What music does your local supermarket play?

I apologise if those words were offensive to your person as I fear they may be to a lady as yourself.

They play a lot of Steely Dan at my Cala. Its always depressing to learn the "truth" that SD is elevator music etc. Once I heard Man Eater too, which was cool.

Living in Florida, it always struck me that the Publix near me would play a muzak version of the Lightning Seeds' "Pure" ... not sure it was a song needing lightening ...

I swear they played a Muzak instrumental of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" here a few years ago, but maybe I had an acid flashback.

The best song I ever heard over the soundsystem there was either Duran Duran's "Save A Prayer" or XTC's "King for a Day."

Also, lots of McCartney/Wings.

I heard "Whip It" at the supermarket today!

Wham! Club Tropicana, back in Durty juRZ.

I DID whippits in the supermarket today.

Was that part of a torts assignment?

U2

I once heard "Love Will Tear Us Apart."

At an IGA in central Florida.

"Hungry Heart" by The Boss, which almost made me laugh out loud when I realized what it was. Some "Cure" recently. "Heaven is a Place On Earth" too.

I live in Atlanta. If you go to the Ansley Mall part of town all the stores are playing classic disco and cheesy modern dance music. The stores in East Atlanta play Grown Folks Radio, which plays the most badass grocery-store music I have ever heard. Classic funk and r&b.

I once TORE THAT ASS apart at an IGA in central florida

They were playing Steely Dan a few weeks ago which I thought was awesome, but since then the usual suspects, Kelly Clarkson, Nickleback and Matchbox 20.

Conventional grocery stores: Gin Blossoms.

Whole Foods: Phil Collins... no less than 3 times a day. I've had to spend some time in there, and that is the one thing I noticed about the music. All Phil. All the time. He must somehow be associated with organic food.

I once heard "Rape Me" in Whole Foods... fellow customers seemed unphased.

The Co-Op this morning had "C-Lebrity" by Queen & Paul Rodgers. At the weekend, "Paranoid Android". It was fun times.

The big Tesco out of town in Exeter plays this cod-Eno ambient wibble all the time.

I was in a supermarket in Poland once that played Always Look on the Bright Side of Life from Monty Python then Born Slippy by Underworld immediately afterwards. It seemed rather odd to me, but the old ladies pushing their trolleys of kiebasa around didn't bat an eyelid.

last time i was at the supermarket they played "psychotic reaction." i love it.

Local small Sainsbury's has two TVs above the checkouts showing music videos frequently punctuated with ads and offers. Standard pop fare, 80s to now, usually when I'm in the queue I'm all "bah humbug evil marketing" and resolutely look away, but the other day they played Let Forever Be and I just had to watch 'cause the video is sooo good.

When I was 14, I was in the music sections of WH Smiths with my parents, when George Michael's "I Want Your Sex" started playing.

The hotel I was in was playing "I'm so tired of America" by Radiohead, or so I thought.

I had to check, it was very Thom singing, and the chords were ones he'd use, but the lyrics were way too direct and unambiguous.

Yep, it was Rufus Wainright.

Still...

I used to work for a sattelite company that did feeds to all of a major supermarket Aus chain for their music and annoying "hey buy our stuff!" blurbs. The stuff was mostly shite, but having access to the playlists i'd pick a few things out now and then that were good.

One of the songs on rotation was "Boom, Shake the Room". Cant say I ever heard that at Safeway but hey.

my local branch of woolworths has been known to play bad religion.

I went to Harris-Teeter a few weeks ago to get hurricane supplies (didn't end up hitting us, thankfully), and for some reason they were playing all this really dramatic classical music. way to set the mood, guys!

The Cure - Close to me in the mall this morning.

Can't be long before they start putting on Christmas Carols though.

Whole Foods: Phil Collins... no less than 3 times a day. I've had to spend some time in there, and that is the one thing I noticed about the music. All Phil. All the time. He must somehow be associated with organic food.

― drainCosmetics, Tuesday, September 30, 2008 2:17 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest

Phil Collins is mandatory music for any business, whether it be office building, grocery store, or thrift store. He is OMNIPRESENT.

Working in a grocery store full time I should be an expert on this, but as it happens I'm really good at tuning out the jams and maintaining my mental stability. (When it's nothing but the graveyard it's essential to protect your brain.)

What I can recall: Phil Collins (like duh), some terrible cover of that awful Modest Mouse song from that sinkhole of an album right before Johnny Marr joined, Taylor Swift, Jimmy Eat World, y'know, the usual current(ish) stuff, balanced out by Van Morrison, the Kinks ('80s KINKS!!! YEAH), CCR, Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young, WHAT I'M SAYING HERE IS WE GET A LOT OF CLASSIC ROCK YA SEE. But never any fun surprises like Psychotic Reaction, or like that time I went into a gas station and heard "I want your skuuu-uuull, I need your skuuu-uuull!"
Though coincidentally there is a guy in the meat department named Scott Walker, so that's cool right? (I can't believe I didn't bring him up when some of us were talking about people with other famous people's names in some other thread a while back).

Dalhousie Safeway raped me of my James Blunt virginity. I'd never heard 'You're Beautiful' -- I had managed to somehow avoid it for ages -- until that fateful day at the grocery store.

They also frequently played Love Song by the Cure and some Avril Lavigne rubbish.

salsa shark you're a terrible man for the way with words, to be sure

Well I'll be damned. Always thought that was some 90s songstress like Shawn Colvin or Natalie Martika.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnYz0yW0OCA

mostly 80s hits

mine doesn't play any but if it did it would be garbage

Surprisingly varied! I heard the National and Boz Scaggs and Frankie Beverly last week.

"see no evil" by television heard at fred meyers today.

I heard "Fairytale of New York" at McDonald's! Was legit shocked (what with "cheap lousy faggot", "old slut on junk" etc)

My new supermarket seems to always be playing "Bizarre Love Triangle." Maybe they just throw it on when I walk in?

I heard "Fairytale of New York" at McDonald's! Was legit shocked (what with "cheap lousy faggot", "old slut on junk" etc)

― radiohead OK computer coca cola co KO (rip van wanko), Wednesday, 6 January 2016 04:16 (1 week ago)

I heard it at least twice in public areas in the runup to Christmas. It doesn't really shock anyone here in the UK as everyone's heard it.

My local Sainsburys doesn't play music. Perhaps I should be thankful.

of my two local supermarkets - which belong to the inauspiciously named chains "Buy-Low" and "No-Frills" - one plays a pop mix ranging from the almost contemporary back to the 70s but at a very low and unobtrusive volume so it's hard for me to remember any tracks they play, though "hurt so good" by john cougar mellencamp was definitely playing the other day. the other plays a louder and exclusively 80s mix - yesterday: phil collins' "two hearts", baltimora "tarzan boy", and Madonna "borderline" - which I really enjoy.

wow you guys have cool supermarkets. mine seems to actively hate it's patrons and seems to play music design to make people gtfo.

here's the last track I heard just an hour ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEZIpac803M

https://youtu.be/DEZIpac803M

Enjoyed hearing Al Stewart "Year of the Cat" at CVS the other day.

Well where else would you have heard it?

It's certainly no Walgreens track

Had to make a quick stop at a WalMart Neighborhood Market last night, and was greeted by the jammy solo section of "Working Man" by Rush as I walked in. This was made more bizarre by the fact the other two songs I could I.D. afterward were Sam Smith and No Doubt.

i get my hair cut at great clips and in indianapolis that meant they played the pop radio station - pretty much the last place where i would actually hear chart pop. now that i'm in portland the great clips plays "because the night" and beck's "loser".

toni basil - mickey

heart - crazy on you

Kroger was playing the Tom Waits original of "Old '55" last weekend.

― pplains, Friday, April 25, 2014 6:37 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

And nearly four years later, I heard it again in the soup aisle!

I mean, I hear the melody to that one or "Downtown Train" and automatically assume it's the more well-known cover.

The supermarkets usually don't play music around here. But I once visited one that played Imagination - Lights and music. This was obviously a great moment.

Or music and lights rather

I was out of the UK from 2002-2016 and, among the many changes, supermarkets stopped playing music. What I would give to hear a nice bit of muzak again.

I know I posted this on some thread somewhere, but it's always good for a re-up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvrPcDw-zuI

At this moment the fucking full Parachutes album by fucking Coldplay

I am genuinely enjoying listening to this, thanks DP.

It's been the soundtrack to my workday a few times. It definitely creates a melancholy, gauzy memory of my youth (the tape hiss helps!)

I heard Radio Free Europe at Whole Foods last night.

I go to my supermarket as little as I can now because "Come Together," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Comfortably Numb," "Imagine," "Mrs. Robinson," and literally no more than a single 74-minute CD worth of songs that are on every-wedding-band-ever's shortlist have been on shuffle for two years and counting. If I had to work there I'd put corkscrews in my ears.

"love will tear us apart" at fred meyers.

I was sat in the cafe in Sainsbury's, Didcot today and heard tracks by Talk Talk and Grizzly Bear.

I’m standing in the checkout line at Ralphs right now. They play mainstream vocal pop.

Today we had "Within You Without You" and I was so pleasantly shocked

Elvis, "Hound Dog", last night, sounded fuckin' great.