I was surprised that this was a grammar treatise. I hear it often in a variety of businesses, too, but haven't been particularly annoyed at the phrasing. In fact a native Russian speaker using it, sounded like perfectly normal English. And I'm not much of a German speaker, yet.
It seems like a "customer CAPTCHA". "Prove to us that you are not a thief!" Some stores have Greeters stationed at the front. Sometimes, it's just someone at the counter, even if they are helping someone else, will be distracted to welcome people who are breezing into the front door. It's not always an overture to an interaction.
The standard waitress line is, "What can I get started for ya?"
It's interesting that they say the phrases are not imposed by Corporate. It was beginning to seem like something standardized. Just traded around by peers in the biz?
As for "pinning pieces of flair", I've seen everything from a single button advertising "Ask Me About ____" from the company, or one of the emo kids who attached 4 dozen attachments to their backpack and jacket in high school, and now there's a blur of color on her chest larger than the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and I will glance at her nametag and then try not to interpret each individual 1/2" button that surely represents her deeply-held beliefs and signals her identity to her coworkers.
iwanttocomment · 16h ago
"Welcome in!" cannot hold a match to the gerundified abomination of "How's everything tasting?"
devilbunny · 10h ago
My wife hates that phrase, and tells me she is continually tempted to reply, "Well, the bread has never tasted anything, not being a root, and cows don't taste with their muscles or udders, so that's the burger and cheese. I'd have to say not too well."
Sucks too. It's clumsy.
It seems like a "customer CAPTCHA". "Prove to us that you are not a thief!" Some stores have Greeters stationed at the front. Sometimes, it's just someone at the counter, even if they are helping someone else, will be distracted to welcome people who are breezing into the front door. It's not always an overture to an interaction.
The standard waitress line is, "What can I get started for ya?"
It's interesting that they say the phrases are not imposed by Corporate. It was beginning to seem like something standardized. Just traded around by peers in the biz?
As for "pinning pieces of flair", I've seen everything from a single button advertising "Ask Me About ____" from the company, or one of the emo kids who attached 4 dozen attachments to their backpack and jacket in high school, and now there's a blur of color on her chest larger than the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and I will glance at her nametag and then try not to interpret each individual 1/2" button that surely represents her deeply-held beliefs and signals her identity to her coworkers.