Saturday, March 01, 2008

Commercial politeness

Central London philatelic shop, the philatelic counter of the Royal Mail at Stampex and some other shops operating in a very competitive sector (such as franchising sandwichry and multimedia) offer one quality quite stupefiant to a Frenchman: salers - owner and employees alike - are sympathetic, polite, courteous and really at your service.

Every saleman I have to deal with during these two days in London, helped me without any sign of boredom or impatience (and I thought my English skills would help their impatience): they go into their stockroom to find the little opuscule that every one forgot... and for the philatelic part find it 2 times out of 3. In France, a general direction of where the object might be standing sufficed generally. On Oxford Street, a Zavvi employee working at the second floor decided by himself to go dowstairs to the ground floor and checked if there was one of the latest DVD boxsets I was looking for... and went up back quickly with the answer (not the object sadly). In Paris, the answer would have been: "Go see at the ground floor. If not, we haven't anymore left."

All this with a smile and a final "Cheers" inciting to come back. What would France become under the Anglo-French Union ?

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