Shop assistants
Ah the vicissitudes of being a hunter-gatherer species whether its pursuing thundering bison across the tundra or Thursday night at Pricecutters'r'Us :rollin
Seriously though the attitude of folks working in situations where they "serve" (?!) the public does differ greatly in different countries and cultures and my personal experience - living UK with 4 - 5 long stays each year in Dublin, my home town - is that Dublin is probably top of the list for discourtesy and frustration. There does seem to be an "attitude" of resentment towards anyone who walks in the door. This isn't to say such transactions are always perfect elsewhere but they feel better.......to me at least.
One recent experience was going into an ESB showroom where gas-fires, cookers, bits of central-heating systems, were on display and a number of staff were dotted round the large room at separate desks. Having waited politely at a distance at the first one whilst the customer who was sorting out bill-payments was transacted, I sat down and began to enquire about energy-saving combination boilers. The "assistant" held up his hand abruptly before I'd got the first sentence out, pointed across the room and said "Over there! Him". I dutifully joined another queue, sat down in front of the second "assistant" and began my enquiry and had the same hand-gesture with "We don't know anything about all that. You'd have to go elsewhere for that" whereupon he shuffled and indicated the next person should come forward for "the treatment".
I had a stunned feeling of being considered a nuisance. If that enquiry had been attempted in Holland, USA, Germany Italy or Australia or indeed here in the UK I am sure from personal experience I would have left after 15 minutes feeling I knew more than when I went in, probably with some information specific to my query written on a comp. slip or business-card, and probably with some leaflets or lead-on information. Dublin often feels as if these folk don't really need your business and I wonder if the sheer complaicancy of the economy is at the base of this. I'd agree with other posters that the rule nowadays seems to be anyone behind a counter or "serving" the public considers that can be done without looking at, or listening to, said public.