December 12, 2013

Nudging etiquette, French-style.

"A blackboard outside the cafe advertises advertises 'Un cafe' for seven euros (£5.90; $9.6) - but 'Bonjour, un cafe, s'il vous plait' costs just 1.40 euros."
Posted by Ann Althouse at 1:43 PM
Tags: , ,

8 comments:

Steve said...

"Coffee Now".......$10
"Venti"............$15

12/12/13, 1:44 PM
Matt Sablan said...

That is awesome.

12/12/13, 1:54 PM
traditionalguy said...

Merci.

12/12/13, 1:56 PM
Gahrie said...

A Frenchman complaining about people being rude? That's almost as funny as a Scot complaining about someone being stingy!

12/12/13, 1:56 PM
traditionalguy said...

Merci.

12/12/13, 1:56 PM
fivewheels said...

I'm of two minds on this. At a cafe, speaking to a server, I would not just bark "coffee."

But at a fast-food style place like Starbucks? If people are trying to hustle through and get their joe, I'm kind of annoyed by chitchat. Skip the hihowareya, place your order, pay and move the line.

I do add the "please" at the end of the order, but it's just reflexive, which it apparently is not among the French.

12/12/13, 2:44 PM
rehajm said...

Seems like a very steep discount just to get someone to say the magic words, though perhaps this being the rich and rude French Riviera demand for the pricier plain 'Un cafe' is fairly inelastic. I would also suspect this pricing is not a profit maximizing strategy. Perhaps they should add the 15 Euro 'CAFE MAINTENANT, ASSHOLE!'?

12/12/13, 2:57 PM
ErnieG said...

I have never been there, but I am told that French waiters, especially the ones in Paris, are famously polite.

12/13/13, 9:12 AM

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