This anon lives in the country. When you walk into the feed store people will call out hello. When you're in the grocery, the checkers can't help but gab up a storm.
I was in London a couple years ago and walked into the grocery store by my hotel. Got what I wanted, stood in line to check out and noticed that not a single person talked to the cashier when they paid for their shit. He was a man in his thirties.
So when it was my turn I said Hey, how's it going? He kinda looked at me, paused - probably thought - OK - we got us an American. And I thought for sure he was gonna be a dick.
But then he smiled instead. And said, I'm good, how are you? And I said, Yeah, I'm OK.
Everyone in line behind me looked at us like they had never seen two strangers have a conversation before. It was weird. But that guy smiled because I said hello.
City people have no clue what the real world is like.