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Originally Posted by Maximo  I don't recall ever hearing miss or ma'am in Chicago, and rarely sir. The terms are generally regarded as insincere and gratuitous, things only Eddie Haskel would say to Mr. and Mrs. Cleaver.  |
That's the way I felt about “honey” and “sweetie”. I grew up not too far from Chicago, maybe it was just a different era. We also dressed up to shop! I have called people Ma’am before and meant no disrespect for it, for example, I saw someone drop something in a store, and I said, “Excuse me Ma’am” to get her attention, and then told her she dropped something. She was probably younger than me, but still old enough that “miss” sounded dumb. Would "sweetie" have worked?