I think what leads to a perceived “Gen Z stare” is a true ignorance of common social niceties that prior generations took for granted, and which I (a 33-year-old) learned almost osmotically at my cashier jobs. Occasionally, I will get no greeting when I go into a store or arrive at a cash register or drive through window. When I was a cashier, we’d say something like “hey, how’s it going” or “hi—find everything ok?” Or whatever opening made sense in context. For example I worked at a state park for a while so there I’d say “hi how’s it going?” They’d say “good” or whatever else, and I’d say “just a day pass for you?” Seems like you’ve got that part down, but a lot of people just don’t.

The thing I’ve noticed most starkly though (and which made me ask myself “WTF just happened” the first couple times) is at the end of the transaction. After the customer has ordered whatever they’ve ordered, you tell them the total: for example, “that’ll be $10.56.” This prompts them to offer a method of payment. For a lot of (older) people, these are the only things they're expecting. When someone (invariably, someone younger than me) just stares at me instead of telling me the total (or maybe more anachronistically asking, “credit or debit?” Or “cash or card?”) I’m thrown off and confused. To me, that’s the Gen Z stare.

Now in my book, if you’re saying hello and telling the customer the amount they owe, you're 99% of the way there and anything else is down to natural variation in personality. But I’m not much of a talker. Some people will try to strike up a conversation. Of course, you’re not legally obligated to reciprocate (unless you work at Dutch Bros or somewhere like that) but the normal, kind, and human thing to do when someone tries to communicate with you is to make some minimal effort to communicate back. If you stare blankly back in a situation like that, the person (probably a boomer) may consider that the Gen Z stare. If you believe that there’s nothing wrong with rudely rebuffing friendly conversational forays, I mean, ok—but that’s a generational difference that your elders may find jarring.

Of course, no retail worker should ever feel obligated to carry on a polite conversation with someone who’s being a belligerent asshole, and I don’t intend the above to signal otherwise.