Why Loud Background Music ?

[modeller]

I have recently left two Supermarkets before I had completed my shop and went to a different one because I got fed up with the loud obtrusive music.
Why do some shops think it will help sales. The same thing happens in many pubs and restaurants. You go there to chat and socialise but frequently can't because of the canned background noise.

[baza]

I thought it was me just getting old, it seems not.

[Everhelpful]

Couldn't agree with you more,it really annoys me as well.

[gness]

Loud music in supermarkets is the reason I started using Aldi.....no music. I complained so often in the Co-op the manager told me to see him before I shopped and he would turn it down. If I have to shop where loud music is played I mention it at the check out.....usually the person serving me says they don't notice it because they switch off......that's sad. To work in an environment where you are oblivious to what is around you.

[atalanta]

I believe the music is there to mess up your judgment, so you don't have the spare brain-power to compare value-for-money, and end up just buying the stuff on the nearest shelf, which is always the dearest.
I always walk around noisy stores ( if I simply have to shop there in the first place) with my fingers in my ears. Bonus if it stops the people demonstrating new products from buttonholing me.
But what really gets up my nose is the pointless rattling music on television programmes like Real Cops - if a law-breaking scenario isn't exciting in its own right, stupid raucous music isn't going to make it exciting. In fact, it's going to make me turn off.

[shoota]

I wish someone would put out a (cyber) contract on this bloke...

[Answerprancer]

Modeller, you just need to get into it, kick your shoes off and dance in the aisles ;-)

[ummmm]

I don't even notice it...

[snags]

Neither do I.

[ummmm]

And I don't over spend or buy things I don't want/need so their physiology is wasted on me :-)

But it works, apparently.

[Buenchico]

I'm not defending over-loud music but I prefer it to those places (whether they be supermarkets, bars or wherever) that have music on at a very low level, so you just hear the same irritating noise that you do from people's headphones on trains.

Possibly even worse was a store in Stowmarket that, during December, had its regular piped music on one side of the store but Christmas music on the other side (where all of the Christmas items were on display). It might sound a good idea in principle but shoppers in the middle of the store had to endure both soundtracks simultaneously!

[Answerprancer]

...so there ya go, cheer up Modeller! Worse things happen at sea ;-)

[Buenchico]

Methyl:
If we're broadening the issue into offensive ads, I found the ads displayed on every table in Morrison's restaurant (advertising their flu jab service), showing someone sneezing into a handkerchief, tended to put me off my food!

[ummmm]

I don't notice that either.

[LyndaB]

I work in a large supermarket, and honestly don't notice the music until its turned off! It used to be worse when I started work at my last place. Back then there used to be horrible 'Muzak' which used unknown singers making a horlicks of well known songs. Worse than Chinese torture!

I only went into our local aldi once. There was no heating on, and no music. What a depressing place! I never went back again.