Simpler interpretation of the cashier's behavior: thinking in terms of transactions is the obvious rational thing to do for the cashier, but things would probab

Simpler interpretation of the cashier's behavior: thinking in terms of transactions is the obvious rational thing to do for the cashier, but things would probably have been VERY DIFFERENT if you interacted with the OWNER of the place! Owners care about the long term success of the business so they are usually much more friendly to costumers than employees. And I think this can be generalized to the fact that the few employee owned businesses way have much better customer relationships.