High expectations, ignorance, or high laziness?

Today is one of those days when I really have to wonder if we're truly passing along enough information to the generations after ours. Either people have high expectations of what certain products can do, they're ignorant, or they're laziness dial is turned to "high."

One of our garden people, "English Major," wound up having to take a break this afternoon. Not because she had been on her feet for too long, but because she was getting some really stupid questions - ones that would make a lot of people go, "well, duh!" to. But of course, we're in retail, and customers tend to have this problem with someone giving them a look that can translate to, "are you that %^&*ing stupid?"

What set her off? A customer that did not understand how they actually have the spread fertilizer over their lawn to get it to work. He could not just leave it in a pile in one area, as it will not spread itself, and most likely someone else will not do it for him without being paid. He also did not understand that no, English Major would not go home with it to do it for him, as she has to stay at work.

This is right up there with the customers that don't understand that when they take the can of paint home, it will not put itself onto their walls, they have to do that part. And no, the paint will not come out of the can striped like the picture in the book shows it on the walls - you need to tape it off and do the stripes yourself. In two colors. Yes, that means you have to buy two colors of paint. No, we can't give you half a gallon of each color in a one gallon can and have them stay separated.

Teacher Girl in receiving had to go home over her lunch break today, as her kids are off, and her 16-year-old did not know how to order a pizza. Seriously, whut? O_o

A few years ago, we had customer in the store that wanted something to kill the bees in their yard. The bees were visiting the flowers in their yard, and the flowers would die shortly after, therefore the bees must be killing the flowers. Ren Faire tried explaining the idea of pollination to them. They thought she was lying, and demanded to speak to the manager. He also tried explaining pollination to them. They were having none of it, and left to go to an actual flower store, figuring that the people there would know what they're talking about, as we apparently did not.

English Major has also recently had to explain the concept of photosynthesis, and that yes, plants needs sunlight (and water!) to live, and without those they will die. I think I learned the basics of photosynthesis in what? Fifth grade? Fourth?

I think we're doing a little too much hand-holding here. Somewhere, something in the information age went horribly wrong, and people are not getting the right information. I'm not certain that having classes about these basic topics would be a good idea, but it certainly shouldn't be able to do harm.