got shipped to India/China/Ireland/wherever. If not, s/he may certainly look that way. Because US citizens can be accurately described, in general, as “clueless about global issues,” diner A figures it’s polite to commiserate with waiter B’s current - likely temporary - job status by assuming a false intimacy, especially since we US citizens have to stick together now (whether it’s war or terrorism or employment, the rest of the world seems out to get us Americans any way they can, they figure). That’s what I mean by social populism: the tendency Americans have to keep society, as we know it, as flat as possible (without hierarchy) - even if it means inadvertantly emphasizing a hierarchy.
So, yeah, it’s weird as hell.
Most Americans carry so much personal debt now that they live virtually paycheck to paycheck. If you lose your job, you may well have until the next paycheck to replace your income. Hence, in middle America Outback Steakhouse looks like a good option because (1) it’s popular and thus leads to (2) good tip income.
BTW, Outback has been around for more than 10 years now; it began in the SE US, I believe. I doubt there are many Outback restaurants on either coast or very near many urban areas. It’s mostly a rural phenomenon, I believe. [Hey, if we in middle America see boomerangs and g’day mixed with good 'ol beefsteak (Outback’s “theme”), we think, “Exotic yet spiceless - perfect.” Ergo, we flock to it.]
Or something like that.
US$0.02