there is a related discussion on this topic here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39006092 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39006092 as an austrian wh

there is a related discussion on this topic here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39006092 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39006092 as an austrian who has lived in the US for a few years and many other places in the world, i came to appreciate that style. the friendliness may be superficial with some people but it only takes a few interactions to find out, and, what is much more important, in many situations it doesn't even matter. when i am in a shop, i don't care if the staff are friendly deep down in their heart or only acting friendly because they want to sell something (well duh, it's a shop). shopping in the US is still more pleasant because i am guaranteed that people will be friendly (and if they are growling internally because i didn't buy anything, it's their problem not mine). in europe friendly people exist, but it's luck of the draw.