3 March 2025
The other day, after I paid for my groceries, I said "thank you" and the cashier said "you're welcome". Now of course in many contexts, it makes sense to say "you're welcome" in response to "thank you". But it used to be universal (or nearly so) that both parties would say "thank you" after a transaction like that.
Each side thanking the other makes sense when both parties feel they are benefiting from the transaction. After all, I wouldn't willingly give the store my money in exchange for their merchandise if I didn't feel I was benefiting. And the store would not give me their merchandise in exchange for my money if they didn't feel they were benefiting.
Now, you can complicate the matter by pointing out that there are three parties involved: the customer, the cashier, and the store. That's true, and arguably more descriptive, or at least more detailed. When a cashier says (or used to say) "thank you" to a customer, he or she is (or was) speaking on behalf of the store.
We could further complicate our description by pointing out that there are other parties involved: a store manager, an owner, suppliers. But in each of these cases, there is a relationship which is perceived to be beneficial to both sides. The store manager is another employee with different responsibilities than the cashier, the owner has agreements with all the employees to pay them for the work they do for the store, and the owner has agreements with suppliers as well.
For every interaction in the normal operation of the store (with the possible exception of the tax man), both parties perceive the transaction as beneficial. Business operations are a network of beneficial interactions between various individuals. This is the fundamental nature of free enterprise.
The erosion of the universal pattern of "thank you - thank you" in simple business transactions seems to be an indicator of an erosion of this understanding of free enterprise.
This understanding of free enterprise seems in the past to have been, well if not universal, at least more universal than it is now.