One of the most annoying phrases I can hear is the now ubiquitous “Have a good day”, uttered by any one of many with whom we interact on any given day.
When checking out at Wal-Mart, the clerk cheerily says as she takes our money, “Have a good day!” The same trite phrase is heard when purchases are made at our local Rural King — “Have a good day!” Even when getting our milk shake at Dairy Queen, we are treated to the words, “Have a good day!”
Sometimes there is a variation on the theme. “Have a good weekend”, from the teller at the bank on a Saturday, “Have a good night” when purchasing something late in the day. Each person wishing me such sports a smile as we are wished a good whatever.
But what does that mean? Does the person who mouths this platitude really want me to “Have a good day”? After all, I might have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed, am cranky and headed for a really grouchy day. If so, I don’t want some smarmy clerk using that phrase when all it will do is irritate me.
Also, how does that person know I deserve a good day? I might have yelled at the kids and insulted my wife, so such a phrase is inappropriate at that time. What does it mean, anyway? If we hear it several times a day, it is a meaningless clanging in our ears. In addition, the person giving this cheerful farewell really doesn’t care if we have a good day or not. They have been taught this to say to each and every customer, so it can’t be very special to them or their hearers.
There have been times when saying such is so out of touch with what went on that it is almost ludicrous. Once, in a store that will remain nameless, I had a confrontation with a clerk because of what I perceived as poor service and faulty merchandise. After several minutes of my telling this young person why I was so aggravated, I took my leave, not really satisfied with the customer service. What did I hear as I stalked away? “Have a good day”.
Of course I am guilty of doing the same to people. Almost automatically, when taking leave of a friend or acquaintance, those words spill out of my mouth. So last week, when I had had enough of this overworked set of words, I decided that a new phrase or two had to be invented to take its place.
By now, most of you know I preach at a small church west of Paris. What do I substitute for “Have a good week!” as the parishioners file past me? Perhaps we could get by with “Thanks for coming to church this week.” But that really doesn’t work either, because it suggests that when you worship God you are doing Him a favor by showing up. Maybe something like “See you next week” would suffice, but that means you would become a hermit and never meet any of your fellow congregants during the week. I think I will stick with a variation of “It was good to see you this morning”, a phrase which can be truly accurate.
What of the businesses whose employees are taught to smile and use the memorized mantra, “Have a good day?” What can be used instead? Why not something like this — “Thank you for shopping at (insert business name here)”. Or an encouraging “We hope you will come back soon”, or even “It was a pleasure to serve you today”.
If you are patronizing a business in a very competitive market, it would be refreshing to hear, “Thank you for not using (insert opposing business name here)”. Of course on the other side of the street, you could hear the exact opposite phrase.
Perhaps you can come up with other phrases that might replace that overused one all of us say. If you can, let me know and the next blog on the subject might be more useful and perhaps a little longer. Until next time, “Have a good day”!