I suspect that's because a lot of Brits (and the commonwealth, certainly here in NZ) don't take well to commercial friendships. We don't want a random barista knowing our name.
However, if we've seen the same barista every day for a year it's different. So the Italian situation is fine, but asking up front and pretending is not.
I'm an American. I don't normally go into places like Starbucks. I recently went to a "juice bar" and was one of only two customers there. I paid with cash as I always do nowadays because of Visa/MC/etc data-mining. The one and only person behind the counter asked for my name. It really got my hackles up, I involuntarily scowled and I said I pay cash so I won't have to tell you my name. The poor girl said they only ask for names so orders won't get mixed up - which makes sense from a rote point of view, but was ridiculous given that there were only two customers in the entire place.
I guess if I were used to places asking for my name, I would have simply just made one up on the spot and things would have gone smoothly -- although I dislike being 'forced' to lie on a casual basis like that, if I have a choice I simply won't frequent a business that puts me in that position. I haven't been back to that juice bar since, despite it being only a few blocks from my house.
It seems the "marketing types" really don't get me - walmart greeters disturb me, makes me feel bad for them rather than "welcome" by reminding me how much better off I am than the person who has to take such a dreary and unproductive job. Bathroom attendants totally creep me out with pervo vibes rather than make me feel like I'm in a high-class establishment. My gym forces the people at the front-desk to say goodbye when you leave, which makes me feel like I have to choose between being an asshole and ignoring them or being fake and responding to their corporate-enforced fakeness.
I would really like to know what percentages of the population actually likes this stuff versus simply tolerates it or like myself feels put on the spot by it.
Who knows? Some little mom-and-pop juice-bar, probably not. Megalocorp like Starbucks with millions to spend on such a project, quite possibly.
After all, birth-date + gender + zip-code is enough uniquely identify 87% of the population - what's the chance that I've inadvertently let slip some information in addition to my name? Maybe gender, plus first name plus zip-code of the point-of-purchase is similarly revealing? The thing about privacy is once you've lost control of it, you can never get that control back so staying vigilant is important.
