To be honest, I know very little about life in Russia, for the obvious reasons, but I am not glad to hear you too (and so many in your country) have to face this on a daily bases. Looks like there's a segment like this in every country and I suspect the situation is even worse in less developed countries.

I choose to be gentle with her, because this is a shop where I do my shopping on a daily bases and I didn't want her to remember me but I'm dam sure I'm not going to buy anything from her ever again. Better walk 20 minutes and go to the other shop.

In an ideal world, everyone should evolve both professionally and on a personal level, but I have the feeling some people are going backwards after graduating from high school.