subject: Time To Protest The Manufactured Hello At QuikTrip [print this page] My favorite convenience shop now requires sales staff to greet you with a "Hello!" when you walk in. Clearly it is a required policy, done unenthusiastically and without expectation of response. It's likely intended by upper management to generate situations more personal, but In my opinion , it's got the other effect. The 1st couple of occasions I walked to the store to hear the cheery greeting, I attempted to respond in kind. But the clerk and/or worker wasn't attracted to what i had to pronounce! So now I understand what's going on, and ignore the greeting. However it does create some angst. Appears to me, in well mannered society, when someone talks to you then you should respond. But what happens if that person does not plan or maybe want your answer? Then this type of greeting is manufactured, shallow, and insincere. It's similar to the customary "How do you do?", although worse. Sometime early in life I realized that the person asking this question is probably not thinking about my elaboration of well-being, and wants simply an affirmative one-word-reply. But at any rate, in this matter, a reply is wanted. Not so with the convenience store clerk. He is busy with a line of people wanting cigarettes and lottery tickets, his thoughts are likely someplace else, and to top it off he certainly resents the requirement to give a cheery hello to every person walking in the door.
I must start buying my gas and Slurpy at the other spot, down the street. They separate cashier from customer with bullet-proof Plexiglas. She speaks little English, and works a crossword puzzle. But there's no corporately forced pretense about her. I'll slip my cash into the little drawer, and if she returns my smile, at least it will be genuine.
