\u201cHave a nice day!\u201d \u2013 You hear this a lot. It feels good; makes it seem like you\u2019re appreciated. It\u2019s a common sendoff from service providers, a nice touch in customer service. But, it wasn\u2019t always this way. And, if you travel to Europe, don\u2019t expect to leave a restaurant and hear, \u201cHave a nice day.\u201d It\u2019s only common in the U.S. and Israel. Not the rest of the world.<\/p>\n
Some people don\u2019t like it. They feel it\u2019s overused, dutiful; doesn\u2019t mean anything more than a plain and simple good bye. Only slightly better than what\u2019s on the server\u2019s mind, \u201cGet out of here so I can wait on the next customer.\u201d I don\u2019t agree. I like it. But, I\u2019m an old coot, and people of my vintage seldom hear something nice directed their way. The best we get is, \u201cWhat can I do for you, old timer?\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cHave a nice day\u201d phrase first appeared in a 1948 movie, \u201cA letter to Three Wives.\u201d The general public didn\u2019t take to it. I know; I grew up in that era and nobody ever said, \u201cHave a nice day.\u201d We were too engrossed in being cool. We replaced, \u201cGood bye,\u201d not with \u201cHave a nice day,\u201d but with \u2013 So long – See ya \u2013 Tootles – Ta ta, and the lamest of all, \u201cSee you later alligator,\u201d to which the other person was expected to respond, \u201cafter a while, crocodile.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHave a nice day\u201d didn\u2019t go viral until the hippies started using it in the 1960\u2019s. It was in sync with the \u201cFlower Power\u201d movement, the one that had hippies slipping flowers into the gun barrels of soldiers. Then, the truckers adopted it. They used it as a sign-off after a CB radio conversation. It was a strange pairing, truckers and hippies, two diacritically opposed segments of the population opting for the same phrase. Ours was a split society in that era, even more than it is today. It was split over the Viet Nam war, racial equality, women\u2019s rights and most everything held dear by \u201cThe Establishment.\u201d It was so bad, this divide, that when families of veterans carried banners in a Boston Saint Patrick\u2019s day parade that said, \u201cPOW\/MIA families never have a nice day,\u201d they were greeted with boos and jeers from a hostile anti-war public. (Like the soldiers and their families were to blame for the war. Duh!). Now, \u201cHave a nice day\u201d is so common, you hardly ever hear a plain, \u201cGood-bye.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, all good things come to an end. \u201cHave a nice day,\u201d is slowly being replaced with, \u201cNo problem.\u201d A lot of customer service people say this. Order coffee at a coffee bar and say thank you when the server hands it to you, and there\u2019s a good chance you\u2019ll hear, \u201cNo problem.\u201d Gail Barton brought this to my attention a few years back and I\u2019ve noticed it more and more ever since. She was right in her supposition; it makes you feel \u201cunwelcome\u201d to the service, (you only got your bagel and coffee because it was, \u201cNo problem.\u201d) But, I ranted about that in an article a few years ago. My focus today is on \u201cHave a nice day.\u201d And, I better cut it off right here or I won\u2019t ever hear it again.<\/p>\n
Comments! Complaints! Send to mlessler7@gmail.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cHave a nice day!\u201d \u2013 You hear this a lot. It feels good; makes it seem like you\u2019re appreciated. It\u2019s a common sendoff from service…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\n