"Some time ago, a uniformed US Air Force officer from Nato headquarters arrived at Passion Chocolat, a tiny chocolatier in a suburban Brussels street, and threw staff into a panic by asking for 40 boxes of chocolate.The idea that Belgian staff went into panic because they might not be able to satisfy a customer is patently false. Belgian shop assistants do not do panic, least of all because of customers and certainly not because of non-Belgian customers. If they have not got enough chocolate, they will simply say so, usually in the most off-hand manner. They don't care if you want to buy 40 (or 400) boxes of chocolate. Whereas UK supermarkets will open up checkouts if there are more than three people queueing, Belgian supermarkets are the only ones in the world which will close down checkouts if there is insufficient queueing.
Their efforts to accommodate him were rewarded a few weeks later with a thank-you note - from the White House.
The popularity of Passion Chocolat is just one example of how Belgian chocolate is taking the world by storm. Set up in her own home by a widow with four children, the shop has become such a symbol of success that the Belgian Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt, took its chocolates on a trade mission to the US."
Btw, of all Belgian choccies, I recommend Leonidas.
Update: I totally exempt from the above criticism the delightful ladies in the wonderful bakers at the top of the Rue de Tongres in Brussels.
2 comments:
Belgians work in strange ways. I guess the problem with employees is that they only will work from that hour to that and unless they get extra payed, they won't work a minute longer. They also only will do what they can, nothing extra. Is there not enough chocolats, buy something else, go somewhere else but don't bother me no more. What are you going to do?
Forgive me for having some fun at the expense of les belges. In truth, they are no worse than anyone else, although the bit about the supermarkets is absolutely true, from personal experience.
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