Do you want fries with that?

In my long working life I've traversed the public sector, the private sector and the community sector - not lots of people can say that. I've seen the best – and the worst – of them all. Lately I've noticed a whole new approach to how local businesses interact with me. It's the 'do you want chips with that' approach to upping the spending ante. Given the way that over the last few decades we have started to treat public and community services like private businesses – and often turn them into private businesses – I expect to see this become more widespread.

As businesses go all out to recover from the economic ravages of the pandemic I’ve noticed a whole new approach. Everywhere I get asked ‘how was my day?’ This can become very irritating. I don’t even like to ask myself how my day was.

 

'Do you want fries with that?'

Alongside this new chumminess, there’s an enthusiasm to remind you of extra ways to spend money. It’s the ‘do you want fries with that?’ approach to upping the ante.

 

‘If they asked for a main meal, you were supposed to suggest dessert as well. If they ordered the small serve, you’d point out how much more cost-effective the larger one was.’

I used to work for a publishing company that produced and sold books designed for the hospitality industry. One title that we carried was about ‘menu merchandising’. I didn’t make that up – there is such a thing. Menu merchandising involved raising the stakes with customer orders. If they asked for a main meal, you were supposed to suggest dessert as well. If they ordered the small serve, you’d point out how much more cost-effective the larger one was.

I see that staff at my local watering hole must have been on one of these courses. When I ordered a vegetable curry, I was asked if I wanted to add chicken or prawns. When I ordered two meals and one drink, I was asked if I wanted another drink to go with the unbalanced number.

‘Customers’ and ‘clients’
Customer service is a funny thing. Many years ago I put in place a mail redirection while I travelled overseas. The only problem was that even though I lived in an apartment complex where letterboxes had been rifled, more mail was delivered than was held – including my new credit cards. Australia Post apologised and refunded the fees but that didn’t really help after the fact.

Everyone at Australia Post used to bend over backwards to help you – their customer service was impeccable and they were just nice people. The trouble is that since they couldn’t actually help you, no matter how hard they tried – and they couldn’t – it wasn’t good customer service at all. The problem was that their systems were so bad that even their own staff couldn’t get them to work. I’m sure it’s improved nowadays.

‘The only problem was that even though I lived in an apartment complex where letterboxes had been rifled, more mail was delivered than was held – including new credit cards. Australia Post apologised and refunded the fees but that didn’t really help after the fact.’

Centrelink used to be the same, though cross fingers, on the last two occasions I rang them about an elderly relative, the calls were answered promptly and the staff went out of their way to be extremely helpful – has the Government finally provided some extra staff? My experience was that to deal with their faulty systems – which must have driven the staff who used them crazy – they had to resort to work arounds.

Back in the days of Galileo the view of the Church was that the earth was the centre of the universe. Mounting bodies of evidence contradicted this. Faced with this, scientists usually simply tear up the old theory and adopt a new one that explains the evidence. In contrast religions adopt work arounds that laboriously tack on more and more complex explanations for every inconsistency.

Buses good enough for a real pensioner
Centrelink needed to have photo ID for one of my relatives even though they had been paying her a pension for 23 years. She had a passport – but it had expired because at 88 she was unlikely to need it any more and as a poor pensioner she couldn’t afford to pay to keep a passport current that she would never use. In the universe of Centrelink expired passports didn’t count. ‘What about a license?’ they asked. Unfortunately she’d never had a license – buses were good enough for a real pensioner.

In the new style of modern government, clients have become ‘customers’, as though they are being sold goods or services. In a strange world where we like to pretend everything is a business and everything is about money, we have completely changed ‘the way we do business’. We truly do understand – in the words of Oscar Wilde – ‘the price of everything and the value of nothing’.

© Stephen Cassidy 2025

See also

An everyday life worth living – indefinite articles for a clean, clever and creative future
‘My blog “indefinite article” is irreverent writing about contemporary Australian society, popular culture, the creative economy and the digital and online world – life in the trenches and on the beaches of the information age. Over the last ten years I have published 166 articles about creativity and culture on the blog. This is a list of all the articles I have published there, broken down into categories, with a brief summary of each article. They range from the national cultural landscape to popular culture, from artists and arts organisations to cultural institutions, cultural policy and arts funding, the cultural economy and creative industries, First Nations culture, cultural diversity, cities and regions, Australia society, government, Canberra and international issues – the whole range of contemporary Australian creativity and culture’, An everyday life worth living – indefinite articles for a clean, clever and creative future.

 

Beyond a joke – surviving troubled times
‘We live in troubled times – but then can anyone ever say that they lived in times that weren’t troubled? For most of my life Australia has suffered mediocre politicians and politics – with the odd brief exceptions – and it seems our current times are no different. Australia has never really managed to realise its potential. As a nation it seems to be two different countries going in opposite directions – one into the future and the other into the past. It looks as though we’ll be mired in this latest stretch of mediocrity for some time and the only consolation will be creativity, gardening and humour’, Beyond a joke – surviving troubled times. 

Childless and orphaned behind enemy lines

‘Life is made up of some big moments – birth, coming of age, getting an education, learning to dance, travelling to the other side of the world, playing music, speaking other languages, having children – even the death of loved ones, just so we know it’s not all fun. I sometimes realise that I am a childless orphan, stuck behind what could be enemy lines, in a world that is unravelling – a world that our generation gave birth to. We are teetering in a strange balance between building on the achievements of the past and desperately trying to dismantle them. In this time of upheaval – both good and bad – creativity is needed like never before. Underpinning our world, creativity and culture are the glue that holds everything together and the engine that drives it’, Childless and orphaned behind enemy lines.

Based on a true story
‘The whole idea that something is ‘based on a true story’, raises questions about fiction and lies, reality and truth and the whole relationship between creative interpretation and everyday life. While things are usually exactly what they seem – which is why conspiracy theories, while satisfying, are usually wrong – sometimes things are definitely not what they seem. Having worked in Government for quite a few years I often think that what might look like a malignant conspiracy, is more likely to be incompetence. Government can make big things happen, but usually doesn’t. It might be nice to think that Government could plan grand strategies, but often maybe it’s just bumbling along. Despite this, the answer to the question of whether something is based on a true story, is that everything is based on a true story,’ Based on a true story.

Dawn service – revisiting a long and personal story

‘Waking before dawn on ANZAC Day I suddenly thought I’d take part in my own one-person Dawn Service by thinking quietly about those in my own extended family who had been to war. That’s my five uncles all of whom fought in World War 2 – and survived – with a sense of humour and a string of medals. It’s also my family-in-law – my father-in-law and mother-in-law who were both conscripted into the German Army. My father-in-law once said to me ‘I’d had enough of armies’. My under-age father tried in vain to join up to be with the brothers he adored, but his father refused to sign the necessary papers – luckily, otherwise I might not be here, part of a later generation, remembering them all with great sadness’, Dawn service – revisiting a long and personal story.

Returning to reading – finding the best of all possible worlds

‘It’s a strange time we live in – but then, has any time not been a strange time. I often think that there is no way on Earth that I would ever want to live in an earlier era, before medicine was so developed, when the average life expectancy was in the mid thirties, when life for most people was a short spell of drudgery punctuated by poverty and fear. I’m making the most of it. Lately I’ve started to balance my fascination with the easy-earned opinion of the online universe with a return to reading writing, as distinct from glancing at jotting’, Returning to reading – finding the best of all possible worlds.

Driveway dawn services – reclaiming remembrance
‘I usually pass Anzac Day quietly, as befits remembrance. I try to avoid the flag waving and the speeches and the politicians – difficult as that is during an election. However, the day touches on so many issues that affect the future of Australia, that it always makes me think about where we have come from and where we are going. Lest we forget – or be doomed to repeat’, Driveway dawn services – reclaiming remembrance.

Art at work – imagining a future Australia

‘In our strange new universe, where much of Australia burns while politicians make excuses for inaction, it’s time to take a hard look at what the arts can do. It’s an issue in the minds of many in the arts and culture sector. Part of the potential role of arts is around bushfire recovery – a much bigger part is around bushfire prevention. Artists have a role to play in designing a different future than what’s on offer and writing the story of a different future. Those social movements that are most powerful are the ones where arts and culture embodies and carries forward the essence of what they stand for. Think of the power of ceremony and ritual in the world – that is ultimately the power of art at work’, Art at work – imagining a future Australia.

Out of the ashes – art and bushfires
‘While the current bushfires raging across much of Australia are unprecedented in their scale and severity, they are a reminder of how people have responded after previous fires, rebuilding communities and lives in the affected areas. They have also focused attention on the impact of the fires on creative practices and business and on how those in the arts and culture sector can use their skills to contribute to bushfire recovery into the future’, Out of the ashes – art and bushfires.

Better than sport? The tricky business of valuing Australia’s arts and culture
‘Understanding, assessing and communicating the broad value of arts and culture is a major and ongoing task. There has been an immense amount of work already carried out. The challenge is to understand some of the pitfalls of research and the mechanisms and motivations that underpin it. Research and evaluation is invaluable for all organisations but it is particularly important for Government. The experience of researching arts and culture in Government is of much broader relevance, as the arts and culture sector navigates the tricky task of building a comprehensive understanding in each locality of the broader benefits of arts and culture. The latest Arts restructure makes this even more urgent.’, Better than sport? The tricky business of valuing Australia’s arts and culture.

Crossing boundaries – the unlimited landscape of creativity
‘When I was visiting Paris last year, there was one thing I wanted to do before I returned home – visit the renowned French bakery that had trained a Melbourne woman who had abandoned the high stakes of Formula One racing to become a top croissant maker. She had decided that being an engineer in the world of elite car racing was not for her, but rather that her future lay in the malleable universe of pastry. Crossing boundaries of many kinds and traversing the borders of differing countries and cultures, she built a radically different future to the one she first envisaged’, Crossing boundaries – the unlimited landscape of creativity.