Greeting customers in a shop.....

[stonerblue]

For me personally, I guess it was more a working class term than anything, and a term I/we were familiar with, was weird going into ‘posher shops’ and people calling me ‘Sir’, still dislike people calling me that and ask them not to, and now I don’t have to, I NEVER call anyone ‘Sir’.

And yes, having lived in Heaviley/Davenport, it’s definitely a a bit ‘sniffy’ round there :-D.

I did a training course for an international firm and when we did 'role play' in the mock-up shop they insisted we call every punter sir or madam. I refused to do that and was 'suspended' and sent to see the training manager. I told him my Dad or Grandad is 'sir' and nobody is 'madam'.

Like you, if anybody calls me sir i tell them not to.

 

[Barcon]

Ok, guys, as an “immigrant”, I'll bow to your superior wisdom on Manctalk. I'm genuinely curious, though. Did shopkeepers in bakeries, clothes shops, hardware stores and suchlike use that as a term of greeting to you in that period?
Maybe I just lived in a sniffy part of Greater Manchester (Hazel Grove, then Heaviley) ;-)

I'll also ask my blue-supporting friend who's exactly the same age as me. He grew up in Ashton.

I was actually going to ask if you grew up in the posh parts ; )
Growing up in Failsworth/Newton Heath with parents from Collyhurst and Crumpsall it was used by everyone, not just as a greeting in a shop. Usually preceded by the word, "Luv or cock".

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

Usually preceded by the word, "Luv or cock".

Was very charmed by being called “luv” by ladies serving at the counter when the family first moved up to Manchester. Really tickled. I'd never, ever heard it used in shops down south.

 

[MCFC Wirral]

Was very charmed by being called “luv” by ladies serving at the counter when the family first moved up to Manchester. Really tickled. I'd never, ever heard it used in shops down south.

They don’t say it in London. I fear it would be lost in translation.

Having not grown up in the north west, I don’t particularly like being called it but I understand it’s how they speak so I let it go.

 

[BlueMoonday]

High street retail is on it's arse. Retailers are trying all sorts to build footfall back up, it's now all about customer experience in store as opposed to simply just selling your goods.

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

They don’t say it in London. I fear it would be lost in translation.

Having not grown up in the north west, I don’t particularly like being called it but I understand it’s how they speak so I let it go.

I can honestly say that I adopted Manchester, and Manchester adopted me, right from the off. I loved the fact that there seemed to be very little hypocrisy. It's a cliché, but people were blunter. Clichés tend to be so because there's a kernel of truth. I loved the accent. Not aggressively different to my own (which is the way I hear the Liverpool, Birmingham, Glaswegian and Geordie accents, rightly or wrongly). But different enough to be intriguing. And worth learning to imitate. I'm an accents person — of course, I have no accent. I merely speak the King's English… ;-)
I loved the moorland that surrounds Manchester on three sides, and is almost immediately available for walking, picnics and suchlike. The London suburbs go on and on and on, and then drift off into a sort of apology of countryside.
The winters were tough. Evening drawing in at 4 p.m., sometimes 3.30 p.m. That was hard.
Anyway, enough of this.

 

[lefty goldblatt]

9 pages in, and a post about supermarket greeters, and no one's mentioned this beauty.


This place is going to the dogs

 

[MCFC Wirral]

I see a man in his 70’s call a young barmaid “love” and I find it overfamiliar.

 

[BimboBob]

I see a man in his 70’s call a young barmaid “love” and I find it overfamiliar.

Will you do the fandango?