the second one, maybe she thought you were splitting the triple?

What was she expecting? 1864? 2064? It could only be "1964". It just took me by surprise that the question was even asked.
The second one just put the triple on the table, with no plates, and started to walk away. That has never happened before, and again took me by surprise.

Both are really NBD, but I found it very strange that common sense shit was being asked. Maybe they thought I was the toopid one? LOL

She asked because she didn’t want to have to go back and get another one if you wanted 2.

The first person is confirming they heard correctly, which is just basic customer service.

The second one is just confirming no one will be joining you.

I don't know if anyone else has worked in the food industry, but there's a non-zero chance that server brought two plates for two people in the past, only for a random sister-in-law to come back from the bathroom, and then the customers demand a third plate in the shittiest most entitled tone imaginable, like the waiter didn't mind read there was a phantom third party lurking around the grounds somewhere.

Walking through life with a hair pin trigger to declare someone an idiot doesn't sound fun.

Customer service puts up with a lot of shit. Grace should be the default.

I think it’s clear, our education system has a lot of problems.

Just sounds like wandering in public looking to be aggrieved to me.

And against low paid workers at that.

It's a look.

I promise, I am probably more aware of young people's educational status than most on DU. I've even written about it a bit here.

But these examples aren't it.

It's just shitting on customer service workers for having the audacity to ask for confirmation politely. Because they deserve it for some reason?

Is it really mystifying how unpleasant a look this is?

To respond back to ensure they've heard correctly. Sometimes people have a lot going on in their heads or there's background noise or a thousand other things.

Are we really throwing down over a regular human customer service interaction in this way?

This has kind of reached a dark hilarity of absurdity. I could choose self-awareness or just embrace a stereotype of being unpleasant about customer service. I choose stereotype!

To the mat, I guess. I'm middle-aged now, so I haven't quite reached "Be a random asshole about customer service" just yet. But I am hopeful.

You have a choice of picking from about 10 small menu items, such as mini hamburgers, boneless wings, egg rolls, etc. It is served in a large tray.

You pick your favorite 3. A small plate is required.

The first one might just be making sure she heard right.

In the 2nd example maybe there are people that want multiple plates for different items or she wasn't sure it was just going to be you two or whatever other reason. It was just making sure instead of assuming. They might even be taught to always ask instead of assuming.

Dumbing down of the entire planet

Both examples might be seen as petty. But they weren't. I have found over the years that "Common sense" issues are quite common amongst our younger community. The real question is why? It don't matter now, does it.

I bet it felt good to type all that out though.