>
> On Feb 22, 2008, at 5:32 PM, cdb wrote:
>
> Being well aware that many Australian and others would consider the  
> British shop assistant rude and sullen (though I find being asked  
> how I am and addressed by my first name by someone i don't know,  
> and who doesn't really give a damn (my dear) about me, annoying and  
> obnoxious), I am constantly surprised at how the Australian  
> supermarket shopper is quite content to wait in a large slow moving  
> queue because said shop has only staffed 3 of it's 18 checkouts at  
> peak time, only muttering if the assistant forgets to say 'hello  
> how are you' in that bored I don't give a f#$%$%%^^$ about you  
> really tone. Yet in England there would be shouts and cries from  
> the waiting mob for more tills to be opened - even when all  
> available tills are open.
>
> I know, I used to work in a UK supermarket.
>
> And, finding myself needing to defend to some extent the brow  
> beaten poorly paid (in the main) shop assistant - it has to be said  
> that after a while using a calculating device, one becomes  
> dependant on it, so what the tills says must be correct, especially  
> with scanning - this is one reason why I don't have a problem with  
> calculators in the classroom, so long as the little darlings can  
> perform basic maths before being introduced to them.
>
> I also have to say that as most shop management is only concerned  
> about getting money into the tills, the cashiers are actively  
> discouraged from thinking for themselves, and many shops (David  
> Jones ooops) manage to have internal procedures that take up more  
> of the assistants time (such as in refunds) than if the assistant  
> was allowed to think for themselves and worry about internal  
> problems later - or better still the internal problem should be the  
> manager's responsibility.
>
> Still I remember when in Australia the greeting phrase was ' Y'er  
> Right there', so I suppose 'Hello how are you' is an improvement.
>
> Please don't get me started.!!!
>
> Colin

Start    Please....... I want to hear more.....  What does ' Y'er  
Right there' mean ????
CC


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