I thought back to my first big trip when I was studying abroad in France some years ago, when I went to Nice and when I was visiting small shops there. I had established my shopping habits in the big grocery store in my university town, but not knowing the location of a grocery in Nice and wanting to see the small shops in this marvelous town, I was going into each store I could find. I was amazed to hear that each time I entered a store, I was greeted by the store clerk (probably the owner) with a "good afternoon" and only if I looked particularly interested in something did they ask if I wanted more information about the product or if I needed help. And without fail, upon exit, I received a greeting of "goodbye", or "have a good day" or something similar. It took me a few stores and much observation to understand the role that I was supposed to play in this scene; these greetings are not just thrown at the customer, these are invitations to receive a greeting back. When you walk into a store and the clerk says "bonjour," you say "Bonjour, Madame" and when you leave, preferably before they do, you say "merci, au revoir." Because it was a pleasure viewing the items in their store that day non?
However, the protocol seems to be different in grocery stores. I don't know about in your part of the United States, but in my part, we make conversation with the check-out person and the bagger. The weather, news, a particularly famous olympic gymnastic who might be buying groceries two lanes down :-), etc. But in France, at the mega-marts, you say hello, pay for your groceries, thank the checker and leave.
What about other pleasantries? What other sorts of greetings do we say at, say, restaurants, airports, or other places where we meet people that we do not know? Think about this for a day or a week. It is amazing to think about how such small things as greeting the people that help you in stores are different from one country to another.
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