We just returned from a weekend trip to Berlin via the Berlin – Warszawa Express with our friend Woody and our traveling dog, Benson. Our main purpose was to attend a Hertha BSC match at the Olympic Stadium with 60,000 other football fans. What an impressive, historic arena!
We were also able to take in an exhibit of Polish art, and I was fussed at by a German sales clerk – for touching a Christmas ornament on display to determine whether it was glass or plastic. She let me have it. That’s something that wouldn’t happen in the US. I think a shopper would have to cause bodily harm other customers before they’d say anything to you. If there’s a chance you might spend money in their store, retailers wouldn’t do anything that might discourage you!
An accountant by trade and a food blogger since 2009, Lois Britton fell in love with Polish cuisine during the years she lived in Poznań, Poland. As the creator of PolishHousewife.com, she loves connecting readers with traditional Polish recipes. Lois has a graduate certificate in Food Writing and Photography from the University of South Florida. She is the author of The Polish Housewife Cookbook, available on Amazon and on her website.
Ola
Lucky you< you live so close to Berlin, a weekend trip is always possible:)
Lois B
Ola – so true! There are museums that we want to see and haven't gotten to yet, but I know we'll be back again.
Kasia
It is a nice and easy train ride from Poznan to Berlin.
Not to defend the clerk, but I know a couple gift shops here in the US where the clerks make sure that you are extra careful when you touch their glass decorations, etc.
Lois B
Kasia – and there may have been a sign that said, "don't touch" in German, but that wouldn't have done me any good, even though I am very respectful of others' property. I can see clerks in a small shop defending the inventory, but I think a large store usually expects display items to become "shop worn."
Many years ago, I was working in a store and
Kasia
And of course, she could have said it in a nice and polite way.
Oh – the retail stories! I have heard manu crazy stories about the excuses of people bringing merchandise back after a long time, broken, etc. – in the US of course.