Opinions of the "Southern hospitality" of Atlanta?

[JPD]

Originally Posted by arjay57

$18 a pound! Is that really what it costs?

Ha! I don't know what the current price is since I haven't set foot in a Whole Foods in close to a decade. It's damned expensive from what I remember.

[GatorDude]

Atlanta is hit or miss as far as friendliness goes. Sometimes folks are super friendly, other times they give you attitude for random reasons.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by jkobb510

To me, either this city has changed a lot over the years due to transplants, or Southern hospitality was never even all that big of a thing here. I'm writing this because I visited Macon, GA this morning, and really noticed how friendly the people there were. It just seemed noticeably different from the vibe I get in Atlanta, at least today... seemed more like TRUE Southern hospitality.

People won't even really make much eye contact with you here and don't seem too interested in conversing with people they don't know. Must be a big city thing?

I'm not saying Atlanta is full of horrible, mean people. I do see a lot of politeness and non-confrontational mannerisms here but that's really not the same thing as genuine friendliness.

I think all in all its pretty friendly. Now everyone isn't going up and saying hi to strangers, but when you have contact, they tend to be pretty friendly. Now small towns tend to be more that way, but Atlanta is pretty friendly for a big city.

[jpk1292000]

For a big city, Atlanta is friendly. I grew up outside of Philadelphia, and I can say that, on average people are much friendlier here. Of course, there are rude people everywhere, but the difference is palpable when I go back to visit family in PA.

[SkyeBright]

I also think it really depends. When I first arrived here about six months ago from a large city in the West, I was struck with how friendly it was. It was almost unbearably friendly. So much smiling, and saying hi and asking how my day was. Not that this is a bad thing, but it can be time consuming and sometimes I just wanted to really not talk to anyone while walking my dog or hiking or picking up a gallon of milk. Now that I've settled in, I'm so used to it that it can be so very noticeable when people aren't overly friendly. I traveled out of state recently and I had to readjust to not saying hi to everyone who passed by.

I think for a city of it's size, Atlanta is reasonably friendly.

[Ant131531]

Wierd. My mom said the opposite. Compared to when she went to NYC last month, she thought Atlanta was a very friendly city where people do things like hold the door, strike up a random conversation while waiting in line, or just saying hi in general whereas she thought the people in NYC were cold and and it was as if they hated the world. She said she love visiting the city, but she could never live there for those and other reasons.

[Newsboy]

Friendliness is directly related to happiness, and vice-versa. So it's safe to assume that people in Atlanta are, on average, happier with their circumstances in life than people in other cities.

And if you don't believe this is true ... check yourself next time you're feeling blue or in a bad mood. Being told to "have a nice day" when you're day really sucks ... really sucks.

[ElleKaye]

In social situations, I think there is plenty of southern hospitality in Atlanta. If you're discussing business-related basic polite customer service then Atlanta is definitely lacking.

I am from the south and have had not problem getting along with people from all types of backgrounds whether it involves political beliefs, race, religion, ocio-economic differences, etc. In general, we can all break bread at the same table with no problem because those things don't really define the nature of a person. They are just one of the many things that makes you who you are.

However, one of the first things I noticed here is that a lot of commercial establishment employees behave like that have a beef with the customers. I'm not expecting them to go out of their way, but I should not feel like I'm an inconvenience. If you don't like your job, then it's not my fault. I get that having someone be rude to you can definitely make it feel like oh, there's not southern hospitality at this establishment.