> Carrol Cox wrote:
>
>>I don't live in the South -- but Kelley's post is a pretty accurate
>>description of my experience in central Illinois. I have roughly 53
>>years experience grocery shopping, and I don't off hand remember more
>>than two or three rude clerks/cashiers and only a sprinkling of rude
>>customers. That covers shopping in Arlington Virginia, Ann Arbor
>>Michigan, Marquette Michigan, & Bloomington/Normal Illinois.
>
> Ditto NYC, even. Despite our worldwide rep for rudeness, I just don't see
> it in daily life. Sometimes there's a crank, but they really stand out.
>
> Doug
Yah but sometimes it hard to see what you participate in. For example, Germans tend to find nothing rude about their aggressive driving style but most Europeans would. In part, perhaps even mostly, this is because in the context of German roads and drivers, the German driving style is not aggressive rather it is the norm. Similarily, the rules of retail engagement are embedded in US culture in a way that makes US retail employees down right subservient vis-a-vis the customer. Now in Europe, there simply is not that retail culture, customers are simply party to an exchange of cash for goods and neither the store, nor the employees see themselves as servants of the customer. Put a Yank in Europe and he or she tends to complain to anyone who speaks english about the shitty level of service. This then gets compounded by the language barrier which many from the US think as the consumer they should get to speak in their native tongue. There is a reason why Canadians put their flag on when they travel abroad-- it is to avoid the hassel of being placed within the stereotype of the ugly American. If you think I making this up just watch the Amazing Race and see how your country men and women instrumentalize the places they are in.
Travis
Travis