Asking Eric: Tasked with sharing the news of best friend’s terminal diagnosis

Dear Eric: Many companies are training their employees to “be friendlier.” Now, when I go to pay for my groceries or have bloodwork done at a lab, someone invariably asks me, “so what are you doing the rest of your day?” I find that to be very intrusive from someone I don’t know and may never see again. I understand they have been trained so it isn’t necessarily their fault, but I need a better response than “who wants to know?” or “why are you asking me this?”