Where is the experience in the store? A retail Rant

Yesterday, I accompanied my wife and daughter into a top of the line retailer's store. This was no other than Macy's which has been a fantastic brand in its space. I also covered their leaders' major announcements from shoptalk in my tweets and article.

I had no shopping agenda on my mind. It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and the store didn't look busy. The staff was there in good numbers and looked relaxed.

Here are my general experience of going through the store while my wife and daughter shopped for cosmetics.

1. Not even a single store associate greeted us. I moved past the ladies section, into men's section, walked around to check out the watches(my favorite section) and then into the men's clothing section. There were at least 10 different store associates which were lazing around but didn't care to say hellos, make an eye contact or reach out to me for help.
2. There was a section where digital watches were displayed. It was interesting to see how many companies have jumped into this space to capture the customer base. however, in this area as well, there were so many watches(more than 50%) which were not working or would not switch on.
3. Then I stopped by a section for men's watches and while i checked out the Samsung's watch, which switched on, I noticed few guys who had zeroed into on another analog watch in the next section and asked for a store associate to help them get the price. 
1. This turned out to be an interesting conversation. The store associate didnt smile, again not make eye contact, took the watch from under the display, checked on the computer and announced the price very loudly to them.
2. The guys took a few seconds to think and seem they had already made up their mind to buy this watch, they told her that they will take it.
3. She again loudly asked if they want the extended warranty with it and continued to announce the price for it.
4. Eventually, the guys were loudly asked if they will be paying cash or card and the sale happened.

Observations:

1. Where I come from, in a smaller store [called Dukan in india] the level of attention the customer gets is unbelievably high. That seems to be lost totally in larger format stores, and completely missing in the states.
2. Where is the pure hardcore sales acumen of these associates? is no one hungry to sell their category? are they not incentivized so or are they simply not interested?
3. The way, the $450 watch sale happened, there was zero contribution from the sales associate and on her part to make the sale or contribute to the experience of the buyer. For this type of experience, why am I not better off buying online. honestly, if I were buying I would have just canceled the purchase purely because of the store associate and her attention and attitude [i have done that before]. Now this can be considered a one off case, but my walk through the rest of the store didnt inspire any different vibe as well.