Commenting Cashiers

The cashier at Wal-Mart annoyed me today by asking me questions about and commenting on the stuff I was buying.

her: "Looks like you're going to be doing some planting," after she scanned my bag of top soil.
me: "Yep"
her: "Today? Probably not. . . ."
me: shrug
her: "This is a pretty plant. Is it indoor or outdoor?"
me: "It's an outdoor plant, I think. Thanks. Yeah, I thought it was pretty, too."

I don't know why this annoyed me today. It's just odd when someone comments on your stuff. I guess it's almost like an invasion of privacy, I mean, does it really matter what someone thinks about the items on the counter thingy?! What if waiters commented on dinner behavior, "Are you feeling thirsty today? You've been needing a lot of refills. What were you doing?" They wouldn't really do this because it's weird and sort of awkward! Same goes for cashiers commenting on what you buy at the store-- it shouldn't be allowed!

Before I moved to Utah, I lived in the area of the school where I was teaching. Once I went to Target and ended up with one of my students as my cashier. I quickly scanned my items to make sure I wasn't getting anything super incriminating (like personal items... you know what I mean!) and was relieved when it was just a cookie sheet and stuff like that. But the girl commented on my stuff, "Oh, Miss V, are you baking today?" Um, no, actually, I was planning on playing in the sand! Seriously! What else do you do with a cookie sheet?! The worst part of this was that at school on Monday, I actually had kids ask me how my baking went-- the girl told her friends what I bought. Seriously. People.