It's summer and that means a season of city festivals and bbq. For those who don't know, I run a bbq concession with my family at city festivals. We usually serve a pulled pork sandwich and you put on your own sauce. We have plenty of sauce choices: smoky, spicy, sweet, jamaican jerk, aussie, tennessee and honey mustard. Maybe we have too many choices.
Anyway, my dad pointed out something that people kept saying at the Springville Art City Days last year. When it came time to 'sauce it up" they would ask, "Which is the best?"
Which is the best? Well, let me think about that. If I knew which sauce is the best, then why do I offer 5-7 sauce choices? Do I know you, a stranger, well enough to know what your palate is? I don't know how to answer this question without sounding like a smart-ass. Now, I don't want to offend the customer and make them feel stupid, because, well, they just spent money at my booth. But again, Which is the best?
I try to say, "Well, I don't know what you like, but, my favorite is..." or I ramble on about how "I like the spicy, my kids like the smoky and my husband likes the sweet, so even we can't decide which is the best." Or Kyle answers with, "The most popular is...."
Now, I'm ok with the people who ask "Which do you like?" or "Which is your favorite" or "Which do you think is the best?" These are opinion specific questions. I can answer these.
But the ubiquitous , "Which is the best?"...
You don't know yourself well enough to know if you like spicy, sweet or smoky? We usually invite the customer to do a taste test to decide which they believe to be "the best".
Last year, I even made up a bottle with the label, "The Best" and hid it. Then when a customer would ask, "Which is the best" I could whip it out and say, "Why, this is the best." (The secret to "The Best" sauce is, you just take all the sauces and mix them together.)
Occasionally we will get a variation to the question of "Which is the best?" and that is, "Which one is good?" Do they honestly think I would put out a sauce that is wretched? Do they think I'm trying to trick them? Like I've got a bottle of gym sock sauce or burning tire sauce? Inversely, we've never gotten a customer who asks, "Which is the worst?"
So, I've come to the conclusion that people are either scared or lazy. Too scared to try something new and afraid that they won't like it. Or, too lazy to try things for themselves. They just want everything handed to them. I wonder about these people. Do they go to McDonald's and ask the cashier "Which is the best?"
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Some people are incompetent at making a choice; it's too overwhelming. If I were you, I would have a "house" sauce. See how that goes. People are also so greedy with their time, they don't want to take up THEIR time to find "the best"...use up someone elses. time-hogs!
ReplyDeleteI think you might be right that people can be lazy. But I would bet they are being most lazy with their speach. When most people ask, "which is the best?" they want to know, which is the most popular or which is you believe is your favorite. Confucius believed that the beginning of all communication and understanding was defining what was being talked about, sort of a "being on the same page". It can be frustrating to always have to decide what people are talking about when they could just be clear, but do you really expect all people of the world to think clearly, organize their thoughts and questions, and to communicate clearly? Especially in an age where butchering your language makes you cool, and using the *F* bomb every sentence makes you fit in?
ReplyDeleteI liked this blog. It cracked me up. I can just picture moron after moron not knowing what THEY like. I mean it's not like you have semi-sweet, AND naturally sweet, AND sweet-n-smooth. It's sweet or smoky or spicy. Which do you like? Come on people! I don't think you have too many choices. But I do think you need to come up with some nice sassy answers. Like, well do you like Denzel or Ashton? Then you're a sweet. Or, Let me get a look at your tongue, oh you're definitely a spicy. Or, Answer me this, DO YOU LIKE SWEET,... SPICY,.... or SMOKY? Okay one more, Well what's your name sweetheart? Constance? Why then you're a honey mustard. And do you know what the response will be? Well, actually I like smoky. Well let's give you a round of applause, Constance! You know what you like more than me, a perfect stranger. Or you could make a tastebud meter. List it from sweet to spicy and when the hand lands, that's what they get. Alright, I'm done. Really, I am. I probably shouldn't have even done the last one, but oh well.
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