SAQ employees cannot use “Bonjour-Hi” to greet customers
Posted January 26, 2024 2:22 pm.
SAQ management is reminding its employees that they cannot use, “Bonjour-Hi.”
This comes after Bloc Québécois MP Jean-Denis Garon posted to social media last Saturday that he had been greeted with “Bonjour-Hi! Suivant-Next!” at the Jean-Talon market SAQ.
Adding in French, “Shouldn’t Quebec’s Crown corporations set an example? French is our only official language.”
The SAQ responding with a French statement on its website this week, writing: “We would like to point out that our store employees communicate with customers almost exclusively in French. It is possible that, in stores with a larger English-speaking clientele, employees may serve them in their own language and use the Bonjour-Hi greeting. That said, the use of this formula is neither suggested nor encouraged by SAQ management.”
They explain that, “over the next few days, we’ll be reminding all our branch employees that it’s essential to prioritize French in our stores.”
Garon responded on social media that he was happy that the SAQ management and the Minister of the French Language intervened to rectify the situation and that, “asserting yourself is as easy as hello! In Quebec, we live in French.”
He told La Journal this week that, “without the richness of French and its culture, what distinguishes Montreal from Milwaukee or Madison, Wisconsin?”
In 2017, members of the National Assembly passed a unanimous motion to ask shopkeepers to abandon the “Bonjour-Hi” formula for greeting customers.
In 2019, the Legault government backed away from the idea of banning the greeting.
