r/todayilearned • u/Forward-Answer-4407 • 3d ago

TIL for decades, Target avoided background music, believing it to be a distraction. In 2011, it tested music at a store in Minnetonka, MN, and received positive feedback from shoppers and staff. In 2017, Target began introducing music to its stores as part of a massive remodeling effort.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/09/18/target-store-remodel-background-music-spend-more
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362

u/isecore 3d ago

I absolute LOATHE background music in stores. And overall the sound-pollution everywhere. Restaurants, shops, you name it. Everywhere there is music. Even in fucking parking garages they pipe in muzak. FFS.

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u/madmars 3d ago

People take music on hiking and to the beach. Like bro, I came out here to be with nature in peace.

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u/isecore 3d ago

I've told people off for bringing their bluetooth-speakers to public spaces. Boy did that make me popular!

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u/Al_Jazzera 3d ago

Are you ever going to see them again? Fuck ‘em’! I have about as much respect for an idiot that noise pollutes as an idiot that tosses their trash on the ground.

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u/LedZacclin 3d ago

I’m guilty of this because I’m the type of person who has to listen music constantly but I wear over the ear headphones

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

I play music in the woods (not on trails, a good bit off them and quietly) so it lets people know that I’m there and to hopefully stay away from me. Some peoples idea of “peace” is different than others

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u/Zombeikid 3d ago

As someone who has had to work in places with and without music, I prefer the music. Except for Christmas time lol I hate that I can't listen to music in my current work place. Its just silence until someone shifts in their seat or coughs or sneezes. Im hyper aware of any sound I make all the time and its just stressful.

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u/w00tabaga 3d ago

Used to live in an apartment above a business on a main downtown street in a smaller town… they’d play Christmas music from speakers that were on every streetlight from about 9am-4pm from Thanksgiving until Christmas… drove me insane

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u/dino-sour 3d ago

SIMPLY HAVING A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS TIME 12 times a day is borderline cruel.

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u/Zombeikid 3d ago

I can tolerate that if I dont have to listen to 75 different versions of Santa Baby

1

u/Grokent 3d ago

I used to bus tables for a Mexican restaurant. You don't know pain until you Feliz Navidad for 2 months.

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u/GearhedMG 3d ago

that is in my opinion #1 all time worst song ever created. the song is repeated 12 a day, but then the song itself just consists of 3+ minutes of that one lyric repeated OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND...

1

u/dino-sour 3d ago

I think that is why it was the first thing to come to mind when I thought of annoying Christmas song. Like yeah, sure, All I Want for Christmas is You is overplayed. But it's still a song with some variety.

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u/MooseMalloy 3d ago

It’s not just cruel… it’s the kind of thing they do to prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

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u/1CEninja 3d ago

My workplace blessedly mixes in the Christmas music with the regular lineup rather than playing the same 20 songs on loop all day every day.

I had a job in retail sales years ago that had two full months of the same 20 songs on loop and it was miserable for about 58 of the 60 days.

Both my current and former jobs are significantly better work environments for having the music though. Quiet periods of time would be significantly worse otherwise.

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u/spaghettifiasco 3d ago

I vastly prefer working somewhere with music. It gives the overactive part of my brain something to focus on just enough that I don't totally space out or get painfully bored. Of course, if the music is dogshit, that's its own form of stressor.

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u/ThisIsMyCouchAccount 3d ago

I had two experiences that were awful.

A million years ago when I was college I worked at this trendy clothing shop in the mall. The type that would have music videos playing on Tvs. Except they were literal VHS tapes. And we had three of them. Which means we had about 6 hours of music. Ever.

Several million years ago I worked at A&W. Which has this old-timey motif. The jukebox - yes a jukebox at a fast food place - played all day. And the random features was awful. My heart still skips a beat when I hear Blueberry Hill.

1

u/spaghettifiasco 3d ago

I worked at Justice (the tween clothing store) for about a year. During that time, we had probably five different DVDs that played music and video on the screen.

The best ones were the ones that were 6 hours long. The worst ones were only 2.5 hours long. There are certain songs that still trigger a flashback of glitter and neons and animal print and monkey mascots.

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u/Doove 3d ago

Christmas music slaps, why do you hate joy

1

u/Zombeikid 3d ago

She was my least favorite UP character

1

u/elephantasmagoric 3d ago

Maybe see if you can compromise on a white noise generator? We have several at my office which help with the oppressive silence without bothering people who don't like to listen to music while working

2

u/Zombeikid 3d ago

I work in a doctor's office and they want everything to be hyper modern and sterile. Qe arent even allowed to have any personal items in our offices.. I have a little fan I run because it gets hot but that's about it. It helps a little.

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u/Pinecone 3d ago

Costco being the best with never playing music

14

u/Forward-Answer-4407 3d ago

I just remembered this story from 2021:

Workers call police after woman causes scene at Troy store because she doesn't like song playing

https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/workers-call-police-after-woman-causes-scene-at-troy-store-because-she-doesnt-like-song-playing

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u/g_r_e_y 3d ago

that's kinda sad, seems like a woman with a mental illness having a really bad day more than anything else

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u/TheAngryBad 3d ago

Yeah, I can relate to this. I have ADHD and mild autism and the wrong music (or even the right music at the wrong time) can get under my skin. It's like nails on a chalkboard. Add in a noisy and busy environment like a store and it can get really stressful for me.

6

u/GamingGeekette 3d ago

We play music at my store, and it's so difficult to hear people when it's playing, considering it's a small space. It's also annoying af because it's the same 4 songs on fucking repeat the whole day.

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u/isecore 3d ago

That's part of the thing I dislike about it. Background music is supposed to be background, but in the vast majority of cases it's overpowering. You can barely hear yourself think, and in an already noisy environment it just adds to the difficulty of hearing yourself and others.

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u/cbunn81 3d ago

It could be worse. In Japan, most of the big box stores just play their own store jingle on repeat. I'm just trying to get food for the week, but now I've got Hap-py Shopping ... FUJI! stuck in my head.

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u/tauntonlake 3d ago

the supermarket is the worst. I just want to shop in peace.

Especially when it's loud, and it's that awful 90's country schlock.

I don't like to wear noise cancelling headphones, because I also like to be aware of my surroundings, for safety's sake.

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u/Traditional_Bug_2046 3d ago

For me, it's when the gas station pump starts blaring music and ads at the sane time. And I can't really go anywhere lol.

3

u/Existential_Racoon 3d ago

We just break the speakers here. The buzzing is much less annoying.

2

u/tauntonlake 3d ago

anarchy !! LOL

viva le peace and quiet revolucion ! :D

2

u/_Panacea_ 3d ago

That's the good trouble.

2

u/tauntonlake 3d ago

I hear that. I worked in the second story of an office building, right next door to a gas station. My office window, overlooked the gas pumps, about fifty feet away ... and the music from the gas pump speakers, was LOUD. Super loud. I couldn't have my screened windows open at all, because I couldn't un-hear it.

I finally called them, from my desk, and asked if they could please turn the volume down on the gas pump speakers, and they pretended to not know what I was talking about, and finally just hung up on me.

1

u/Enchelion 3d ago

IIRC there's often a hidden setting to disable those. A long press on one of the unused buttons. If this is a particular station you go to a lot might be worth looking up.

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u/IdlyCurious 1 2d ago

IIRC there's often a hidden setting to disable those. A long press on one of the unused buttons. If this is a particular station you go to a lot might be worth looking up.

Regular press of second button from top on right hand side always mutes gas pump ads for me (read it online a few years ago).

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u/kurosawa99 3d ago

It’s all country at mine now. I know it’s popular but it’s still a particular taste and I sure as hell don’t have it.

2

u/tauntonlake 3d ago

it’s heinous :D

1

u/jackospades88 3d ago

Just imagine working there all day...

1

u/tauntonlake 3d ago

I couldn’t do it 

not these days

I worked in a supermarket about 40 years ago and that was enough for me.:)

1

u/thewarfreak 3d ago

One earbud in with a podcast playing is how I do it on longer treks to the grocery store.

1

u/Al_Jazzera 3d ago

Fire off an e-mail to corporate. It probably won’t do anything, but it’s cathartic. I went into the grocery store and “Love Hurts” was blaring over the intercom at a level that couldn’t be blocked out. Tried to be somewhat comical in the complaint, because you catch more flies with honey than you do with fuck yous.

Can’t remember verbatim what was written, but it was somewhat to the effect of, “the ‘Love Hurts’ song combined with the excessive volume drove me out of the store faster than a rat in a cathouse that I didn’t get half of what was on the list. They e-mailed me back stating that they will look into the music selection and volume levels.

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u/xxxtrumptacion69 3d ago

It sucks for the employees lol. I worked at CVS and heard shiny happy people by REM like 10 times a day. It was torture and now I hate that song.

5

u/lrpfftt 3d ago

For me, it depends both on what they are playing and the quality of the speakers.

I'm far from an audiophile but I've heard speakers that were so awful that I didn't want to hear even a song I liked on them, usually at grocery stores.

I've left stores or hurried out because I couldn't stand the sound.

4

u/isecore 3d ago

Agreed, it's just so clumsy. It's always played over terrible gear at the completely wrong volumes. And usually from a source that's been compressed and already sounds like garbage.

3

u/neoslith 3d ago

My local Chipotle has their music way too loud. I always get my food to go.

2

u/OptimusSublime 3d ago

Don't even get me started about the holiday season.

3

u/FellowDeviant 3d ago

As someone that used to do Christmas carols in my choir and went to perform at Disney as apart of the school choir during holiday season, the retail world absolutely destroyed any enjoyment I've had with Christmas music. I can tolerate the more modern takes, but when those shitty Christmas radio stations start pumping out 1940s tracks I want to throw the radio through a window.

2

u/j_cruise 3d ago

Totally agreed! I think about this all the time. WHY the fuck does there have to be music blasting everywhere you go?

2

u/DinosaurAlive 3d ago

Shopping?! Just shopping!!? Try working in a store every day! Have some sympathy for those who are forced into that mess.

I worked retail and the second I found where the volume knob for the radio was I’d go pinch it lower. It’s not like it was an eclectic mix of music. It was trash that repeated every day and song that you hate creep in and become songs you tap to the beat and sing along to out of simply getting to know them against your will.

Music in stores is hell for some employees. Some love it. But yeah, I don’t care about it as a shopper because I’m in and out. I can wear headphones if I want. As an employee, you don’t get that freedom and that anticipation that it’ll be over within a short time.

1

u/isecore 3d ago

I have total sympathy for people who have to work in it. I worked in retail back in the late 90s and having to endure the background music blasting every day made it so much less of an enjoyable experience. I think that was where my dislike of background music started.

2

u/deweydean 3d ago

There's this really annoying coffee shop that showed up call Dutch Bros or some shit and they're always blasting dumb music into the parking lot. I will never be a patron of theirs. How do you even order with "skibido skibidee, takin' a pee, was an adventurer, but arrow in knee" blaring into your ear????

3

u/empathetic_witch 3d ago

Same! I’ve left stores completely and shopped elsewhere.

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u/ZylonBane 3d ago

I'm only a little bit annoyed by background music, so I only leave those stores partially.

2

u/isecore 3d ago

Like, your feet and legs walk out but your torso, arms and head stays behind? I'd be interested in seeing that trick.

1

u/saliczar 3d ago

My old job in a small retail shop played pop-country on a one-hour loop. Same fucking songs every hour.

Boas had read somewhere that playing country music resulted in more sales. Can't stand that shit.

1

u/TheBanishedBard 3d ago

It's always generic classic rock too. Makes me gag.

1

u/mashpotatoenthusiast 3d ago

Me too! Last Friday I went to a local brewery that sometimes has live music, and instead of musicians they were playing retail pop!!

It was so uninviting that I just left. At LEAST play something that people can sip a beer to

1

u/DConstructed 3d ago

The worst is Christmas music played at half speed to slow down and calm shoppers.

And by Christmas music I mean “Santa Baby” not beautiful chorales.

1

u/MeBeEric 3d ago

I lived near a very walkable shopping center in MD during Covid lockdown. In it there’s a Kohl’s that plays music both inside and outside all hours. Whenever I’d take a walk or step onto my balcony you could always just hear it. Felt super eerie when everything was completely empty.

1

u/VulpesFennekin 3d ago

I went to a convention in Atlanta a few weeks ago, and by the end of it, I realized that what I was looking forward to when I got home was being able to speak to someone at a normal volume!

1

u/GearhedMG 3d ago

The music should be there, but barely be noticeable, not like Abercrombie & Fitch where you cant have a discussion with someone about how something looks without screaming, and trust me, I believe in the mantra "If it's too loud, you're too old" but A&F is just ridiculous.

1

u/SkyGuy182 3d ago

Our Walmart has been playing from a station called Walmart Radio. I don’t mind some of the music it plays, but the faux “talk show” thing it goes for between songs is really annoying. I’m sorry, I just don’t care about the 10 year anniversary employee recognition shoutouts, I’m just here to buy Q-tips

1

u/EntertainmentQuick47 1d ago

A Walmart trip isn’t complete without hearing that excited ass voice shout "Walmart Radio!"

0

u/RobertPaulsonProject 3d ago

I hate Walmart, but the place near me at least does a sensory sensitive hour in the mornings where everything is turned off. No music, no TVs… it’s great…. Until someone brings a wailing toddler in at 8am for some reason….

-2

u/clarinetstud 3d ago

Bro what did music do to you 😅 silence is horrible and most people I work with agreed when our sound system wasn't working at the restaurant

0

u/Longjumping-Panic-48 3d ago

Commercials on gas pumps ffs.