Southern Fried Chicken

I returned to the US from Germany moderately recently, and am now making the rounds to find work of some kind. Now I am living down here in the south (or is it the South?) and, besides the accent, the closeness of the talk surprises me after living amongst the Germans for so long, with their Du and Sie. I was at the supermarket, searching along the huge aisles groaning with billions of different types of cereal, and, after finding the things I needed, I went up to pay for them.

"You got you a shopping card, dear?" the cashier asked me.
"Um, no I don't," I reponded.
"we'll fix you up with one in a jiff, sugar, just sign right here."

Hmmmm, dear? Sugar? It was like I was their best pal. In Germany you could hardly get the cashier to acknowledge your presence, much less say "dear" or "sugar". It was one thing I definitely missed.