Avoiding supermarket Xmas jollity.

It must be so hard for those for whom Christmas triggers bad memories.

I’d be happy with no music, to tell the truth. Yesterday in M&S they were playing two different loops at the same time. One in the main store and a different one REALLY LOUDLY in the food dept! I might have spent more money if I hadn’t been so desperate to get out of there.

I do not like music in supermarkets, full stop. I wish they would stop all of it, regardless of when and what they are inflicting, sorry playing.

Don’t think they play music in Aldi either ?!

Yes, yes, yes! I must seem mad, but if I forget the earplugs it's fingers in ears for me. I just cannot stay calm and concentrate while the jingly happens - the extra decorations, glitter 'special' everything really, really gets to me. I like Christmas, Solstice, Yule - all of it but the extra sensory input is too much. Some of them are doing quieter times - music off and lights down.

I agree with stopping music completely. Morrissons were playing White Christmas last time we were there, just ghastly. People should have the choice of where, when or what music they want to listen to, everybody has different tastes, and not everybody has access to quiet stores.
Or, maybe allow just 2 hours a week, predetermined, with music, for those who feel they need it to get in the mood.
But not too loud, your experience sounds awful, SueDonim

I worked in social work. In the late 90s my senior boss who was overall in charge of a large area was visiting an office for a meeting. He was greeted with Xmas decorations and music playing. He rather loudly told the staff to get all the decorations down and to switch the music off. He informed the staff that not all have a jingle bell time some of the service users would have reason to want to avoid all the merriment. I knew him well, respected him for his skills and management of staff and public alike. Always remember him when I hear a the cheap nasty music playing. Prior to social work he was a Priest. I never put decorations at the front of my house, just aways try to be sensitive to others and have kept them indoors or the back garden.

Reading this really takes me back a decade or two.

Supermarkets here no longer play music or muzzak as we used to call it at ANY TIME OF THE YEAR, nor do they do so in Germany, and I don't remember hearing it in the Netherlands either.

In the early 1990s several studies were made that proved the various health risks that background noise (including music) had or could have on those who were exposed to it all day and most supermarkets and other chain stores banned it.

It is now most definitely a thing of the past.

At least you can get your shopping and gone. What about about the poor staff who have to work with it day in and out for weeks. As they say you can please some ppl part of the time but you can’t please ppl all the time. Merry Christmas ?

I feel your pain I work in retail and the constant loop of Christmas tunes is painful, sometimes I cry for those no longer with us, sometimes I sing along, sometimes I block them out. So it’s a roller coaster ride for me.

I suppose its meant to put you in Christmas mode and loosen your purses! Seems to work

We have had deliveries since 2019 and it's been a real help. We miss visiting the supermarket to browse but we can do without the tinsel and saccharine music - yuk.

I would go and shop in any supermarket or shopping centre that would promise NOT to play this americanised (z), synthetic, as said above, 'saccharine' music. Absolutely hate it.

Waitrose doesn’t play any music.

Our local Morrison's has a quiet hour on Wednesday mornings with no music or announcements . I think probably they all do. So perhaps that's the solution for those who don 't like the music.

If I hear that banal song 'Happy Holidays' one more time, I shall chew up my shopping list, spit it out on the shop floor and jump on it!

I don't like Christmas because I lost my dad at Christmas 8 years ago and I find it painful. Hate most of the Christmas songs except Kirsty McCall, The Pretenders and East 17.

There are some sad posts here, I wish us all a better year ahead.
Alison333 __ chuckled at that image in my head, I'll remember that next shopping trip.

Jaxjacky

I always feel sorry for the staff, weeks of the same music playing on a loop.

Me too! I think a lot of the problem is the extremely limited pool of songs!? We never ever hear the Andrews sisters bing(he di so many more than white Christmas y'know!!) Brenda Lee and loads more other classical pieces of music that are just great at this time of year, instead we get blasted with Slade/Lennon s dirge/McCartney's frogs!/ Shakey/ wizzard et Al! Come ON people have we become so lazy that nobody can be bothered to actually CHOOSE and compile a playlist? It's the easiest thing in the world to do with today's technology you don't even have to keep quiet while you put the eedle on the disc and press "record+play!!!!!!!!!"

#NEEDLE (that's the thing that scratches over the little grooves on that black disc thing...........???

I wonder whether it really does get people to spend more - or do most fly around quickly in an effort to escape it? If I have to visit a shop, it's going to be Waitrose!

Dear Onward and upward there are no words.....
You have found the courage to cope with this situation, however painful. I send you strength and love to keep on keeping on. xxxxx

I shop online and click and collect groceries. I worked in a department store for 13 years. Christmas music started in November and preparations in October. You lose the Christmas spirit early on when you work in retail...

Thanks Kwest

Where there's life, there's hope. Thanks for the love and strength. xxx

In the last year I have lost three people who were very close to me, we spent a lot of time together, the pain is still raw and there is a huge void, but I have the memories and certain aspects of Christmas preparation and music trigger happy memories as well as the feeling of loss. I like to see people enjoying Christmas and entering into the spirit of the festivities. My decorations are up even though I know no one else will see them this year and I am cooking a turkey with all the trimmings.

As somebody said upthread, Waitrose do not subject us to music, but Christmas 2017, just a couple of weeks after DH died they had the Salvation Army playing Christmas Carols outside and of course you could hear them in the store.
I had to abandon my trolley and take refuge in my car, tears streaming down my face