If I've gotten any kind of general attitude at all from Apple Store employees since the pandemic, it's mainly one of "Why are you here?" Maybe this employee wanted to take advantage of the rare opportunity to do something other than retrieving people's pick-up orders and actually try to sell something, but this is deeply untypical for shopping at the Apple Store.
It's been widely reported on the internet that Apple salespeople are not on commission, which is what makes the OP's story so curious.
Maybe it's changed since the pandemic.