There’s something I particularly hate about large supermarkets in France (I don’t remember this in the UK, and I’ve never been in a US supermarket for long enough, so I wouldn’t know how common it is): there’s a guy with a microphone speaking over the sound system, detailing the deals for the day and where you can find them (“if you don’t hurry they’ll be gone” and that kind of thing). In between the bouts of publicity, they put music, but not the unobtrusive, relaxing kind–rather the peppy kind of music that makes my teeth grind.

It’s cheap, it’s tacky, and it’s a really unpleasant background to have when you’re shopping.

Well, they’ve installed the same thing in our town centre: it broadcasts over the entire shopping area. It’s already quite annoying as it is–but one of the loudspeakers happens to be over the entrance to our building. Net result: we get the sound in the morning, and as a background all day.

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