"My second example is set here in Amsterdam. Predictably I was a regular patron of the Kalverstraat outpost of Marks & Spencers before they shut it down. The cramped food section was always an interesting mix of Dutch shoppers, ex pats and British tourists. On several occasions I saw Brits getting all hot under the collar and exchanging a few well chosen words with the natives. It took me a while to figure out what was happening but in the end I put it down to the different attitudes regarding personal space. The Dutch shoppers were exhibiting what for them was standard supermarket behaviour, which involved bumping up against people without a verbal acknowledgement or apology and leaning in front of fellow shoppers to take something from a shelf without an excuse me. Since this was a cultural difference I had a lot of difficulty adjusting to myself when I arrived in Amsterdam, it was somehow reassuring to see the visible exasperation and irritation this prompted in some of the more assertive British shoppers, with one young man even threatening a well-to-do Dutch lady shopper at one point. On the surface it seemed like he was indulging in a bit of gratuitous yobbery, whereas he felt he had been provoked by what he regarded as unbelievably rude and aggressive behaviour on her part."
(reported by a British woman, who had married a Dutchman and moved to Amsterdam)
http://www.worldenough.net/picture/English/tn/400_sortedout.htm
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