Plesantries

Whenever you go to the store and check out at the register, the cashier always greets you and you (normally) greet them back.  Obviously, some cashiers don't talk at all to their customers and some customers don't talk to the cashiers.  Although I am shy, I always greet someone with a "hi", "hello", or "how's it going".  I always tell the customer the total and end the order with a "have a good one".  I don't know why I always say that instead of "have a great day".  I sometimes say have a great day too.  Now that it's near Christmas, some customers say "Merry Christmas" to me.  I never say "Merry Christmas" to my customers.  I always say "happy holidays".  If they say Merry Christmas to me, I either return with "happy holidays" or "you too".  I think it's wrong to say Merry Christmas because you don't know for certain if they actually celebrate Christmas.  Tomorrow at my dad's liquor store, every customer will be saying Merry Christmas.  Although none of you will see me at the store tomorrow, you won't hear those words out of me once tomorrow throughout my 6 hour shift.  I understand the point of the pleasantries that we all say to one another.  However, we all know that when we say "how are you" or "have a great day", we actually couldn't care less how that person is or if they have a great day or not.  It would be more awkward if we were silent, though.  I have to admit that today, everyone at the grocery store was very pleasant even though it was understandably insanely busy.  No one lost their patience or got upset with anything.  You would think that with the holidays being so near, that people would have no patience left and would be easily ticked off.  It actually wasn't too bad of a day at work for once.  With that, I'll end with, have a great night!