[mindslight]

The people working at those stores are really just a random smattering of warm bodies to fill a position. It appears you ran into the type of person who wants to play macho man from a limited knowledge set - don't take it personally. Go back the next day and a different person might [know exactly where the bits are, pass you off to someone else in the store, not know what a screwdriver is, or be curious about what you're fixing and recommend a different place you can actually obtain them]. Companies wanted replaceable minimum wage workers and that's what they got.