As a cashier, I ask people this question quite often and they would ask me in return as well. More than often my answer would be 'not bad', sometimes it be 'alright, the store is quite busy today' and I would ask them in return and obviously their answer tends to be along the lines of the ones I have mentioned or in agreement to them.
I find that its one of those polite things you say as a cashier, kind of like a cashier's manner to do so but I never really thought about the answer the person would give or myself for that matter... all until recently that is.
Sometimes line ups would be really long and most people reply 'I'm good' so they can just buy their stuff and get out of the store as soon as possible (these shoppers are usually people working in and around the mall, in a rush to get out since they're on their breaks and stuff). Seniors tend to take up more time at the cashiers and may ramble about us implementing our 5 cents charge on plastic bags or how so and so is cheaper than us. Well too bad then, I can't do anything about it
Anyhow the point is, I have replied 'I'm good' a lot of times before but I caught myself lying the other day. I wasn't feeling okay, in fact I felt like crap, I had a bad night and a bad morning and everything was just terrible. But if I didn't say what I said that'll just spark the person's curiosity and they may or may not question further which I wouldn't have wanted them to anyways. So sometimes I wonder if people just give a short-with-no-strings-attached answer just to hinder further questioning like I did.
How are you today?
