>>213328540 (OP)
I've literally never experienced it before. The only people I hear talking about it are boomers in reference to their teenage kids and service workers. The only explanation I can imagine is that this has to do with boomers being socialised to ask unnecessary questions as a way of being friendly, as well as habits formed by decades of living before mobile internet. Walking into a coffee shop and asking "Do you sell iced coffee?" is perceived as utter stupidity by a generation who was raised with ultimate availability and the sum total of human knowledge at their fingertips, soliciting a stupefied look of incredulity. However, in terms of the boomer's lifespan, it wasn't too long ago that iced coffee was the domain of trendy cafes, and there was no way of knowing who served what until you personally called or visited the store.
I think it's also undeniable that boomers have become very used to being spoonfed by service staff; a relic of an era when someone working behind a counter could provide a meaningful income to a home, and as such, was expected to go the extra mile in terms of effort to please the customer. Now, as wages have failed to keep up with costs of living and companies toy with the livelihoods of their employees to deny them reliable schedules, benefits etc. you just cannot expect the 20 year old employee to do anything more than take your order and give you a coffee. Boomers, socialised in a world where the customer was king, take this stripping of liberties as a personal attack by ungrateful punks, but in the end you get what you pay for.
