If you’ve read this blog before, you have seen that I sometimes refer to my husband as “my honey”. When we first started dating, he thought it would be nice if we had that special nickname for each other. I remember that it sounded so weird and awkward when we first started using it, but now I call him that more than I use his real name.

I'm not your honey.

My honey used to work at Sears. He has a full time job, yes, but he was working at Sears as a second job while we get out of debt (which is a different post for another day). He just recently told me of a discussion he and his fellow salesmen had one night about using the words “honey” and just “hun” with customers.

And of course, he asked my opinion. My thoughts? If a salesperson called me “hun”, I would never buy anything from him/her. I’d leave the store immediately, and every time I drove by, I’d refer to it as “that store where the salesman called me ‘hun'”.

I’m not sure why I find it totally offensive when strangers call me that, but I can still remember specific times when it has happened.

• A saleswoman at a bookstore in Springfield when I was 8 or 9
• The manager at our local Fazoli’s
• Several bank customers when I worked the drive-up window

All I can remember thinking is, I’m not your honey. 

Back to the Sears discussion – some of the salespeople thought that it would be talking down to the customer. Others argued that it’s a term of endearment.

I agree with both. It does feel like a stranger thinks they are above me when they call me “hun” or “honey”. It is also a term of endearment, but only when someone I know and love uses it. In the same way, I only use the term with my husband and occasionally with my kids. Because they are my honeys.

So salespeople everywhere, please refrain from calling customers “hun”. They could be totally offended.