Six months ago I moved from the Midwest to a town in Connecticut only 45 minutes from NYC. I have found most NYers to be rude, semi-literate, boorish, arrogant, and pushy. The odd thing is that when you cross the border into CT people instantly become friendlier, not that CT is anywhere near as civil and down-to-earth as the Midwest.
Come out to the eastern part of the state (CT). We’re a little more ‘Midwestern’ in that sense, though we can still be a bit cold at first.
Its funny, when I lived in CA, I was surprised how people just basically ignored you. I’d go to the same store 1 or 2 times a week for years, and often end up with the same checkout woman. I always tried to be chatty and she’d just look at me like I had an arm growing out of my head.
I moved back to CT, and within a month of doing the same here, the checkout woman recognized me on sight, and was chatty right back.