In person sometimes leaves me wishing I hadn't realized how stupid some people are.
I took an odd crush washer from a 50 year old vehicle to a very big name auto parts store to match something up. It was all I could do to get the kid (the only clerk) off his phone only to be told if the vehicle was not in his computer then he couldn't do anything.
I left and have never been back.
While I believe the "kids these days only know how to scroll on their phone" trope has a lot of validity, the most incompetence I've ever had at auto parts stores and hardware stores have been from Boomers and Gen X'ers (I'm Gen X, FWIW). A few examples...
* Installing a manual transmission in my '57 Chevy, needed a clutch arm boot for the bellhousing. The only guy at the dealership was a Boomer, claimed he didn't know what one was, then couldn't find it without a VIN or exact year/make/model, and then when I found the active P/N for him in the diagram, claimed it couldn't be ordered (it could, and I did via the internet).
* Looking for a crow's foot, a Gen X'er dude at a hardware store chuckled at me and said "there's no such tool." Went down the road to another hardware store and an ~18-yo knew what it was and took me right to them.
* Looking for some naval jelly at a hardware store, a Boomer woman claimed they had no such thing and she didn't know what it was anyhow. I changed my request and asked for "anti-rust treatment," and when she took me to the shelf, I pointed out the naval jelly right there.
* Looking for a J-nut at a hardware store, a Boomer woman said they didn't have any. I pulled a picture up and said "Do you have these, then?" "Yes." Took me to them, then I pointed out the name on the drawer.
* Probably at least a half-dozen more similar Gen X & Boomer "I don't know what that is"/"those don't exist"/"we don't have those" stories that I can't recall at the moment.
On the other hand, like the crow's foot example from above, I've found folks in their late teens or early 20s to be the most competent at hardware stores these days. They know what parts are, where they are, and in the case of a plumbing issue I had, pointed out a far better solution. They're also willing to tell me where I can get something they don't have, which is a rarity for Gen X & Boomer folks at stores.
Nowadays, I have a folder on my phone with pictures of what I'm looking for, so I'm ready for the "I don't know what that is"/"those don't exist"/"we don't have those" Gen X & Boomer types.

This technique has worked well for me!