I am one of those that believe you can tell quite a bit about people of "power" or "authority" by the way they treat their "subordinates". During summers in college, I was a waiter and then a bartender. Naturally, on a few occasions I was on the receiving end of behavior that ranged from unthinking self-centeredness to outright aggression, and these have been lessons I have tried to keep with me--if only as a reminder that life's circumstances are no excuse for a lack of civility. I also tend to harbor a Hannibal Lechter-style abhorrence to unilateral rudeness.
Shockhead, the best you can do is internalize the events and react in opposition. I always find that performing an act of kindness following one of these encounters helps me feel better. That and the realization that I am not the poor sap that's married to the b!@tch

Cheers and heads up