> It used to be totally fine for one shopkeeper to mention to another that he saw a customer looking for a particular item. When you do it at scale, the old rules don't apply.
Right, because:
1) You're talking about a town so small that everybody knows everybody else's business anyway and fully expects this; 2) (yet paradoxically) I doubt the conversation would include much in the way of detailed personal info (unless it was gossip); 3) Regardless, in those days you probably saw both shopkeepers in church the following Sunday and could get any grievances resolved very quickly, and the shopkeeper is eager to resolve it rather than risk a bad reputation in a small tight-knit community.
Right, because: 1) You're talking about a town so small that everybody knows everybody else's business anyway and fully expects this; 2) (yet paradoxically) I doubt the conversation would include much in the way of detailed personal info (unless it was gossip); 3) Regardless, in those days you probably saw both shopkeepers in church the following Sunday and could get any grievances resolved very quickly, and the shopkeeper is eager to resolve it rather than risk a bad reputation in a small tight-knit community.