I happen to drop because I was planning to host another pizza party this weekend, and I decided to get some salami, ham, bacon, sausage, flour, and cheese for my pizza. When I happen to check out, I happen to find a old (in the 50s) fat lady in green sleeping clothes complaining near the checkout with another bald man. The bald man seems to be the manager of the supermarket. As I couldn't pay in that counter as she was completely blocking the path, and appeared to be extremely bitchy, I decided to enter the next checkout counter a few blocks down from where that lady was.
When I was putting the stuff for the cashier to pay I've overheard a lot of commotion from the fat lady, in which I had been extremely interested what she was complaining about. Though I hardly heard anything from the managers, the obnoxious fat lady was shouting hysterically in which I'll translate the following below:
What type of service you have here in your supermarket? It completely stinks! Don't you know any manners?
Your cashier has so bad manners. Did you go to the Mall down the soi? Their cashier are very responsive. They always WAI (traditional greeting) every customer before they come to the checkout counter. Why won't she wai? And I have trouble carrying the stuff, why won't someone help me carry it? And when I buy newspaper, seperate them in different bags? Why are you stingy with the bags? Get me more bags! This service stinks!
Don't think that I dress like this, I'm just anyone else. I'm a Khun Nai (that means someone of high heritage), and I expect service here! Just because today I don't dress in my full dress, you can expect to be slack! You people need to be educated! You need to have better educated and better serviced people here! I'm sure your shop will be bankrupt if you don't. Don't think I'm no one, I'm a Khun Nai and you need to service me well!
This is an episode where I want to point one of the nasty sides of Thai society. In our society, where there are rigid traditions and relevance for hi-society peeps - for what their heritage are, but not for what they really are , has given some people the impression that people of higher social standings can readily take advantage or expect different treatment from people of lower social standings - just because of the choice of job or social class.
On a personal perspective, the service in Foodland was adequate. As Foodland has been more of a supermarket that caters for foreigners, there are certain customs in this supermarket that are different from other supermarkets. One of the things that I noticed is that cashiers do not usually WAI their customers like in other supermarkets or superstores. As I do feel I think more like a farang than a Thai, I find the wai to be a somewhat awkward moment between the customer and the cashier - and I personally don't think the wai would be important as long as the cashier is smiling, and offers good assistance. I have been to Carrefour where the cashier wai me, but had a really frowning face. When she made a mistake with the calcuations (which I spotted), she was cursing which wasn't a pretty sight. So much for a Wai and bad service. The main point is I expect the cashier to be fast, efficient, accurate, and just a tad smiling. The wai introduces an awkward situation which I personally don't know what to do. Should I 1) ignore 2) acknowledge by nodding 3) wai back or 4) smile? As you noticed the act of WAI is a real awkward situation especially for people who don't know each other and I do find for a supermarket with lots of foreigners, its not a bad idea to exclude it. The service was pretty helpful when I was there. The cashier was on the cheery side (though alittle worried about that fat obnoxious lady), and the helper volunteered to help me pick up the grocers from the cart. I do find the service to be good.
However as I proceeded out of the supermarket, I noticed that fat obnoxious lady was still complaining. I'm not a Christian, but let me quote - God created all humans to be equal, and I wonder what special treatment did that Khun Nai expected? What ever it was, I didn't care.
3 comments:
I also feel awkward when the cashier wais me at.. i guess the proper action should be a nod in return (i am not sure about this also.)
from my understanding
-if u return a wai back means that they cashier is in the same social rank as u ..
-if u nod to them they are in lower social rank than u ..
but i really don't like doing wai unless the person i wai to is an elder close relative or respective person ;)
hmm.. the manager better gives her some 'two fingers' :P
i used to try and make an effort to wai when wai'd to, but then couldn't figure out the social standings- so now i smile and go to shake peoples' hands.
as far as khun nai is concerned, i feel sorry for the poor manager who had to listen to her rantings and ravings.
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