Perhaps in the OP I misspoke. What I meant to say is that people ask for my opinion on what beer they should have. Not what sells, what I like.
When people ask me for a suggestion, I tell them about the beer special and what sells.
However, I need to be honest when they ask me what beer I like, which is what usually happens.
DARN! A family member did not log out, and I accidently posted under him! :smack:
UGH, I feel bad. Don’t hold it against me. :o
Sounds like a reverse pickup line.
I’m 20, and I don’t drink either, not even when I was at college in a dorm full of drunken computer geeks. (You know you’re on a floor of geeks when you can identify multiple people from down the hall by their wookie impression.)
Anyway, for various reasons I don’t drink nor do I plan to start drinking. Your situation would annoy me as does everyone who assumes I that I drink, or am somehow wrong for not drinking.
Perhaps you could not lie and still be buisnesslike, i.e. Q:“What do you like/drink?” A:“I don’t drink, but foo is popular, as is bar and baz, and quux is on special,” substituting popular drinks for metasyntactic variables.
I’m 16, and I’ve drunk before, and I’ve been drunk off my ass before. I drunk first when I was 15 a little over a year ago and liked it. Now I hate getting drunk; the taste is disgusting, and waking up the next morning and thinking: “What the hell did I do last night??? I hope I didn’t act like a jackass.” really sucked. At least I never got hangovers although I would get depressed alot. I’ve stopped drinking now, and I don’t intend to start for a while if ever again…
I sort of understand what Blalron means as in I don’t understand why some people go to church, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t. Everyone is different, but I don’t give a shit as long as they don’t try and make me be like them.
PS I was never drank with alot of consistency in my year of drinking.
You sure you didn’t drunk a little something earlier, and are now drank of your drinken ass?
:smack: Well, I always get the verbs drunk and drank (as well as swam and swum) muxed ip, but how I missed that last one is beyond me. I even previewed that. Maybe I should get some sleep. Ah well back to lurking…
Hey, I could have started drinking at age 18 as that’s the legal age here, but I didn’t because I don’t like the taste, the smell, the cost, or the associated behaviour. Same reason (well, with a different definition of “taste”) I didn’t start driving either. Which is kind of a waste of a good dezzie, I suppose, but whatever.
I’m going to get a beer…
I love beer, and picked up a few earlier today when I was at the store. On a whim, I chose Budweiser (which I haven’t had in a LONG time!).
I now know why I haven’t had Bud in a long time!
I think it would all depend on how you word your answer.
Customer: “What beer should I get?”
You: “Try this really expensive one. I think you’ll enjoy it. It’s great!”
You won’t have said you actually drink the stuff, and you’ll make the boss happy.
Just make up something.
When I worked at a video store, I had to make up reccommendations of Hollywood crap all the time. I tried explaining that I wasn’t familier with most of the recent Hollywood films because I thought they sucked, and I tried reccommendings movies that I really did like. That just caused people to look at me funny and get a little pissed off. Eventually I realized I could just reccommend stuff I knew nothing about and they’d still be happy.
Your job is to make the customer happy, not be a bastion of truth. By giving people a drawn out explaination, not only are you not being helpful, but you make the feel uncomfortable about their choice to drink, and about asking you. Just ask your co-workers what they like and use that as your standard reccommendation.
Well, you can always say what drinks are popular. That way you are still telling the customer the truth and you don’t have to drink.
Ehh. I still think we got the right version in the OP- You’re clueless when it comes to what it is your bar specializes in, and what it is your job is. In a word, it’s apathy- apathy about the place, and apathy on your part as to your role as an employee.
But hey, the benefit of doubt is a cool theory with me.
So, if it’s true these people are dismayed and shocked because you don’t drink, why not knock that part out of the equation? Don’t even make it a part of the answer. What’s wrong with, ‘I’ve had some people that really like ‘x’’, or ‘You know, I’m not sure what you like or what kind of mood your in, but I recommend ‘y’ to people who are interested in something different’?
It’s pretty simple.
Talk to the bartenders; talk to the waiters/waitresses; ask them what sells, or what’s a ‘safe’ beer to suggest. They’ll be more than happy to help you, or give you suggestions on what to say. Those are the people that’d know. Just take a bit of initiative. Learn how to deal with these questions (They’re never going to end, mind you, in this business and especially at a bar that prides itself in its selection). With a bit of trial and error on your part on what works what doesn’t, within a week or so the looks of dismay should be replaced with looks of relief. The people are confused and/or overwhelmed, it’s your job to try and help them out, not tell them your life story on why or why not you drink etc. etc. etc…
That’s all they’re after, a suggestion, give it to them.
I would imagine the wierd look was from a non-suggestion, too, not strictly the notion that you don’t drink, but I don’t know: I’ve always been rather out of touch with people.
I don’t care whether the waiter has ever had the blackened chicken when I ask if it is any good, though for some reason (now that I think about it) there has been an increasing trend of service people answering as if I cared about them. Which, I suppose, I do, but it just seems wierd. I just want to know if it is popular, if it is peculiar in any way, etc. Some employees are very good about this, and some are not.
:shrug:
Right, like Enron. Or WorldCom.
JonMarzie, learn about your workplace.
I work in a store that sells (among other things) paint. if someone comes in asking me what paint is good, and i said ‘geez mate, i don’t know, i’ve never painted a house’, then they’d be understandably perplexed.
you work for a restaurant. a restaurant that uses its variety of alcohol as a selling point. if someone comes in and expects you to know about a beer, that’s not the decline of society, that’s you being expected to know your job.
and personally, i think it is strange for someone to have not drunk before they are legal. alcohol is a big part of society. it’s odd for a teenager not to be curious about this part of society. it’s odd for a teenager to not drink ‘because the law says so’. basically, it’s odd because most teenagers do it.
i’m not going to hold you down and force budweiser down your throat. but i’m not going to deny that it is unusual that you are eighteen and don’t drink.
You need to check your local laws regarding beer and wine tasting. I know that in a few states, restaurant employees between the ages of 18 and 21 are allowed to taste alcohol for the purpose of being able to describe and sell them (provided you spit it out).
Seriously.
aside–I’m surprised the OP can sell alcohol. Around here we get the supermarket lane with “I’m underage and can’t sell you alcohol; please try a different lane” signs.
Per the OP:
Question: What exactly is your job? Cashier? Does that mean that people come and consume beverages on the premises, then pay you (like a restaurant) or is this a store that just sells a large selection of beers by the six pack/case?
That’s where I"m confused- are these people getting beer to go? I mean, you’re at the cash register and they’re looking at 1000 different beers and they say “What do you like?” Then say “Diet Coke”. Seriously- if you don’t drink it, then all you can do is say “Well, I don’t have a personal preference, but many people enjoy the Froo Froo lager”.
I’m still trying to figure out what kind of place you work at where people are asking you about beer recommendations and give you weird looks when you say you don’t drink. A microbrewery? A package store?
Bottom line: When you work at a place, it’s expected that you know something about the product, regardless of your use of it. That’s like going into a liquor store and saying “I’m looking for a nice, dry wine to go with my fish” and having the worker say “Sorry, I don’t drink so I don’t know what’s dry.” That kind of information is part of customer service. I’m not asking the person if they personally swill it, just what they know is a good/popular/reputable dry wine. I think it’s odd to ask someone what THEY prefer. Who cares? Just because they like something doesn’t mean I will.
I suspect the OP has nothing to do with work and everything to do with feeling odd for not being a drinker. Many, many underage people drink (I’d venture to say a majority), and yes, that makes you statistically abnormal. If their weird looks make you uncomfortable, you need to get another job. Otherwise, keep making the legal choices that are best for you and don’t worry about who thinks what.
Zette
No one asked which beer YOU personally drank, they asked which you suggest, which (as others stated) you could suggest based on sales, other servers, and other customer input.
Excessively? What the hell? I’ve been on these boards for practically two years and I think I’ve used the roll eyes smiley about three times, max. That’s hardly excessive. Anyway, I’ve seen people reminded time and again that this is a board for fighting ignorance, and isn’t part of fighting ignorant learning to try understand other people’s points of view?
Just tell them Negra Modela.
Can’t go wrong with that. And if your restaurant with the fantastic selection doesn’t have it, they should shut down