It basically sidesteps any conversation about what you mean. If you said to the line or to your fellow waiters “no cherries” that wouldn’t make any sense. Like, in what context would they guess you meant that? You’d at the very least have to say “we have no more cherries”, which is much longer than saying “86 cherries”.
If you mean in the context of the OP, though, then yes I completely agree, the customer was being extra and not actually shortening what they were trying to say.
It basically sidesteps any conversation about what you mean. If you said to the line or to your fellow waiters “no cherries” that wouldn’t make any sense. Like, in what context would they guess you meant that? You’d at the very least have to say “we have no more cherries”, which is much longer than saying “86 cherries”.
If you mean in the context of the OP, though, then yes I completely agree, the customer was being extra and not actually shortening what they were trying to say.