Yeah, I can't stand that about the US. The best supermarket experience of my life was in Croatia, in Zagreb. I asked a woman working there whether they had ice, and she just said "No." (punctuation hers), spun around, and marched off to the next thing. No "Let me see if I can find them in the warehouse, or else freeze them myself while you awkwardly wait", no "Can I help you find something else? What about some water and a freezer?", just "Nope, no ice, question answered, I'm out". I could have bought a house there, right there and then.