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Might be a detail for many but in France, when you regularly go to a place, there comes a point where they tell you "this is on the house", or if the wait was too long they give you a bit extra of something and apologize. I lived for 3 years in Sweden 1/6
worked remotely there half of the time for another year and I went to the same coffee shop for at least a year straight every working day (our flat was unlivable due to constant renovations). I never even got a cookie for free and the coffee is 3.5 euros. 2/6
One day one of the new employee offered my cappuccino, he was trying to hit on me but still. The next day the owner of the café told me that he said he offered me coffee but they actually don't do that, so today I pay both. The guy was red with shame and I never went back. 3/6
I told that to a Swedish friend, who is not so typical Swedish, and he told me he has been buying every 2 other day bread from the same bakery for 13 years and when he goes in, it's as if he came in for the first time. To me this is deeply traumatic, I cannot understand it 4/6
I guess this is the impact that culture has on the way you perceive human interaction. After the cappuccino debacle, I chose to go to the same coffee shop because the owners would actually know my order after 4 times and joking about it when I would change it 5/6
I never got a any commercial gesture either but I had some acknowledgement of my presence. That was enough after a year in Sweden. So when I order food to take away and I get extra houmous because the guy took 15min too long, and it's the first time I'm ordering? I feel home. 6/6
PS: I'm sure they are nice owner of shops somewhere, but this has not been my experience. I've been told not to come in in coffee shops 15min before closing because they could not be bothered to have another client for a takeaway hot chocolate. It's like they don't want my money.
