Man, I see a lot of this all over the internet lately. That is, people ******** about the 'stupid kid' at the parts store. As a guy who worked at a parts store through high school and college not too long ago (about 7 years total), I must say I kinda get where some of you are coming from, but some of you need to get real.
First and foremost, you are absolutely correct that little to no prior automotive knowledge is needed for the job. I got hired at 16 and knew just enough to be able to change my own oil and maybe a couple other small jobs. Really, I knew darn near nothing when it came to parts and vehicle diagnosis. And, much to my surprise, there was ZERO training offered to increase my knowledge. The only training I ever took was on things that helped the company, like Loss Prevention and crap like that. Basically, I learned all my auto knowledge on that job from screwing up. I WAS that guy that fell for the old 'I need a water pump for my VW bug' gag. But, I learned, albeit slowly. Really, that's the only difference between the young 'dumb' guy and the old 'wise' guy at a parts place. He's just been around long enough to have already seen it all.
Secondly, why do people expect the parts guy to know every last detail about their car? That makes no sense. You may expect it from the parts guy at the dealer, but he only was one or two makes to know, and even then only back a few decades. And, especially in this day and age where guys like us that like to work on our own stuff freely share all our knowledge online with one another (seriously, God bless the internet!), OF COURSE you're going to know more about your vehicle than the parts guy.
So, the next time you're in the store and 'that young kid' doesn't know what you need him to know, here's an idea: teach him, and/or maybe hive him a little bit of a break. It seems older generations these days just like to bag on youth for their stupidity, which is ironic because, as I see it, the REAL root cause is their generation's lack of ability or desire to teach. Case in point, I went into the local parts store a few months ago to buy some Fleetcharge (the very store I cut my teeth in nonetheless). The kid behind the counter didn't know what it was, but I explained it to him and told him it'd likely be back at the commercial counter (granted, I only knew that because I used to work there). When he brought it up, he asked what was so special about it. So I explained to him all I knew about SCAs and cavitation, a topic I knew NOTHING about until a few months before, and now he knows. That's all it took.
Sorry for the rant, but obviously it's a topic I know all too well and is a little near and dear to me.
Mike