Ralphs is my go to supermarket as I live in Los Angeles, and for the past few years I have realized that whenever I hear Sixpence Non the Richer’s “Breathe Your Name”, I’m always at Ralphs. Now I hear songs that I hear on the radio at supermarket or fast food joints, but there is some songs that seem to always be played on pharmacies and markets. Roughly a month ago I was at McDonald’s and again I heard that particular Sixpence song. On the radio the group’s biggest hit is “Kiss Me”, so one would expect to hear their top hit rather than one of their lesser singles.
At CVS I heard Swing Out Sister’s “Somewhere in the World”, which I instantly fell in love with. Made me think Swing Out Sister is the perfect sound for pharmacy, on hold or elevator music(in a good way).
Anyways, what songs or artists do you happen to hear on store radios than elsewhere?
The Wendy’s at the intersection on SH-377 and SH-114 in Roanoke, Texas, has their music piped in digitally, but it must be on some pre-set selection. If you stay for any length of time, you will hear “Sad Songs” by Elton John. If you stay long enough, it will come around again in the rotation; many times that my family had been there for an extended dinner break (usually to do with the elementary school’s PTA), we heard it twice!
On one occasion I heard four different versions (or maybe three versions with one repeated) of “All I Want For Christmas Is You” during a trip to the mall.
I work at a Kroger now. The music can be repetitious but sometimes they throw you a curveball. Adele’s “Someone Like You” I hear about every other day. Then just yesterday, I heard a Pearl Jam cover of the same song. Bizarre.
I know it can certainly effect the way you think, but it really depends on how the store handles their music.
My wife managed the Justice girls’ boutique at Grapevine Mills Mall in Texas before our first child was born. The music at the shop was downloaded automatically to a machine in the back, and this machine would play the music in a continuous loop until the next change-up, which was decided off-premises. If you were a shopper who came in to buy something, even if you spent an hour or more there, you wouldn’t hear a repeat… but if you were an employee, and spent 8-10 hours in the shop during a typical day, you’d hear the entire set and it would eventually come back around again.
If you were the manager, however, you could be guaranteed that this would happen to you day after day, relentlessly, until you either tuned it out or developed an almost pathological dislike of certain songs.
The Christmas season she managed that store is the reason I like “Christmas Wrapping” by The Waitresses and she can’t stand it.
Uh, stores and gas stations are almost the only place I hear music. I mostly listen to podcasts and audiobooks and only hit Pandora when I am dragging in the morning and need the ‘beat boost’.
That said, recently I’ve been hearing ‘One Headlight’ a lot recently. Wonder why it has made a comeback in the musak world?