This thread is the first time I’ve EVER seen condoms referred to as “safeties”, and I’m over 50. I would have parsed “safeties” as either a gun part or possibly safety pins.
I’m British and I’ve never heard the term.
Over here we say “rubber johnnies” or just “rubbers” or just “johnnies”. Although personally I just say “condoms”.
“Safeties” has nothing to do with condoms in my book either. I wonder where @nearwildheaven was a teenager at a Target?
Come to think of it, the last time I heard someone call it a “rubber” I was teen, and the speaker was 50 then, would be 100-something now if still upright.
For all the silly euphemisms & public squeamishness about … gasp … sex, “condoms” is pretty much the only term I or most folks I know have ever used for the things. Like it says on the box: “condoms”.
Though now I’m wondering about the etymology of that. Wiki wiki …
ETA: etymology unknown and at this point unknowable.
Because here’s what typically happens:
“I want a hamburger by itself.”
“You want fries and a drink? It’s cheaper that way!”
“Is it cheaper than what I ordered?”
“No.”
“Then I’d like just what I ordered, please.”
“You want the combo?”
And…
When you say you want it “a la carte” you bypass all that?
Seems to me it would be more like:
“I want a hamburger a la carte.”
“What’s alakart?”
“It means by itself”
“Oh, OK. You want fries and a drink? It’s cheaper that way!”
“Is it cheaper than what I ordered?”
“No.”
“Then I’d like just what I ordered, please.”
“You want the combo?”
The cashier may also think you just want the bun and the beef patty without condiments.
I’ve found that if I say “I want ONLY X, and that’s itnothingtodrink”, the majority of the time I am not upsold and it is fast and clear. I do, however, have to add “nothing to drink” pretty quickly or they will interrupt me before I can triply specify the a la carteness.
Then again, most of the time I get fast food I get Taco Bell, and other places are worse at it, so the non-adversarial nature of the ordering process may explain why I do the Bell so relatively often.
The worst was Five Guys, which I’ve stopped going to since the local one got shut down for refurbishment for awhile and I never picked the habit back up again, partly due to the mediocrity of the food compared to the price, partly for the ordering process, made worse due to the Morton’s Fork of either specifying the ingredients on your burger at lightning speed and having them forget some, or listing them slowly enough to record the first time and giving them an opening to ask if you want fries. Even if I do want fries, do they think me an idiot who can’t remember what he wants when they ask me if I want fries before I’ve been given an opportunity to order them? Not to mention the fact that if even if I do want fries, responding positively to the interruption will only reward and thus perpetuate it.
I figured out the process for Five Guys eventually, which is to give my order in reverse order, namely "nothing to drink, [ x ] size fries, and a [burger with a, b, and c on it]. Then they added shakes and for awhile they’d then ask me if I wanted a shake, so I had to add “no shake” to the beginning, which felt oddly specific but did make the ordering process faster.
I suspect there’s reliable research in the FF industry that “Do you want fries with that?” converts about 50% of intended no-fries orders into with-fries orders. People (though not Dopers, and certainly not @Ludovic nor @Musicat) really are that suggestible. And given the margins on French Fries, that’s almost pure profit.
[aside]
Did you ever notice that FF can stand for both Fast Food and for French Fries? Which are nearly inseparable concepts. Coincidence? I think not.
[/aside]
Des Moines, Iowa, that’s where. Of course, I would have no idea where this person was from.
Here’s what an online thesaurus says about it. No “safety”, but “safe” is listed.
“Like, minus the bun?”
I never gave any trouble ordering just the sandwich. I say, “I’ll have a number 4, just the sandwich.” And that’s what I get.
I really can’t remember ever hearing the stock “Do you want fries or a drink with that?” when ordering fast food. I almost never order drinks because they are overpriced so it just goes like this:
“I’ll just have a cheeseburger to go.”
“That’ll be $2.19.”
Always goes pretty quick and easy.
Every single fast food place I’ve ever been too (Carl’s Jr, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King) interactions go
“I want a Big Mac burger just the sandwich”
“You want that by itself or part of a combo?”
I try to cut them off at the pass but I’m pretty sure they’re required to ask if you want it part of a combo at this point.
This would be rare at fast food places around here. A plain patty on bun is not the default burger order – and the default is always strongly assumed without a good deal of clarifying information.
…
There’s also a big difference between ordering at a counter when you can see and interact with the cashier, and ordering at a drive-through window. These days, the default experience is at the drive-up. Even now, our local fast-food places are inconsistent about opening their dining rooms – employees got used to being able to lock the doors.
If you’re all so strapped for time that you can’t be bothered to endure a five-second upsell, might I suggest ordering your food through the restaurant’s app before you arrive?
My typical interaction with the Del Taco next door to my work usually goes something like this:
Me: (walks in)
Cashier: (hands me a bag of food) Here you go, Smapti.
Me: Thanks. (leaves)
Never assume when it comes to customers or part-time teenage help.
My business also for about 20 years. I never saw an entire store reset in that time unless they were expanding the building or a new company bought out the old one.
The one thing I would add about yearly section resets, these used to be partly money driven. For example, Coke and Pepsi would bid for what they considered the premium display space. We’d pick the better deal and they would come in and do the reset. But they would never be moved from the area of the store they were in.
That seems to be almost everywhere now. No more running into the corner store and grabbing a pack of Camels off a rack in front of the register.
Was it something you ever thought about? I’m sure a lot of people today don’t know where pipe cleaners came from, never having given it any thought. It’s not like they come up a lot in conversations. Pipe smokers are a pretty rare breed now.
I didn’t realize they made the acetone stuff anymore. The smell alone was enough to kill you. Thank whoever for the odorless stuff.
Now that’s funny!
People actually call southerners “grits”? Never heard that one.
Now it’s my turn to do a TIL. I thought that was just a sitcom joke. I didn’t realize they really asked that question some places.
Of course. I mean, when I hear a word or phrase, I normally make a connection to what I think it means. I always assumed the “pipe” in pipe cleaners referred to, I dunno, narrow diameter plumbing pipes. Even though I’ve never in my life seen someone clean a pipe or a drain that way, I just assumed that’s what it meant.
It was far more universal 20-ish years ago. IME it’s been almost entirely replaced by some variation on “You want the combo?” Or worse yet, “Which size combo do you want?” Which is still an upsell, or worse yet, an assumed upsell as our “just the sandwich / a la carte” crowd has told.
One other change hasn’t helped the cause of per-item ordering. Many FF menus have gone to numbering the goods, where e.g. a #1 is a Whopper, with options for small, medium, or large combo with the large print “default” being Medium Combo, and (parenthetically in small print: just the sandwich) semi-hidden below.
Businesses in general have become far more brazen about overtly steering the customers to what they want to sell, and away from whatever the customer came in to buy. Potentially overlookable subtlety is sooo last century.
And Get Off My Lawn!!! Harrumpph! 