Have a nice day
Encyclopedia
Have a nice day is a commonly spoken valediction
, typically uttered by service employees to customers at the end of a transaction, particularly in Israel
and the United States
. Its repetitious and dutifully polite usage has resulted in the phrase developing a cultural connotation among some listeners as representing impersonality, lack of interest, passive–aggressive behavior, or sarcasm
. The phrase is generally not used in Europe. Many European commentators have stated that it seems artificial or even offensive. Critics of the phrase characterize it as an imperative, obligating the listener to have a nice day. Other critics argue that it is a parting platitude and a trite space-filler used to prevent embarrassing silences. While defenders of the phrase agree that "have a nice day" is usually insincere, some consider the phrase to be comforting, in that it improves interactions among people. Others favor the phrase because it does not require a response.
A variant of the phrase—"have a good day"—is first recorded in Layamon's Brut (c. 1205) and King Horn
. "Have a nice day" itself first appeared in the 1948 film A Letter to Three Wives
. The phrase was subsequently popularized by truck drivers talking on CB radios
. Variations on the phrase include "have a good one" and "have a nice one". In conjunction with the smiley face, the phrase became a defining cultural emblem of the 1970s and was a key theme in the 1991 film My Own Private Idaho
. By 2000, "have a nice day" and "have a good day" were taken metaphorically, synonymous with the parting phrase "goodbye".
recorded the earliest uses of one the phrase's variants—"have a good day"—as being "Habbeð alle godne dæie" in Layamon's Brut (c. 1205) and "Rymenhild, have wel godne day" in King Horn
(1225). According to Roland Dickison of California State University
, "have a good day" first appeared in Geoffrey Chaucer
's 1387 The Canterbury Tales
: "And hoom wente every man the righte way, there was namoore but 'Fare wel, have a good day. Routinely employed by Chaucer in his literary works, "have a good day" disappeared for several centuries before its revival.
William Safire
of The New York Times
wrote that "have a nice day" first appeared in the 1948 film A Letter to Three Wives
. The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms stated that "have a nice day" first came into being in 1920, and the phrase and its variants became widely used after the 1950s. In 1964, Carol Reed
of WCBS-TV
spread the phrase in the New York metropolitan area by closing her weather reports with "have a happy", which, according to Safire, is a variant of "have a nice day". The 1960s saw the phrase "have a good day" become prevalent and supersede "happy day". Numerous hippies, when parting, told each other to "have a nice day" or "have a beautiful day". In 1970, "have a nice city" was a mayoralty slogan in San Francisco. In 1972, during the Vietnam War
, family members of POW/MIA members of the American armed forces participated in South Boston's Saint Patrick's Day
march. They carried a black banner that read "POW/MIA Families Never Have a Nice Day". They received scowls and jeers from a hostile crowd. One woman said, "They should be shot for bringing this here."
By around 2000, "have a nice day" and "have a good day" were taken metaphorically, morphing into synonyms of the parting phrase "goodbye".
, wrote that the smiley face and the expression "have a nice day" "helped to define the '70s". In the early 1970s, Philadelphian brothers Murray and Bernard Spain designed and sold products including bumper sticker
s and coffee mugs that each contained a yellow smiley face and the phrase "Have a happy day". They later changed the phrase to "Have a nice day".
The 1991 film My Own Private Idaho
ironically ends with the parting phrase "have a nice day", which for the fourth time invokes the smiley face. Smiley faces represent optimism and appear to ask the characters, who are characterized as "marginal figures", how nice their days are. While traveling to Idaho, the protagonists' motorcycle breaks down, and one of the characters, Mike, gazes at the sun on the horizon and links it with the motto "have a nice day". He says, "I've been on this road before. Looks like a fucked-up face. Like it's saying 'have a nice day' or something."
In the 1994 film Forrest Gump
, title character Forrest
is jogging down the street when a T-shirt salesman approaches him, asking him to put his face on T-shirts as inspiration to people. While the men are jogging, a truck splashes mud into Forrest's face, and the salesman gives him a yellow shirt to wipe the mud off. Forrest rolls up the shirt and hands it back, saying "have a nice day". Unrolling the shirt, the man finds a smiley face outlined on it. The film credits Forrest Gump with inventing the smiley face logo and the "have a nice day" slogan.
In September 2005, Bon Jovi
released the album Have a Nice Day
. The album cover contains a red smiley face which guitarist Richie Sambora
stated echoes its title song
. Sambora explained that "It's [like] 'Have a nice day; get out of my face'—therefore the smirk. To me, it's much more of a Clint Eastwood 'Have a nice day' than a smiley face 'Have a nice day.'"
opened a store in Brisbane, Australia. The workers were trained to say, "Thank you for shopping at K-Mart. Have a nice day."
Other versions of "have a nice day" are "have a good one" and "have a nice one." The phrase was universalized after 1950 by truck drivers conversing on their CB radios
. Scientific studies indicate that people who regularly smile are more likely to say "have a nice day". The phrase can have passive–aggressive connotations, and can be caustically used to end transactions with abusive customers. The speaker may also use the phrase ironically
, in either a purposeful or unintentional manner.
Roly Sussex of The Courier-Mail
wrote that "have a nice day" can sound "a touch brusque" in comparison with "you have a nice day". Deeming the word "you" as moderating the imperative, Sussex stated that the word "you" causes the phrase to seem like a mixture of a command and a hope. He wrote that using "you" in imperatives is more common with people under 25. In her 2001 book The Facts on File Dictionary of Clichés, Christina Ammer wrote about the growing usage of "have a good meal" in restaurants. Ammer opined that the phrase "induces teeth-gnashing irritation when voiced by a particularly incompetent waiter".
Academic Sandi Mann's interviews found that the British wished and demanded cordiality from service personnel, more than from their coworkers. Israelis, Americans, and Australians, on the other hand, wanted friendliness from both their coworkers and service personnel. Mann explains that the British do not expect a "smiley" display from colleagues because they have more time to build longer-term relationships. Those in the service industry, though, have to become "one-minute friends" each time they interact with customers.
published an article titled "This is a holdup; have a nice day" about a Minneapolis robber; while robbing the First Federal Savings & Loan Association of Chicago, the man gave a note to the bank teller that said "Thank you, and have a nice day". On November 3, 2007, two robbers equipped with handguns stole money from a kiosk at a Vale, North Carolina store; the Hickory Daily Record
called them "courteous crooks" because after the theft, they told people to "have a nice day".
Before the Binghamton shootings
on April 3, 2009, the perpetrator sent a rambling diatribe against the police to News 10 Now
; the letter concluded with the chilling message "COP BRiNG ABOUT THiS SHOOTiNG COP MUST RESPONSiBLE. AND YOU HAVE A NiCE DAY". In the Cumbria shootings
on June 2, 2010, the belligerent mocked one of his victims by saying "have a nice day" to her while he shot her in the face. The victim, who survived the incident, told reporters later she felt "[i]t was just like something out of The Terminator
".
wrote in his 2005 book West Bank Diary: Middle East Violence as Reported by a Former American Hostage about a woman in a coffee shop telling him to "have a nice day" after he purchased a sweet roll and coffee. Levin stated that there is also a "grimmer version of the pervasive pleasantry". After an Israeli soldier destroyed the memory card
of Levin's camera, the soldier told him with a jocular smirk, "have a nice day".
In 2005, the Mosawa Center for Arab Rights in Israel paid for ads on television and radio stations in Israel. In the television ads, the Arabic phrase for "have a nice day" would flash onto the screen in black letters and on a red background. Immediately following the Arabic phrase would be a Hebrew phrase that said, "Are you already against it without even knowing what it says? All we wanted to say is have a nice day." Spokeswoman Abir Kopty stated that "[t]he purpose of this campaign was mainly to cause the Israeli public sitting at home, or walking down the street, to ask itself why it had a negative reaction to everything Arab, even if it is the simplest phrase." Kopty further said that the Mosawa Center wanted to encourage Arabs to be more active and more visible in the community.
, "have a nice day" is sometimes used in Korea. Korean Studies wrote that it "seemed somehow to fit nicely" with the phrase "Caymi posey yo", which is frequently used in Korean shops to say goodbye.
The phrase "have a nice day" spread to Britain from the United States. In Britain, the variants "have a fine day" and "have a good day" are frequently used in place of "have a nice day". British customers generally consider it to be obnoxious and overbearing, instead usually preferring the gentler expression "enjoy the rest of your afternoon".
In their 2002 book Different Games, Different Rules, Haru Yamada and Deborah Tannen recalled teaching a class in London, where a student construed "have a nice day" to be insincere. The student said that Americans "say things like that with this big fake smile on their face, and they don't really mean it". Not having the context of the metaphor, the student took the phrase literally and was unable to discern the intended cordiality. Conversely, when Americans visit stores in Britain where the salespeople engage not in "have a nice day" salesmanship, Americans regard British as lacking customer service
.
Guy Browning
penned an article in 2007 titled "How to... have a nice day" for The Guardian
, writing that sarcasm will creep into the discussion if the British say "have a nice day". Browning explained that in Britain, people assume that the day will be horrible—even catastrophic. He wrote that for the United States though, "nice days and the having thereof are written into the constitution".
In Germany, "Schönen Tag noch!", the German phrase for "have a nice day", is being used more frequently by its vendors and waiters. German author Hyde Flippo wrote that many Germans deem "have a nice day" to be affected and shallow. Flippo further opined that the phrase is an appropriate example of culturally improper language. He compared it to smiling arbitrarily at a German person which would give the impression that the smiler is a "little simple-minded or not quite 'all there'". Writing that Germans prefer "Auf Wiedersehen!" or "Tschüss!" (both meaning "goodbye")—which German shopkeepers frequently use—to "dubious wishes for a nice day" he opined that that is why Germans generally favor visiting a small shop instead of a large department store.
The French also concur that the phrase is insincere. Author Natalie Schorr wrote that the French frequently say "bonne journée"—"have a nice day" in French—and do not consider it to be insincere. Schorr explains that "bonne journée" is a "gracious formule de politesse", similar to merci and s'il vous plaît. However, "have a nice day" sounds like a trite phrase spoken by a telemarketer.
In Sweden, Lennart Fridén, a member of the Parliament of Sweden
, lamented in a January 1995 speech to Parliament the usage of "ha en bra dag"—"have a nice day" in Swedish. Fridén stated that the increased usage of English loan expressions
like "ha en bra dag" "impairs our sense of language and style". He proposed a motion that an authoritative body, working in conjunction with linguistic institutions, be delegated the job of "caring for the Swedish language"; the motion did not pass.
The Boston-born American author Edith Shillue wrote in her 2003 book Peace Comes Dropping Slow that when the Irish stereotyped Americans, they tended to use the phrase "have a nice day". While lodging at a house in Ireland, Shillue found a drawing on the wall for American visitors like her. Drawn by her host's daughters, the picture had the phrase "Have a ______ Day", with a smiley faced affixed instead of the word "nice". Irish author Aidan Higgins
wrote in his 2004 book A Bestiary that the Americanization of Ireland led the Irish to say phrases like "No problem!" or "Have a nice day!" even when there is drenching rain.
According to the Handbook of Hispanic Cultures in the United States, "[t]enga un nice day" is an example of Cuban Spanglish
. This is distinguished from Chicano Spanish, in that the Chicano second-generation and beyond, who are inclined to code-switch
, generally do not speak in the formal address form of "tenga".
In a New York courtroom, a judge sentenced a man to a seven to ten year jail term at the Auburn State Prison for committing a robbery. The judge's final words were "You are hereby remanded to the custody of the sheriff's department for delivery to the custody of state officials. Have a nice day." Jack Sheehan of WKRT stated that the convict "almost sank to his knees. The phrase had worked its magic."
Jewish-American comedian Alan King
joked in his book Matzo Balls for Breakfast that Jews rarely say "'have a nice day', or even have one". He wrote that "[t]o be honest, I've never heard a Jew say that."
at the University of Central Lancashire
, defines the "Have a Nice Day" culture as filled with "fake smiles, forced bonhomie, and meaningless demands by workers to 'have a nice day'". Managers compel their employees to be attentive and affable with customers despite the fact that some employees do not feel these emotions.
Sandi Mann concludes from her research that the "Have a Nice Day" culture will prevail, becoming used by more companies and countries. In the service industry, for example, she explains that products have become more uniform over the past few decades. Thus, the sole way for companies to distinguish themselves is to have better customer service. She notes that there are positive and negative effects. A positive effect is that it is beneficial for business and for people who enjoy fake displays. A negative effect is that emotions incompatible with the "Have a Nice Day" culture are repressed, leading to what Mann terms the "Have a Nice Day" syndrome. In an interview for the Wall Street Journal, an employee of the telemarketing company DialAmerica Marketing, was called a son of a bitch. Clenching his teeth, he responded "Thank you very much, you have a nice day." The stress of suppressing their feelings and faking cheerfulness caused people like the telemarketer to feel insincere and phony. Individuals affected by the "Have a Nice Day" syndrome must carry out emotional labor
, which could lead to diminished self-esteem
, depression
, and cynicism
.
wrote in his 2002 book For the Love of Mike that people may have a bad day, not a nice one, because they "confront a demanding boss, a nasty customer, a crabby teacher".
According to author John Tschohl
, the tediousness of the phrase is exemplified by employees uttering the words so faintly as to be barely audible. The phrase is occasionally used in an ironic manner when others have been disrespectful or have negatively impacted the speaker. In Detroit, a supermarket started a program to have its cashiers tell every customer to "have a nice day" after completing their transactions. After conducting surveys, they realized that more than half of the customers were unaware of whether the clerk had said the phrase. In addition, a number of customers commented that they despised being told to "have a nice day". In a 2006 study, researchers at Frankfurt University discovered that people who must smile and say "have a nice day" in their jobs are more prone to illness. Flight attendant
s, waiters, and call center
operators, as well as others who are forced to act cheerfully, are more likely to become depressed. This can lead to decreased immune system function.
Australian Andrew Biggs
of the Bangkok Post
wrote that in the past, the phrase was heard exclusively in Hollywood movies and American soap operas. He lamented that by the 1970s, Aussie teenagers were compelled to tell customers to "have a nice day", a "blatant American cliche". Biggs stated that "have a nice day" is "an idiom that's been mashed and mangled over the decades".
Jan C. Snow laments that the phrase was trite and indicative of the speaker's lack of vocabulary. She wrote that on Saturdays, people could be asked to "have a relaxing day". People with highly variable jobs such as emergency room nurses may appreciate "have a routine day", while mothers of young children may wish to "have a quiet day". Debbie Lundberg wrote in her 2008 book Have a Nice Day Is Not Thank You, and No Problem Is Not You're Welcome that service people should say "thank you" instead of "have a nice day". She argued that "thank you" is shorter and is a "recognition of the ability you have to thank someone", which adds more worth to the purchase than something that will occur in the future. Paul V. Marshall, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem
, concurred, writing in the Reading Eagle
that he prefers "thank you" to "have a nice day" or "have a great day" even though "thank you" has a "host of socially acceptable responses". He stated that when people say thank you, they admit that they are dependent on others, which leads to a healthier, safer society.
J. Broad wrote that the phrase "have a nice day" is an apt middle ground for the "drop dead" the cashier is thinking and the "come back soon" the owner wants. Broad stated that the phrase is meaningless because it has been castrated by excessive usage and pretense. He compared the phrase to the salutation "How are you?" and the phrase "had a lovely time", which are "conversational space-fillers" that help prevent embarrassing silences. Usage of the term has been compared to inserting the phrase "you know" or the word "like" in sentences. In 1982, comedian George Carlin
joked at Carnegie Hall
, "That's the trouble with 'Have a nice day'; it puts all the pressure on you. Now you've got to go out and somehow manage to have a good time, all because of some loose-lipped cashier. 'Have a nice day ...' Maybe I don't feel like having a nice day. Maybe, just maybe, I've had 116 nice days in a row and I'm ready, by God, for a crappy day."
William Safire
of The New York Times
wrote that when the speaker of the phrase is genuine and maintains eye contact
, the act is a "social asset and a note of civility" in a busy world. However, he stated that when the phrase is robotically said or said in a tone similar to "get lost", the utterance "comes across with a resounding clank of falsity". Marilyn Gardner of The Christian Science Monitor
wrote that the "bland age of 'Have-a-nice-day' should come to a deserving end". She opined that service could not be "peddled as an image", and that substance is more important than style. Satirical commentator Russell Baker
wrote in the Chicago Tribune
that he did not know Ma Bell was waning until she began using the phrase "have a nice day".
Miss Manners
wrote in her 1990 book Miss Manners' Guide for the Turn-of-the-Millennium that although the phrase was trite, she wondered whether there was "so much deeply felt good will" permeating through the world that shallow friendliness ought to desist. She stated that for her, saying "goodbye" is sufficient because it expresses the same well-wishing farewell sentiment. Leil Lowndes wrote in her 2009 book How to Instantly Connect with Anyone that if someone says "have a nice day", the recipient should refrain from sarcastically responding "Thanks, but I have other plans" or "Gee, I was planning on having a miserable one, but now that you mention it, I think I'll have a nice one." Lowndes suggested that the response merely be "You, too."
wrote that although saying "have a nice day" may not be sincere, the speaker has acknowledged that the recipient is there. She argued "[h]ave we become so analytic that we can't accept these little niceties without asking ourselves, 'Did he really mean it? Does she really care if I have a nice day?'" Writing that society has become so automated that going through a check-out line at a grocery store without having made eye contact
or spoken with the checker is possible, Swiderski favored "insincerely meant human kindness to a robot". She encouraged people to respond to "have a nice day" with "you have a nice day, too" because she hoped that when a sufficient number of people do this, there could be a time when people will sincerely intend it.
Jeff Corbett of The Newcastle Herald
defended "have a nice day" despite his characterization of the phrase as "wincingly American and so patently false in its sing-song delivery" by cashiers. Corbett favored the phrase to the inquiries of the shopkeepers about his life; he preferred "have a nice day" because it did not entail a response.
Janice Turner
of The Times
supported the phrase, writing that she is indifferent to it being used insincerely or 1,000 times a day. She wrote that "have a nice day" is "soothing, even kind", in that it improves the interactions among millions of people crowded together.
William F. Wyatt Jr. of the Chicago Tribune
wrote that "have a nice day" used to be new and "fill[ed] a needed slot". "Goodbye", he stated, inappropriately indicates that salespeople are intimate with customers they do not know and would seem forced. "Farewell", Wyatt said, would feel abnormal and could only be employed in an ironic context. The close of a transaction needed an oral ending. "Have a nice day" was the apt phrase for those who serve people they do not know to end a transaction.
Valediction
A valediction , or complimentary close in American English, is an expression used to say farewell, especially a word or phrase used to end a letter or message, or the act of saying parting words- whether brief, or extensive.For the greetings counterpart to valediction, see salutation.Alternatively,...
, typically uttered by service employees to customers at the end of a transaction, particularly in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Its repetitious and dutifully polite usage has resulted in the phrase developing a cultural connotation among some listeners as representing impersonality, lack of interest, passive–aggressive behavior, or sarcasm
Sarcasm
Sarcasm is “a sharp, bitter, or cutting expression or remark; a bitter jibe or taunt.” Though irony and understatement is usually the immediate context, most authorities distinguish sarcasm from irony; however, others argue that sarcasm may or often does involve irony or employs...
. The phrase is generally not used in Europe. Many European commentators have stated that it seems artificial or even offensive. Critics of the phrase characterize it as an imperative, obligating the listener to have a nice day. Other critics argue that it is a parting platitude and a trite space-filler used to prevent embarrassing silences. While defenders of the phrase agree that "have a nice day" is usually insincere, some consider the phrase to be comforting, in that it improves interactions among people. Others favor the phrase because it does not require a response.
A variant of the phrase—"have a good day"—is first recorded in Layamon's Brut (c. 1205) and King Horn
King Horn
King Horn is a Middle English chivalric romance dating back to the middle of the thirteenth century. It survives in three manuscripts: MS. Harleian 2253 at the British Museum, London; MS. Laud. Misc 108 at the Bodleian Library, Oxford; and MS. Gg. iv. 27. 2 at the Cambridge University Library. It...
. "Have a nice day" itself first appeared in the 1948 film A Letter to Three Wives
A Letter to Three Wives
A Letter to Three Wives is a 1949 film which tells the story of a woman who mails a letter to three women, telling them she has left town with the husband of one of them. It stars Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern, Kirk Douglas, Paul Douglas in his film debut, Jeffrey Lynn, and Thelma Ritter...
. The phrase was subsequently popularized by truck drivers talking on CB radios
Citizens' band radio
Citizens' Band radio is, in many countries, a system of short-distance radio communications between individuals on a selection of 40 channels within the 27-MHz band. Citizens' Band is distinct from the FRS, GMRS, MURS and amateur radio...
. Variations on the phrase include "have a good one" and "have a nice one". In conjunction with the smiley face, the phrase became a defining cultural emblem of the 1970s and was a key theme in the 1991 film My Own Private Idaho
My Own Private Idaho
My Own Private Idaho is a 1991 independent drama film written and directed by Gus Van Sant, loosely based on Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V, and starring River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves...
. By 2000, "have a nice day" and "have a good day" were taken metaphorically, synonymous with the parting phrase "goodbye".
History
The Oxford English DictionaryOxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
recorded the earliest uses of one the phrase's variants—"have a good day"—as being "Habbeð alle godne dæie" in Layamon's Brut (c. 1205) and "Rymenhild, have wel godne day" in King Horn
King Horn
King Horn is a Middle English chivalric romance dating back to the middle of the thirteenth century. It survives in three manuscripts: MS. Harleian 2253 at the British Museum, London; MS. Laud. Misc 108 at the Bodleian Library, Oxford; and MS. Gg. iv. 27. 2 at the Cambridge University Library. It...
(1225). According to Roland Dickison of California State University
California State University
The California State University is a public university system in the state of California. It is one of three public higher education systems in the state, the other two being the University of California system and the California Community College system. It is incorporated as The Trustees of the...
, "have a good day" first appeared in Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...
's 1387 The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. The tales are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at...
: "And hoom wente every man the righte way, there was namoore but 'Fare wel, have a good day. Routinely employed by Chaucer in his literary works, "have a good day" disappeared for several centuries before its revival.
William Safire
William Safire
William Lewis Safire was an American author, columnist, journalist and presidential speechwriter....
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote that "have a nice day" first appeared in the 1948 film A Letter to Three Wives
A Letter to Three Wives
A Letter to Three Wives is a 1949 film which tells the story of a woman who mails a letter to three women, telling them she has left town with the husband of one of them. It stars Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern, Kirk Douglas, Paul Douglas in his film debut, Jeffrey Lynn, and Thelma Ritter...
. The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms stated that "have a nice day" first came into being in 1920, and the phrase and its variants became widely used after the 1950s. In 1964, Carol Reed
Carol Reed (weather broadcaster)
Carol Reed , always introduced as "Carol Reed, the weather girl", presented the weather portion of the evening newscasts on WCBS-TV in New York City from 1952 to 1964...
of WCBS-TV
WCBS-TV
WCBS-TV, channel 2, is the flagship station of the CBS television network, located in New York City. The station's studios are located within the CBS Broadcast Center and its transmitter is atop the Empire State Building, both in Midtown Manhattan....
spread the phrase in the New York metropolitan area by closing her weather reports with "have a happy", which, according to Safire, is a variant of "have a nice day". The 1960s saw the phrase "have a good day" become prevalent and supersede "happy day". Numerous hippies, when parting, told each other to "have a nice day" or "have a beautiful day". In 1970, "have a nice city" was a mayoralty slogan in San Francisco. In 1972, during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, family members of POW/MIA members of the American armed forces participated in South Boston's Saint Patrick's Day
Saint Patrick's Day
Saint Patrick's Day is a religious holiday celebrated internationally on 17 March. It commemorates Saint Patrick , the most commonly recognised of the patron saints of :Ireland, and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland. It is observed by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion , the Eastern...
march. They carried a black banner that read "POW/MIA Families Never Have a Nice Day". They received scowls and jeers from a hostile crowd. One woman said, "They should be shot for bringing this here."
By around 2000, "have a nice day" and "have a good day" were taken metaphorically, morphing into synonyms of the parting phrase "goodbye".
Smiley face and "have a nice day"
Abigail Goldman of the Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, wrote that the smiley face and the expression "have a nice day" "helped to define the '70s". In the early 1970s, Philadelphian brothers Murray and Bernard Spain designed and sold products including bumper sticker
Bumper sticker
A bumper sticker is an adhesive label or sticker with a message, intended to be attached to the bumper of an automobile and to be read by the occupants of other vehicles - although they are often stuck onto other objects...
s and coffee mugs that each contained a yellow smiley face and the phrase "Have a happy day". They later changed the phrase to "Have a nice day".
The 1991 film My Own Private Idaho
My Own Private Idaho
My Own Private Idaho is a 1991 independent drama film written and directed by Gus Van Sant, loosely based on Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V, and starring River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves...
ironically ends with the parting phrase "have a nice day", which for the fourth time invokes the smiley face. Smiley faces represent optimism and appear to ask the characters, who are characterized as "marginal figures", how nice their days are. While traveling to Idaho, the protagonists' motorcycle breaks down, and one of the characters, Mike, gazes at the sun on the horizon and links it with the motto "have a nice day". He says, "I've been on this road before. Looks like a fucked-up face. Like it's saying 'have a nice day' or something."
In the 1994 film Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump is a 1994 American epic comedy-drama romance film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Tom Hanks, Robin Wright and Gary Sinise...
, title character Forrest
Forrest Gump (character)
Forrest Gump is a fictional character who first appears in the 1986 eponymous novel by Winston Groom. Forrest Gump also appeared on screen in the 1994 film of the same name directed by Robert Zemeckis. Gump was portrayed as a child by Michael Humphreys and portrayed as an adult by Tom Hanks, who...
is jogging down the street when a T-shirt salesman approaches him, asking him to put his face on T-shirts as inspiration to people. While the men are jogging, a truck splashes mud into Forrest's face, and the salesman gives him a yellow shirt to wipe the mud off. Forrest rolls up the shirt and hands it back, saying "have a nice day". Unrolling the shirt, the man finds a smiley face outlined on it. The film credits Forrest Gump with inventing the smiley face logo and the "have a nice day" slogan.
In September 2005, Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi is an American rock band from Sayreville, New Jersey. Formed in 1983, Bon Jovi consists of lead singer and namesake Jon Bon Jovi , guitarist Richie Sambora, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, as well as current bassist Hugh McDonald...
released the album Have a Nice Day
Have a Nice Day (Bon Jovi album)
Have a Nice Day has mostly received mixed or unfavorable reviews by music critics. It was commonly commented that Jon Bon Jovi was "streching" his lyrical abilities, while the best rating the album has gotten is an 8 out of 10...
. The album cover contains a red smiley face which guitarist Richie Sambora
Richie Sambora
Richard Stephen "Richie" Sambora is an American rock guitarist, producer, musician, singer, and songwriter who is the longtime lead guitarist of the rock band, Bon Jovi. He and frontman Jon Bon Jovi form the primary songwriting unit of the band...
stated echoes its title song
Have a Nice Day (Bon Jovi song)
"Have a Nice Day" is Bon Jovi's first single off the 2005 album Have a Nice Day. It was first performed at the 2004 American Music Awards, where an incomplete version of the song was played. The final version of the song was first performed in full at the Philadelphia Live 8 concert on July 2,...
. Sambora explained that "It's [like] 'Have a nice day; get out of my face'—therefore the smirk. To me, it's much more of a Clint Eastwood 'Have a nice day' than a smiley face 'Have a nice day.'"
Usage
The phrase "have a nice day" is typically spoken by service employees or clerks to customers at the end of a transaction. A mercantile method of expressing "thank you" as in "thank you for shopping with us" or "thank you for using our service", it is commonly used among people in the United States and by retailers in New Zealand and elsewhere. In the 1970s, the American supermarket chain KmartKmart
Kmart, sometimes styled as "K-Mart," is a chain of discount department stores. The chain acquired Sears in 2005, forming a new corporation under the name Sears Holdings Corporation. The company was founded in 1962 and is the third largest discount store chain in the world, behind Wal-Mart and...
opened a store in Brisbane, Australia. The workers were trained to say, "Thank you for shopping at K-Mart. Have a nice day."
Other versions of "have a nice day" are "have a good one" and "have a nice one." The phrase was universalized after 1950 by truck drivers conversing on their CB radios
Citizens' band radio
Citizens' Band radio is, in many countries, a system of short-distance radio communications between individuals on a selection of 40 channels within the 27-MHz band. Citizens' Band is distinct from the FRS, GMRS, MURS and amateur radio...
. Scientific studies indicate that people who regularly smile are more likely to say "have a nice day". The phrase can have passive–aggressive connotations, and can be caustically used to end transactions with abusive customers. The speaker may also use the phrase ironically
Irony
Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...
, in either a purposeful or unintentional manner.
Roly Sussex of The Courier-Mail
The Courier-Mail
The Courier-Mail is a daily newspaper published in Brisbane, Australia. Owned by News Limited, it is published daily from Monday to Saturday in tabloid format. Its editorial offices are located at Bowen Hills, in Brisbane's inner northern suburbs, and it is printed at Murarrie, in Brisbane's...
wrote that "have a nice day" can sound "a touch brusque" in comparison with "you have a nice day". Deeming the word "you" as moderating the imperative, Sussex stated that the word "you" causes the phrase to seem like a mixture of a command and a hope. He wrote that using "you" in imperatives is more common with people under 25. In her 2001 book The Facts on File Dictionary of Clichés, Christina Ammer wrote about the growing usage of "have a good meal" in restaurants. Ammer opined that the phrase "induces teeth-gnashing irritation when voiced by a particularly incompetent waiter".
Academic Sandi Mann's interviews found that the British wished and demanded cordiality from service personnel, more than from their coworkers. Israelis, Americans, and Australians, on the other hand, wanted friendliness from both their coworkers and service personnel. Mann explains that the British do not expect a "smiley" display from colleagues because they have more time to build longer-term relationships. Those in the service industry, though, have to become "one-minute friends" each time they interact with customers.
In crime
On July 14, 1979, the Chicago TribuneChicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
published an article titled "This is a holdup; have a nice day" about a Minneapolis robber; while robbing the First Federal Savings & Loan Association of Chicago, the man gave a note to the bank teller that said "Thank you, and have a nice day". On November 3, 2007, two robbers equipped with handguns stole money from a kiosk at a Vale, North Carolina store; the Hickory Daily Record
Hickory Daily Record
Hickory Daily Record is a newspaper based in Hickory, North Carolina. It is owned by Media General....
called them "courteous crooks" because after the theft, they told people to "have a nice day".
Before the Binghamton shootings
Binghamton shootings
The Binghamton shootings took place on Friday, April 3, 2009, at the American Civic Association immigration center in Binghamton, New York, United States. At approximately 10:30 a.m. EDT, a naturalized immigrant Jiverly Antares Wong entered the facility and shot numerous people inside...
on April 3, 2009, the perpetrator sent a rambling diatribe against the police to News 10 Now
News 10 Now
YNN Central New York is a 24-hour local cable news television channel headquartered in Syracuse, New York. YNN stands for "Your News Now." The channel, which is owned and operated by Time Warner Cable, is a member of the YNN network of six Upstate New York news channels, and is also the hub for...
; the letter concluded with the chilling message "COP BRiNG ABOUT THiS SHOOTiNG COP MUST RESPONSiBLE. AND YOU HAVE A NiCE DAY". In the Cumbria shootings
Cumbria shootings
The Cumbria shootings was a killing spree that occurred on 2 June 2010 when a lone gunman, Derrick Bird, killed 12 people and injured 11 others before killing himself in Cumbria, England....
on June 2, 2010, the belligerent mocked one of his victims by saying "have a nice day" to her while he shot her in the face. The victim, who survived the incident, told reporters later she felt "[i]t was just like something out of The Terminator
The Terminator
The Terminator is a 1984 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, co-written by Cameron and William Wisher Jr., and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, and Linda Hamilton. The film was produced by Hemdale Film Corporation and distributed by Orion Pictures, and filmed in Los...
".
In Israel
"Have a nice day" is frequently used in the Israeli retail and service industries. Jerry LevinJerry Levin (journalist)
Jerry Levin is a former CNN network journalist. He writes on nonviolence, with an emphasis on the Middle East and in particular Palestine and Israel.In 1984 he was kidnapped and held hostage by Hezbollah. He escaped after eleven and a half...
wrote in his 2005 book West Bank Diary: Middle East Violence as Reported by a Former American Hostage about a woman in a coffee shop telling him to "have a nice day" after he purchased a sweet roll and coffee. Levin stated that there is also a "grimmer version of the pervasive pleasantry". After an Israeli soldier destroyed the memory card
Memory card
A memory card or flash card is an electronic flash memory data storage device used for storing digital information. They are commonly used in many electronic devices, including digital cameras, mobile phones, laptop computers, MP3 players, and video game consoles...
of Levin's camera, the soldier told him with a jocular smirk, "have a nice day".
In 2005, the Mosawa Center for Arab Rights in Israel paid for ads on television and radio stations in Israel. In the television ads, the Arabic phrase for "have a nice day" would flash onto the screen in black letters and on a red background. Immediately following the Arabic phrase would be a Hebrew phrase that said, "Are you already against it without even knowing what it says? All we wanted to say is have a nice day." Spokeswoman Abir Kopty stated that "[t]he purpose of this campaign was mainly to cause the Israeli public sitting at home, or walking down the street, to ask itself why it had a negative reaction to everything Arab, even if it is the simplest phrase." Kopty further said that the Mosawa Center wanted to encourage Arabs to be more active and more visible in the community.
In Korea
According to Korean Studies published by the University of Hawaii at ManoaUniversity of Hawaii at Manoa
The University of Hawaii at Mānoa is a public, co-educational university and is the flagship campus of the greater University of Hawaii system...
, "have a nice day" is sometimes used in Korea. Korean Studies wrote that it "seemed somehow to fit nicely" with the phrase "Caymi posey yo", which is frequently used in Korean shops to say goodbye.
In Europe
Europeans generally feel the phrase "have a nice day" is fake and that the speaker is solely interacting with the listener for business purposes. It is generally not used in the United Kingdom.The phrase "have a nice day" spread to Britain from the United States. In Britain, the variants "have a fine day" and "have a good day" are frequently used in place of "have a nice day". British customers generally consider it to be obnoxious and overbearing, instead usually preferring the gentler expression "enjoy the rest of your afternoon".
In their 2002 book Different Games, Different Rules, Haru Yamada and Deborah Tannen recalled teaching a class in London, where a student construed "have a nice day" to be insincere. The student said that Americans "say things like that with this big fake smile on their face, and they don't really mean it". Not having the context of the metaphor, the student took the phrase literally and was unable to discern the intended cordiality. Conversely, when Americans visit stores in Britain where the salespeople engage not in "have a nice day" salesmanship, Americans regard British as lacking customer service
Customer service
Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.According to Turban et al. , “Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer...
.
Guy Browning
Guy Browning
Guy Browning is a humorist and after-dinner speaker. He wrote the How To.. column in The Guardian from 1999-2009. Before that he wrote about office politics and social climbing...
penned an article in 2007 titled "How to... have a nice day" for The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, writing that sarcasm will creep into the discussion if the British say "have a nice day". Browning explained that in Britain, people assume that the day will be horrible—even catastrophic. He wrote that for the United States though, "nice days and the having thereof are written into the constitution".
In Germany, "Schönen Tag noch!", the German phrase for "have a nice day", is being used more frequently by its vendors and waiters. German author Hyde Flippo wrote that many Germans deem "have a nice day" to be affected and shallow. Flippo further opined that the phrase is an appropriate example of culturally improper language. He compared it to smiling arbitrarily at a German person which would give the impression that the smiler is a "little simple-minded or not quite 'all there'". Writing that Germans prefer "Auf Wiedersehen!" or "Tschüss!" (both meaning "goodbye")—which German shopkeepers frequently use—to "dubious wishes for a nice day" he opined that that is why Germans generally favor visiting a small shop instead of a large department store.
The French also concur that the phrase is insincere. Author Natalie Schorr wrote that the French frequently say "bonne journée"—"have a nice day" in French—and do not consider it to be insincere. Schorr explains that "bonne journée" is a "gracious formule de politesse", similar to merci and s'il vous plaît. However, "have a nice day" sounds like a trite phrase spoken by a telemarketer.
In Sweden, Lennart Fridén, a member of the Parliament of Sweden
Parliament of Sweden
The Riksdag is the national legislative assembly of Sweden. The riksdag is a unicameral assembly with 349 members , who are elected on a proportional basis to serve fixed terms of four years...
, lamented in a January 1995 speech to Parliament the usage of "ha en bra dag"—"have a nice day" in Swedish. Fridén stated that the increased usage of English loan expressions
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
like "ha en bra dag" "impairs our sense of language and style". He proposed a motion that an authoritative body, working in conjunction with linguistic institutions, be delegated the job of "caring for the Swedish language"; the motion did not pass.
The Boston-born American author Edith Shillue wrote in her 2003 book Peace Comes Dropping Slow that when the Irish stereotyped Americans, they tended to use the phrase "have a nice day". While lodging at a house in Ireland, Shillue found a drawing on the wall for American visitors like her. Drawn by her host's daughters, the picture had the phrase "Have a ______ Day", with a smiley faced affixed instead of the word "nice". Irish author Aidan Higgins
Aidan Higgins
-Life:His upbringing in a landed Catholic family in Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland, provided material for his first experimental novel, Langrishe, Go Down...
wrote in his 2004 book A Bestiary that the Americanization of Ireland led the Irish to say phrases like "No problem!" or "Have a nice day!" even when there is drenching rain.
In the United States
In the United States, "good morning", "good afternoon", "good evening", and "good night" were previously the normal farewell addresses for a lengthy period of time. The common valediction has become "have a nice day".According to the Handbook of Hispanic Cultures in the United States, "[t]enga un nice day" is an example of Cuban Spanglish
Spanglish
.Spanglish refers to the blend of Spanish and English, in the speech of people who speak parts of two languages, or whose normal language is different from that of the country where they live. The Hispanic population of the United States and the British population in Argentina use varieties of...
. This is distinguished from Chicano Spanish, in that the Chicano second-generation and beyond, who are inclined to code-switch
Code-switching
In linguistics, code-switching is the concurrent use of more than one language, or language variety, in conversation. Multilinguals—people who speak more than one language—sometimes use elements of multiple languages in conversing with each other...
, generally do not speak in the formal address form of "tenga".
In a New York courtroom, a judge sentenced a man to a seven to ten year jail term at the Auburn State Prison for committing a robbery. The judge's final words were "You are hereby remanded to the custody of the sheriff's department for delivery to the custody of state officials. Have a nice day." Jack Sheehan of WKRT stated that the convict "almost sank to his knees. The phrase had worked its magic."
Jewish-American comedian Alan King
Alan King (comedian)
Alan King was an American actor and comedian known for his biting wit and often angry humorous rants. King became well known as a Jewish comedian and satirist. He was also a serious actor who appeared in a number of movies and television shows. King wrote several books, produced films, and...
joked in his book Matzo Balls for Breakfast that Jews rarely say "'have a nice day', or even have one". He wrote that "[t]o be honest, I've never heard a Jew say that."
"Have a Nice Day" culture
Sandi Mann, a business psychologistIndustrial and organizational psychology
Industrial and organizational psychology is the scientific study of employees, workplaces, and organizations. Industrial and organizational psychologists contribute to an organization's success by improving the performance and well-being of its people...
at the University of Central Lancashire
University of Central Lancashire
The University of Central Lancashire is a university based in Preston, Lancashire, England.The university has its roots in The Institution For The Diffusion Of Useful Knowledge which was founded in 1828. In 1992 it was granted University status by the Privy Council...
, defines the "Have a Nice Day" culture as filled with "fake smiles, forced bonhomie, and meaningless demands by workers to 'have a nice day'". Managers compel their employees to be attentive and affable with customers despite the fact that some employees do not feel these emotions.
Sandi Mann concludes from her research that the "Have a Nice Day" culture will prevail, becoming used by more companies and countries. In the service industry, for example, she explains that products have become more uniform over the past few decades. Thus, the sole way for companies to distinguish themselves is to have better customer service. She notes that there are positive and negative effects. A positive effect is that it is beneficial for business and for people who enjoy fake displays. A negative effect is that emotions incompatible with the "Have a Nice Day" culture are repressed, leading to what Mann terms the "Have a Nice Day" syndrome. In an interview for the Wall Street Journal, an employee of the telemarketing company DialAmerica Marketing, was called a son of a bitch. Clenching his teeth, he responded "Thank you very much, you have a nice day." The stress of suppressing their feelings and faking cheerfulness caused people like the telemarketer to feel insincere and phony. Individuals affected by the "Have a Nice Day" syndrome must carry out emotional labor
Emotional labor
Emotional labor is a form of emotional regulation wherein workers are expected to display certain emotions as part of their job, and to promote organizational goals...
, which could lead to diminished self-esteem
Self-esteem
Self-esteem is a term in psychology to reflect a person's overall evaluation or appraisal of his or her own worth. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs and emotions such as triumph, despair, pride and shame: some would distinguish how 'the self-concept is what we think about the self; self-esteem, the...
, depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
, and cynicism
Cynicism
Cynicism , in its original form, refers to the beliefs of an ancient school of Greek philosophers known as the Cynics . Their philosophy was that the purpose of life was to live a life of Virtue in agreement with Nature. This meant rejecting all conventional desires for wealth, power, health, and...
.
Criticism
Linguistically, "have a nice day" is a command in that the subject, the pronoun you, is intimated. Kerry LePage wrote in his 2004 book Some Day Never Comes that he chooses to have a nice day based on his own choice, not that of another person. J. Broad wrote in his 2007 book Some Day Never Comes that the phrase causes people to feel they have an obligation to have a nice day. Mike RoykoMike Royko
Michael "Mike" Royko was a newspaper columnist in Chicago, who won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for commentary...
wrote in his 2002 book For the Love of Mike that people may have a bad day, not a nice one, because they "confront a demanding boss, a nasty customer, a crabby teacher".
According to author John Tschohl
John Tschohl
John Tschohl is an American business consultant and customer service specialist.-Career:He is a specialist in customer service...
, the tediousness of the phrase is exemplified by employees uttering the words so faintly as to be barely audible. The phrase is occasionally used in an ironic manner when others have been disrespectful or have negatively impacted the speaker. In Detroit, a supermarket started a program to have its cashiers tell every customer to "have a nice day" after completing their transactions. After conducting surveys, they realized that more than half of the customers were unaware of whether the clerk had said the phrase. In addition, a number of customers commented that they despised being told to "have a nice day". In a 2006 study, researchers at Frankfurt University discovered that people who must smile and say "have a nice day" in their jobs are more prone to illness. Flight attendant
Flight attendant
Flight attendants or cabin crew are members of an aircrew employed by airlines primarily to ensure the safety and comfort of passengers aboard commercial flights, on select business jet aircraft, and on some military aircraft.-History:The role of a flight attendant derives from that of similar...
s, waiters, and call center
Call centre
A call centre or call center is a centralised office used for the purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone. A call centre is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information inquiries from consumers. Outgoing calls for telemarketing,...
operators, as well as others who are forced to act cheerfully, are more likely to become depressed. This can lead to decreased immune system function.
Australian Andrew Biggs
Andrew Biggs
Andrew Biggs is an Australian journalist and author and television personality in Thailand. He has written several books, appears daily on Thai television's Channel 3, and runs his own language school.-Biography:...
of the Bangkok Post
Bangkok Post
The Bangkok Post is a broadsheet, English-language daily newspaper published in Bangkok, Thailand. The first issue was sold on August 1, 1946. It had four pages and cost 1 baht, a considerable amount at the time....
wrote that in the past, the phrase was heard exclusively in Hollywood movies and American soap operas. He lamented that by the 1970s, Aussie teenagers were compelled to tell customers to "have a nice day", a "blatant American cliche". Biggs stated that "have a nice day" is "an idiom that's been mashed and mangled over the decades".
Jan C. Snow laments that the phrase was trite and indicative of the speaker's lack of vocabulary. She wrote that on Saturdays, people could be asked to "have a relaxing day". People with highly variable jobs such as emergency room nurses may appreciate "have a routine day", while mothers of young children may wish to "have a quiet day". Debbie Lundberg wrote in her 2008 book Have a Nice Day Is Not Thank You, and No Problem Is Not You're Welcome that service people should say "thank you" instead of "have a nice day". She argued that "thank you" is shorter and is a "recognition of the ability you have to thank someone", which adds more worth to the purchase than something that will occur in the future. Paul V. Marshall, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem
Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem
The Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem covers fourteen counties in Pennsylvania to the north and west of Philadelphia. The bishop is Paul V. Marshall. The cathedral is the Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The pro-cathedral is St Stephen's, Wilkes-Barre.-History:The first Anglican services...
, concurred, writing in the Reading Eagle
Reading Eagle
The Reading Eagle is the major daily newspaper in Reading, Pennsylvania, in the United States. This family-owned newspaper has a daily circulation of 64,000 and a Sunday circulation of 100,000...
that he prefers "thank you" to "have a nice day" or "have a great day" even though "thank you" has a "host of socially acceptable responses". He stated that when people say thank you, they admit that they are dependent on others, which leads to a healthier, safer society.
J. Broad wrote that the phrase "have a nice day" is an apt middle ground for the "drop dead" the cashier is thinking and the "come back soon" the owner wants. Broad stated that the phrase is meaningless because it has been castrated by excessive usage and pretense. He compared the phrase to the salutation "How are you?" and the phrase "had a lovely time", which are "conversational space-fillers" that help prevent embarrassing silences. Usage of the term has been compared to inserting the phrase "you know" or the word "like" in sentences. In 1982, comedian George Carlin
George Carlin
George Denis Patrick Carlin was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, actor and author, who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums....
joked at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
, "That's the trouble with 'Have a nice day'; it puts all the pressure on you. Now you've got to go out and somehow manage to have a good time, all because of some loose-lipped cashier. 'Have a nice day ...' Maybe I don't feel like having a nice day. Maybe, just maybe, I've had 116 nice days in a row and I'm ready, by God, for a crappy day."
William Safire
William Safire
William Lewis Safire was an American author, columnist, journalist and presidential speechwriter....
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote that when the speaker of the phrase is genuine and maintains eye contact
Eye contact
Eye contact is a meeting of the eyes between two individuals.In human beings, eye contact is a form of nonverbal communication and is thought to have a large influence on social behavior. Coined in the early to mid-1960s, the term has come in the West to often define the act as a meaningful and...
, the act is a "social asset and a note of civility" in a busy world. However, he stated that when the phrase is robotically said or said in a tone similar to "get lost", the utterance "comes across with a resounding clank of falsity". Marilyn Gardner of The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor is an international newspaper published daily online, Monday to Friday, and weekly in print. It was started in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. As of 2009, the print circulation was 67,703.The CSM is a newspaper that covers...
wrote that the "bland age of 'Have-a-nice-day' should come to a deserving end". She opined that service could not be "peddled as an image", and that substance is more important than style. Satirical commentator Russell Baker
Russell Baker
Russell Wayne Baker is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning writer known for his satirical commentary and self-critical prose, as well as for his autobiography, Growing Up.-His career:...
wrote in the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
that he did not know Ma Bell was waning until she began using the phrase "have a nice day".
Miss Manners
Judith Martin
Judith Martin , better known by the pen name Miss Manners, is an American journalist, author, and etiquette authority. Martin's uncle was economist and labor historian Selig Perlman.- Early life and career :...
wrote in her 1990 book Miss Manners' Guide for the Turn-of-the-Millennium that although the phrase was trite, she wondered whether there was "so much deeply felt good will" permeating through the world that shallow friendliness ought to desist. She stated that for her, saying "goodbye" is sufficient because it expresses the same well-wishing farewell sentiment. Leil Lowndes wrote in her 2009 book How to Instantly Connect with Anyone that if someone says "have a nice day", the recipient should refrain from sarcastically responding "Thanks, but I have other plans" or "Gee, I was planning on having a miserable one, but now that you mention it, I think I'll have a nice one." Lowndes suggested that the response merely be "You, too."
Defense
Carol Swiderski of the Chicago TribuneChicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
wrote that although saying "have a nice day" may not be sincere, the speaker has acknowledged that the recipient is there. She argued "[h]ave we become so analytic that we can't accept these little niceties without asking ourselves, 'Did he really mean it? Does she really care if I have a nice day?'" Writing that society has become so automated that going through a check-out line at a grocery store without having made eye contact
Eye contact
Eye contact is a meeting of the eyes between two individuals.In human beings, eye contact is a form of nonverbal communication and is thought to have a large influence on social behavior. Coined in the early to mid-1960s, the term has come in the West to often define the act as a meaningful and...
or spoken with the checker is possible, Swiderski favored "insincerely meant human kindness to a robot". She encouraged people to respond to "have a nice day" with "you have a nice day, too" because she hoped that when a sufficient number of people do this, there could be a time when people will sincerely intend it.
Jeff Corbett of The Newcastle Herald
The Newcastle Herald
The Newcastle Herald is a local tabloid newspaper published daily, Monday to Saturday, in Newcastle, New South Wales, the largest non-capital city in Australia. It is the only local newspaper that serves the entire Hunter and Central Coast regions six days a week...
defended "have a nice day" despite his characterization of the phrase as "wincingly American and so patently false in its sing-song delivery" by cashiers. Corbett favored the phrase to the inquiries of the shopkeepers about his life; he preferred "have a nice day" because it did not entail a response.
Janice Turner
Janice Turner
Janice Turner is a columnist and feature writer for The Times. Previously she was a magazine editor for several women's titles, and wrote a column about magazines for UK Press Gazette. She was born in Doncaster, South Yorkshire...
of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
supported the phrase, writing that she is indifferent to it being used insincerely or 1,000 times a day. She wrote that "have a nice day" is "soothing, even kind", in that it improves the interactions among millions of people crowded together.
William F. Wyatt Jr. of the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
wrote that "have a nice day" used to be new and "fill[ed] a needed slot". "Goodbye", he stated, inappropriately indicates that salespeople are intimate with customers they do not know and would seem forced. "Farewell", Wyatt said, would feel abnormal and could only be employed in an ironic context. The close of a transaction needed an oral ending. "Have a nice day" was the apt phrase for those who serve people they do not know to end a transaction.