Why is it that everyone I talk to - friends, colleagues, relatives, even fellow commuters and shoppers - all universally express a total hatred of piped-in commercial Xmas music, and yet it’s played in every store starting the day after Thanksgiving, sometimes even before Halloween. Even the store clerks themselves hate it.
Why do stores play it if everyone hates it? I’ve actually had to leave stores because I couldn’t stand it. How exactly does that stimulate sales if it’s driving customers away screaming?
The belief I have heard expressed is that people hear the music, associate it subconsciously with the need to buy things for Christmas, and correspondingly spend more.
I do not believe this myself, but I can imagine merchants believing it. I wonder if anyone has ever done a controlled study.
Good question. While I agree that Christmas muzak is almost universally detested, I don’t think most people hate it enough to actually leave a store, and my guess is that it’s piped in as a means of not-so-subtly reminding everyone in the store what time of year it is. In other words, it’s done in the belief that it will increase sales, not because anyone actually enjoys listening to the music, but because it’s a means of subliminally pressuring customers into getting their Christmas shopping done.