How do you teach your child not to talk to strangers when strangers talk to kids all the time in stores?

Oh gosh! Welcome to my world at the moment. My daughter is 4 now, but awhile ago I started telling her about not talking to strangers, since she is so the type of kid who would yell out "hi" to whoever walked by in the store. You are right, it is hard. My daughter picked up quickly on the stranger concept (I just told her a stranger is someone she doesn't know, she understood), but it's hard when like you said other adults say hi to your child first. I keep running into that lately everywhere we go. I'm thinking either I should just tell her to still not talk to them and just give them a smile (friendly, but not too open, ya know?), or that she can answer them only if she is with mommy. As for scaring them, sometimes you have to a little. I make sure when my daughter isn't listening to me and staying right next to me in the store, that a stranger could come and take her away from me. It's realistic, and gets her thinking about it without actually making her terrified of other people. Just to let her know what she should do to stay safe.