A quick "Bonjour Mademoiselle/Madame/Monsieur" ("Hello Miss/Ma'am/Sir") will do just fine. It is also important to be polite when they take your order by saying "s’il vous plait" ("please") and "merci" ("thank you") once you get what you want. On your way out, be sure to end with "bonne journee/au revoir" ("have a good day/goodbye") on your way out.
Another way that I have been slowly integrating into the community is by becoming familiar with the employees at the shops within my neighborhood. Even though they may not all know me by name, they recognize me and say hello! My favorite store to go is the little fruit and vegetable stand at the end of my street. The man who runs the shop, Davit, is always helpful and very kind. I am always glad to see him. He is also the person that I interact with the most at stores, as I have to tell him the amount and types of fruit and vegetables I want and he picks and packs them for me. He always made sure to pick good vegetables and taught me how each variety was best used in the kitchen. After many times visiting his store, he asked me where I was from and which languages I spoke; eventually, he would ask me the names of produce in English and Spanish. One day as I was asking for the vegetables that I wanted, I realized that I did not know what the word for zucchini was in French. So I asked him “comment sa s’appelle?” ("what is that called") as I pointed to the zucchini and he said, “c'est une courgette”, I thanked him and wrote it down for future reference. He then asked me what it was called in English and Spanish.
