you were polite to them, so let them be polite to you by acknowledging your expression of gratitude
But it's not an expression of gratitude in this context unless they did something beyond their job duties. Thanking them is just the universal polite way of ending the exchange and most customers do it. This interaction is routine and necessary to complete a purchase, and customers aren't expressing genuine gratitude just because the cashier did their job.
And also comments I don't like/disagree with
That's how most people upvote/downvote on Reddit and that's why you're massively downvoted there for expressing an opinion that goes against the hivemind, even when your comment is thoughtful and well written. Lemmy is better about that, but I've noticed a lot more downvoted comments here in recent weeks where it's just people disagreeing.
When you thank a cashier, that's the standard polite way to close the interaction and both of you understand you're not actually expressing gratitude to them for simply doing their job.
Responding with "you're welcome" implies the settlement of a social debt (i.e., yes, I did you a favor and your gratitude is acknowledged) that wasn't part of that purely transactional exchange. It's an exaggerated response that comes across as presumptuous. You thanking the cashier doesn't indebt them, but their "you're welcome" implies that you owed them.
BUT that's not their intent, they're just mindlessly saying it because that's how their manager or grandma or someone taught them to respond and they never stopped to think about it. So I find it mildly annoying, but I'd never point it out and neither of us wants that discussion.
Similarly, I find it slightly annoying when you thank a cashier and they respond by saying you're welcome. This exchange was purely transactional (I paid for my items and you did your job), so please don't imply that you did me some sort of personal favor. But like you, I won't say anything about it to the cashier because their job is already hard enough.
I do "international date nights" with my girlfriend, where we pick a country and make some food from it and enjoy a bit of its culture.
Tonight is Bulgaria. We're making tarator (cold cucumber soup) and shopska salad and drinking a Bulgarian mavrud red wine and snacking on kashkaval sheep's cheese. I've gotta introduce my gf to some chalga music while we make dinner, and we'll watch the Bulgarian movie "In the Heart of the Machine" while we eat -- it's about a group of prisoner factory workers in communist-era Bulgaria who find a pigeon trapped inside of a machine and they work together to rescue it.
My mom lives in a small town in Norrland that has a single grocery store with only one machine. The machine is almost always broken! I haven't seen the new machines you're describing, but I hope her town gets one soon.
I live in the US in a state without a deposit system, so I put all my recyclables into one bag and walk it down the hall to my building's recycling chute. No need for sorting because it all gets sorted at the recycling facility.
I'm still best friends with an ex from 7 years ago, it's not awkward at all and us being exes rarely comes up. Her new boyfriend is cool, we enjoy chatting and we text occasionally. My girlfriend and my ex are pretty good friends, they hike and do outdoorsy stuff together without us guys.
Me too!
Lucky you!
There was a family of magpies in my yard at a place where I used to live. They're so observant that they would look through my windows and watch me while I prepared food or cleaned or whatever in my kitchen. They recognize individual human faces. If you go out of your way to be nice or mean to them then they'll remember that interaction for a long time and adjust their behavior around you accordingly.
Magpies (the corvids, not the distantly related assholes in Australia) are so fascinating. They're self-aware (they pass the mirror test) and they're able to plan for future needs (for example, they'll cache food and then hide tools nearby to later break into their cache). They have a huge variety of vocalizations that vary by region, sort of like dialects. They also engage in play just for the fun of it, like sliding down snowy hills and tossing and then catching objects. I could go on and on about magpies, such cool birds.
I completely agree. I used to be a huge coffee drinker until I came to the realization that it's horrible for my sleep and anxiety, so I weaned myself off it for a few months and then stopped.
Two years without caffeine and I'll never start using it again. It's so nice not being addicted to coffee (and not spending money on it), not feeling wired/jittery and not getting withdrawal headaches. I just wake up and I'm ready to go every morning.
I agree and I use that all the time.
Even if "thank you" acknowledges a social debt then you're not indebting the cashier by thanking them. Being told you're welcome implies that you owed the cashier when they simply did their job.
Anyway, apparently I'm in the minority on this and that's fine!