Were there any actual songs on that album?
Question: “When did Paul McCartney write Silly Love Songs?”
Answer: “All of his life.”
We don’t sell liquor in NJ grocery stores either. But when I worked in one, people often asked where the alcohol was, and they were pretty much always looking for the drinking kind, not the rubbing kind. I’m betting that manager has had that same experience many times before.
Yeah, we sell fewer units of rubbing alcohol (5 SKUs) than marjoram (2 SKUs). I’m sure 99% of people asking for alcohol are looking for booze not a topical skin disinfectant or lineament.
Most may not - but I know I’ve been in a NJ BJ’s that sells liquor. East Rutherford , I think - and it’s not in a separate building
I should also add that this was in the early 1990s, so it’s entirely possible things have changed.
My mom likes to tell the story of, in the sixties, sauntering into a store in New England and asking, “Y’all got any gree-its?” They burst out laughing at her pitch-perfect imitation of a Southern accent and her request for “grits,” a word they only knew as a pejorative for Southerners.
My mom, of course, was born and raised in North Carolina, and had no idea what was so funny.
A friend of mine was raised in the South and told of when he was a poor college student traveling he stopped for breakfast somewhere near Philadelphia and ordered two-eggs and toast. When the plate arrived there were two slices of scrapple as well. “Whoa,” he said, “I can’t afford that.”
“Don’t worry, honey,” the waitress said, “It’s just like grits where y’all come from.”
At fast-food restaurants, I never order a “combo” or a sandwich with sides and a drink. (I dislike fountain sodas, and they’re usually overpriced, flavored water.) So when I order a hamburger, I often say, “à la carte,” but if the clerk is young, she doesn’t know what that means: “We don’t have those.”
Maybe you should try saying “I’d like a hamburger, please.”
Ordering à la carte from a fast-food place can be challenging. 9 times out of 10, ordering a burger “by itself” will get the job done. Sometimes still more clarification is necessary.
Might work, but not reliably. Musicat is likely trying to head off the scripted question “Do you want that in a combo?” (or similar).
They’re going to ask anyway, just smile and say “no, thank you, just the sandwich”.
And then if they ask if you want a drink, just smile and say “nope, just the sandwich”.
They are either on auto-pilot or following a script they are required to complete. Two extra sentences from you is going to make the whole thing go much more smoothly.
And OG forbid you mention whether the order is for here or to go at the wrong point in the script / input UI.
Some FF places need that first, others last. I don’t do FF often enough to know which is which, but it’s a problem if you give the info when they’re not ready. They don’t absorb it, and it fills my “I told them already so I don’t need to do it again” square. Miscommunication ensues.
I know what questions are likely to be asked, and I don’t feel obligated to waste my time and theirs if I can avoid them in advance. After all, it’s called “fast food,” not “endless unnecessary questions.” “One hamburger al la carte” is complete and succinct.
How much time do you save when you’re told “we don’t have that?”. How about “I just want a hamburger by itself?”
Back when I was a teenage Target cashier in the early 1980s, somebody asked the store manager where the “safeties” were. Said manager, a middle-aged married man, said, a bit too loud, “Safeties? What in the heck are safeties?”
Condoms, you idiot!
Were “safeties” some kind of local slang?
Yet another slang term for rubbers, prophylactics, etc.
Not local. I’ve seen it used in old novels. Britishism, maybe?