I Really Despise, "Hey, You Guys"

image016[/caption] By Miami fashion model and fashion editor Annamarie Ricci There comes a time in your life when you reach an age of refinement. You’re a bit older and wiser (hopefully) and you have earned the right to be treated as such. I have always been the kind of person who only wants the best. I don’t like ugliness around me. I like to surround myself with beautiful people and beautiful things. Beautiful surroundings inspire me, which is why I love Florida. I only want to be around people who are well dressed and who have good manners and of good moral character. Dirtiness, clutter, disorganization and laziness I just cannot stand. Before this post gets too far off track (I warned you already that I digress…often!)

I went into Barnes and Noble the other day with a male friend of mine. We went over to the video and audio section. There was a male sales associate there who was probably 18- 20. He greeted us with “ How are you guys today?” “Guys?” Oh no he DI’-INT! *Snaps fingers in a Z formation* Yes he did and then it hit me and I hit back. I turned around and I said, “do I look like a guy to you?” This guy, mouth hanging open just looked around nervously. Addressing your customers, especially female as “guys” really is a lazy way. I don’t want to be called a guy. What really got me was right before we walked into that department the same clerk approached a 60 something year old man and addressed him as “sir.” “Hello Sir, can I help you find anything?” To me that is respectful and dignified.

So why does a man get called Sir and we were called “guys?” To me, this is discounting your customers. To their credit, at least Barnes and Noble was not the barren ghost town that I encountered at Ulta Beauty in Pembroke Pines a couple of weeks ago.

Maybe I was raised in the wrong era. I truly think sometimes I was. The term “you guys” is prevalent in pop culture. It began in casual conversation and in my opinion it should stay there. The usage of the term is too casual to address your customers, especially those who are older than the clerk. I do remember this topic came up in my women’s studies class in college and it was clear then that most women were irritated by the term ‘you guys.” I betcha somebody out there will read this post and say “Looks like Annamarie Ricci is a feminist!” Guess again. I think men should be called “sir” or “guys” and the ladies should be addressed properly also in gender specific titles and if you cannot do that, simply omit a title altogether and just say “hello. Welcome to our store. Can I help you today?” I think that I would even prefer hearing the dreaded “ma’am” to “you guys,” or “youse guys.” As they would say it in Chicago-speak.

Now back in the 1950’s, as I have been informed by some folks much older than me, this term was used as a greeting among the white working class-the lower end working class, mind you. From this I gather that from an historical perspective this was a term used to denote the lower class. The thought of this burns me up even more. Was there something about the way we were dressed that gave this clerk the impression that we came from the lower class as compared to the older man who was addressed as “sir?” My friend accompanying me is male and he wasn’t called Sir. That’s really enough to give customers a complex.

I doubt this young man knows the origin of this term because it has established itself (to my chagrin) in modern American language and culture. The term is used so widely and is perceived by the younger people as being hip and cool. Hip and cool young people… the same ones who wear their pants down so low that the crotch falls down to knee level and their boxers are showing. None of them know where that “style” originates either or what it signifies. At the rate our society is deteriorating, when this sales associate reaches an age of refinement himself, I’m sure the next generation of store clerks will be calling their elders much worse than “guys.”