[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
He worked at Modell's sporting goods, and a Jewish customer had bought something. He said "Merry Christmas", and the customer said "Thanks, but I celebrate Hanukah". He replied with: "Ok, have a merry christmas, remember the Christ". The Jewish customer was not amused.

[/ QUOTE ]

The title of this thread was certainly misleading.

Some quick points:

Your Friend: MUCH BETTER to an *unknown* customer to say "Happy Holidays". CLEARLY WRONG to say "Merry Christmas" if the customer was known not to celebrate Christmas.

Jewish Customer: SOMEWHAT BETTER to let greetings of Merry Christmas roll off him.

Friend: WAY OVER THE LINE to reply "Ok, have a merry christmas, remember the Christ"

Jewish Customer: CLEARLY CORRECT (in fact, he may have a moral obligation) to report the cleck to management or the owner. The owner needs to know that he has someone working for him that is completely lacking in sense and therefore costing him money.


Regarding the last point:

Let's say you try a restaurant for the first time and note that everything seems dirty - e.g. the counter, table, silverware. bathroom and so on. It's apparent the management or ownereship doesn't care so you don't go back and you should tell your friends to avoid the place. In this case there isn't a good reason to report the problems to uncaring management (but you may want to notify the Board of Health).

You are also a regular in a place that is usually very clean. One day you dine there and notice, for the first time, that the bathroom is a dirty, unkempt mess. In this case you are obligated to tell the manager/owner since it's very likely that he would want this taken care of immediately (perhaps he assigned the task to a lazy, dishonest employee - one he should fire).

~ Rick