One Spanish Restaurant makes you Shows Manners

One Spanish Restaurant makes you Shows Manners

If you’re a long-term expat living in Spain then you’ve no doubt enjoyed the smug satisfaction that comes with explaining to newer expats how things work in Spain.

not saying please or thank you could cost you more

One common piece of advice that is thrown around is that the Spanish don’t really say “please” or “thank you” so it’s not worth your breath to say them. It’s true enough that you’re less likely to hear a Spaniard say “por favor” and “gracias” than a British or Irish person.

This doesn’t mean that manners don’t matter. Manners are still very important in Spain but they are less overt about it. You should still remember your Ps and Qs when interacting with the Spanish service industry though. The people of Catalonia seem to have forgotten this though and it’s led to one café owner at a beach resort to implement a payment scheme based on manners.

After getting tired of locals and tourists forgetting their good manners the owner of the Blau Grifeu restaurant, Marisel Valencia Madrid, decided on new prices. Now customers are charged €5 for simply ordering “un café” (coffee), with a €2 discount for saying “un café, por favor” (one coffee please). Prices drop all the way down to €1.30 if a customer is nice enough to greet the server first and say “buenos dias, un  café por favor” (Good day. One coffee please”).

It looks like this nice little reminder that manners cost nothing is working. Madrid spoke with The Local and said that there has been a real difference since the new pricing system was introduced and the sign was put in the window. Customers are now more polite and it’s making everything just that little bit better.

The 41-year-old café owner remarked how children had been reminding their parents to say please and that it shows how well the scheme is working. Madrid was keen to clarify that Spanish people aren’t rude, just that people from all over, such as the French, German, and British tourists could all be a little more polite.

The cost of living in spain is low and after introducing the new pricing scheme Madrid has yet to sell a coffee at the full €5 price as most people remember all of their manners and grab the €1.30 coffee. She added that people have even started saying thank you, though they don’t get an extra discount for that!