The Ugly Truth of the Modern Yuppie

Today, a friend and I went out for lunch to a popular sushi restaurant on Broadway near Cambie. It was very crowded, which kept the two servers extremely busy. I'm quite sure they were also the owners. We were sat down at a table for two, with an identical empty table right beside us. A few minutes later several groups of others came into eat: one couple, one threesome, and another couple. There were precisely three empty tables at the time: the one for two people beside us, another two-person table elsewhere, and a table for four.

The first couple were the perfect looking aging yuppies: late 40's / early 50's, perfectly coiffed hair - the woman blonde, the man slightly grey, sunglasses covering both sets of eyes. There was clearly an area to line-up but with their righteous noses in the air, they plunked themselves down at the table for four, even though they absolutely knew that there were others behind them.

The male owner, who was running his feet off at the time, quickly surveyed all the waiting patrons and politely gestured for the two yuppies to instead sit down at one of the tables for two. They refused and marched out in a huff. The threesome were seated at this larger table and the other couple quietly sat down at the other table for two.

But the little drama wasn't yet over! A minute or so later, Mr. Yuppie came marching back in, thrust his face toward the owner and exclaimed, "I hope you know that you've now lost two permanent customers!!!" I looked toward the door and saw his female companion waving her finger in scolding disappointment at the poor bewildered owner. They then both marched out a second time.

Whoah! All of this in supposedly laid back, polite Vancouver. I've long sought a comprehensive definition for the term "Yuppie". On the surface it's supposed to just mean "Young Urban Professional". But today I saw a first hand example of what it really stands for: Arrogant, stuck-up, multiple illusions of grandeur, selfish, a completely phoney facade, and just downright RUDE!

Sadly, I see this sort of behaviour all the time in Vancouver. These same sort of people are precisely the ones who won't hold open a door for anyone, be they elderly or handicapped, because doing so would mean actually having to acknowledge that a lesser being was in their midst. If you fit the archetype of a yuppie, please consider spending 1 minute of time injecting yourself with some compassion for every 10 minutes you spend perfecting your outward appearance.