Small talk is not pretend friendship nor insincerity. It's a ritual that attempts to get people to be friendly to each other. Being friendly is not the same a

Small talk is not pretend friendship nor insincerity. It's a ritual that attempts to get people to be friendly to each other. Being friendly is not the same as being a person's friend. The purpose of being friendly in a business context is to smooth interactions between people who do not otherwise know each other. It's much more difficult to be nasty to someone if they've been nice to you. Also many of us here find transactions are more pleasant when people are friendly. You don't dread going back to a place if people are friendly. Plus when you have a service job, a brief and pleasant conversation with a stranger can help you deal with the drudgery of the job. It's an awfully long day spending 8 hours cashiering when you act like a robot all day. In any case, some Americans and many Europeans seem to misunderstand (despite their insistence to the contrary) the function of small talk here and incorrectly interpret it as insincerity.