Weird encounter in a Kroger parking lot (tires)

yakz

Walking out of a Kroger (a grocery-store chain around here) with my cart, I see this person bent over looking at my rear-driver quarter-panel. I'm like, "oh ****, this person is looking to see if they'd done damage". As I'm approaching (still far away), he circles around and appears to be inspecting the opposite side in the same place. As I walk, he also sort of semi-glances at the front quarters.

When I walk up, he jumps up surprised. This is a grey-haired guy (50s, probably), semi-unkempt hair, well-dressed. The conversation was really awkward because he was in "caught acting strange" mode and I was in "what the **** has this person done to my car?" mode.

He tells me my Pilot Sports just came out (apparently my recently acquired tires are the latest edition). Following is this really awkward exchange where I am loading groceries etc. and we are making small-talk as he retreats.

Are people really that enthusiastic about the latest version of tires? I'm a software developer, so I could understand (I follow small details about advancements in computer hardware and software)... but.. are the latest Pilot Sports that interesting? The dude left in a black Merc coupe that did not look like a poor-person model (but was too far away to see if it was at least an AMG), probably cost 2x a brand-new 370 for the base model, and he said "that's a nice looking CAR" at least 3 times as he walked away from me.

Weirdest encounter so far.

And yet, after the whole thing I wish I had stopped the guy and talked to him about it. It was so ******* shocking though. This is the first car I've owned where people just suddenly interact with you.