Clarification (since the comment box won't open on my Mac here at work)

An anonymous commenter to my previous post asked "whatever happened to being nice and civil to our fellow man?" I agree, niceness and civility are extremely important, but the whole feigned friendliness thing has gone way too far. If an employee is truly going to be friendly (as they often are at Home Depot, and at every other Wal-Mart on earth other than the one in south Vancouver), then that's fine. As for everybody else, I'm tired of it. Quit trying to get my money by pretending to be my "friend." If yoiu do a good job and are helpful, and pleasant through the experience, that's enough.