I was reminiscing about my first interaction with an American customer I had when I had just started working (I don’t live in America, she was a tourist or something.) I worked in retail, and was taking care of a long line of customers. This American lady was at the end of the line. When she gets to me she asks to see my boss, so I head back and tell my boss a customer wants to talk to him, while I turn to some other work in the back of the store. A few minutes later my boss comes back and says the lady was upset with me and my behaviour, because I had not greeted her as she entered the store (because I was busy helping another customer.) The situation has perplexed me ever since, do all American stores employ greeters? I’m aware of the concept, how big stores like Walmart employ people to stand at the front door and greet people. But is it like that for every store in America?
Other than Walmart and stores that have memberships like Costco, there aren’t really designated greeters. That being said, when I worked for a gas station, the area manager, the person over a couple dozen stores in our part of the state, mandated that we all give some sort of greeting to every customer that comes through the doors. This is because, as middle management, she had nothing better to do than read google reviews of every store and make sweeping mandates based upon them. Obviously, we ignored her and continued greeting almost nobody. So, there are some crotchety people that will complain about anything.
Welcome to Moe’s!
The number of times I wanted to go get a burrito for lunch (Moe’s was next door to my office building) but went hungry instead solely because I did not want to hear “WELCOME TO MOE’S!” is very non-zero.