Newest pet peeve: people who, when ordering food from a counter, begin their order with “Gimme” or “Lemme get.” I start my orders with the more tentative (and hopefully just rhetorical) “Could I have…?” The first two just strike me as rude.
The Tin Man
You are right Jeff, they are rude. Most people don’t have/use common manners around people they have no intention of speaking with again.
I was thinking about this awhile back, too. But I think it’s odd that people (including me) ask tentatively, “Could I have…?” when the person behind the counter is the one asking what you’ll have. I think a polite, declarative statement, “I would like coffee and chocolate, please,” does nicely.
The rudest variation on this for me came from an actor I was on tour with several years ago. He would adopt a tone that suggested that our server was his personal slave and would preface his order with “I need…”
I always wanted to respond to this…um…bigger guy that he obviously didn’t need ANY of the food he would be ordering.
I never did that, but I do recall apologizing to a couple of servers for his bahavior.
Agreed. I usually start with “I’ll have…” or “I’d like…”
Oh, I HATE “Gimme” and “Lemme get”. I usually say “Could I have” too, but then people make fun of me (since the logical answer from the waiter would be “yes”).
I try to say “I’ll have…please” now, since at least that doesn’t leave the waiter with a question to answer. But, frankly, I don’t see what’s wrong with “could I have” since, of course, the waiter knows that you are not asking permission.
Even worse is the “Oh can I try” when there is 10 people in the soup line behind them. It often happens at yuppie markets like Dean & DeLuca’s