Hey, that's funny. It was so weird for me when I arrived in Australia and people were asking how I was doing? and I didn't know them :-)
But I still miss not saying goodbye when I leave a shop or my bakery... it's in my French genes.

I guess being polite is culturally relative. The idea seems so small towney to me, but in NYC I never say anyting to a shop clerk unless I'm asked.

Oh, I just discover your Tourist Tips... shame on me.

I was *shocked* when I lived in Taiwan for the first time, because I realized clerks was very nice to everybody, and nobody cared about it.

For instance, somebody enters a shop. The clerks all say "Welcome!" or something like that (in Chinese); the customer doesn answer to that. Then when the customer pays, he won't say anything (no thanks, no shit, nothing), and when he lives, clerks will say "Thank you for coming!".

So the very first time I entered a shop, I said "ni hao" (one of the only Chinese words I knew at that time, which mean "hello"), and when I left I said "xiexie, zaijian" (thank you, good bye). And I didn't understand why the clerks looked at me as if I was an ET or something...

Since then, I realized I was really nice to clerks in France: I even add "bon courage" sometimes, cause I have been a clerk and I know how boring it is, especially now we are close to Christmas!