Clothes shops that play annoying piped music

It looks as if there may finally be business owners who are beginning to realise that piped music puts off a lot of customers.

I am hoping it will prove to be a trend.

Perhaps shop owners, supermarkets and shopping centres will start to catch on as well.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-24028091-turn-off-that-music-and-lets-eat-to-the-sounds-of-silence.do#addComment

Dan,

leaving an establishment without buying anything is a good tactic but only if you make it very clear to the manager that that is what you are doing. If people leave without saying anything, then they just assume that this constant racket is acceptable to most customers.

Although he has devoted his life to music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies doesn’t care to have it force fed to him. Mandrake hears that the Master of the Queen’s Music and his civil partner stormed out of a restaurant after it refused to turn off its melodies.

“He has been coming here for about 10 years and we always turn off the music when he comes,” says Alessandro Fressura, the manager of Gotti, an Italian restaurant in Marylebone.

“But, this time, some other customers asked us why there was no music, because they wanted an atmosphere, so we turned it on, very softly. We are not a disco. Mr Maxwell was very upset. He is very nice, but, if he gets upset, it is a different story.”

The composer, who is working on a new symphony to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, tells me: “I asked if it could be turned down, but the manager said that 'a restaurant without music is a restaurant without a soul’. It was this thumping, driving, sentimental drivel.

"I told the owner we were going. I left £30 for what we had, but he refused to take it. We found a nice restaurant around the corner, without music.”

Sir Peter, whose works were performed at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, adds: “I would urge more people to demand that piped music is turned off and vote with their feet if shops and restaurants don’t comply. This is a protest movement that wants peace to be given a chance.”

He has joined the campaign group Pipedown, whose other famous supporters include Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley and Tom Conti.

I recall how Sir Donald Sinden, when I lunched with him at a restaurant in Bath, stood up and asked for a show of hands from any fellow patrons who actually wanted “the ghastly Muzak” to stay on.

When no one dared to raise an arm, the great actor ordered silence from the maitre d’, who meekly complied.

Last year, Sir Peter left the Olive Grove, a trattoria in Canterbury, Kent, without eating because he could not bear dining to an accompaniment of “idiotic pop”.

I was in a shop today and the crap music they were playing started to get on my nerves, so I immediately left the shop without purchasing anything. Now if everyone that hates music in shops adapted the same approach they would cop on fairly quick and at least turn the music down to a reasonable level or better still turn it off.

There is an organisation called Pipe Down which can be found on line & campaigns against piped music in public places. I certainly will not work in a place with music blaring out & shops playing piped music do not get my custom to me it is as anti social as noisy neighbours.

"only to be told “everyone else likes it”

So what, I don't, you don't .... and I ask them if they have actually polled 'everybody' to see if they like or just assumed that because nobody else actually complains, they like it. By everybody, one has to assume they mean the 60 million or so people who inhabit the UK (not that anyone knows the true figure because the government don't want to reveal the inconvwenient truth).

It's clearly an absurd statement to say 'everybody else likes it' and one that should be challenged.

Most people are wimps and won't complain.

This all started with “background music”, which then became very much in the foreground, stridently loud, music, in shops and cafes. It blurred the boundaries of what was acceptable regarding noise pollution and simple manners.

I realise that shops and shopping centres are private property and not homes, but if someone plays loud music and forces it on their neighbours, it is considered to be anti-social chav type behaviour, so why is it suddenly acceptable in business premises just because management comes up with the lame and debatable excuse that is “creates atmosphere”?

I know so many people who mutter and grumble about this so why do I seem to be one of the very few who actually complains to management, only to be told “everyone else likes it”.

I wish people were not so damned wimpy.

“Noise Bags”? Says it all really.

There is less and less respect for the rights of other people these days, and ceaseless noise. Apparently we cannot function without a musical background.

It’s telling though isn’t it, as others have pointed out, that the management of these establishments never play the foul stuff in their own offices?

I was in a shopping centre today trying hard not to hear the aggressive “music” blasting from the centre’s bad sound system plus the racket coming from about five shops, all within hearing distance.

Kids were going by playing their own music out loud on their phones while chatting to their friends and I thought the horrible nightmare could not get any worse when a new sound appeared. Some one had a rucksack with loudspeakers built into the sides and it was blaring out music as the boy walked through the centre.

Has anybody seen one of these? Apparently they are called “noise bags”. I don’t know how any shop can , in all good conscience, sell these abominations or send their children out with them on when there is only one purpose for them, which is to force your choice of music on everyone around you.

Sorry, that should have read “young people who seem to go into a flat panic if there isn't music playing.”

Yes, I've also heard this drivel about 'customer dwell time', it's one of these loony 'thinking outside the box' phrases dreamed up by overpaid consultants.

What they fail to take into account, as I point out to them, is that those potential customers who do not enter the shop at all, or who leave immediately, are not incorporated into the 'dwell time' statistics, which thus become meaningless.

As for the young people in the shops, I have found that quite a few of them dislike the noise, probably if only because it does not meet their own personal (lack of) taste in 'music'.

Mike P - I complain regularly about piped music but it seems to make no difference and they just shrug if you tell them you are going elsewhere to spend your money.

Most of these places are staffed by very young people who seem to go into a flat panic if there isn't playing.

When I have complained to the head office of the company they claim that their research shows that music increases what they call "customer dwell time" which they claim increases profits and that they intend to continue playing it.

I think it is the Emperor's new clothes and that they are wrong. I think it puts people off- how many people go into a shop and say "I'm not buying anything unless you play some Lady Gaga" - but what can you say to people who use phrases like "dwell time"?

" It's even got to DIY stores now! Recently I went into a DIY superstore Not only was I distracted by the music itself, but by the volume at which it was played.
*John C 03-Feb-2011 17:07"

Did you tell them why you were walking out, or did you just act like a wimp and gap it like most of the pathetic, apathetic British public? No wonder these places get away with lousy service. You people winge and moan but do you address the source of the problem?

"Oh no .... we don't want to make a scene, do we dear?"

It's even got to DIY stores now! Recently I went into a DIY superstore (the one where "You can do it") and needed to really concentrate on measurements and qty's of what I wanted. Could I concentrate? Could I 'eck as like. Not only was I distracted by the music itself, but by the volume at which it was played. Still, it was good news for another similar store nearby (the one "that has their name on it"), 'cos I went there and spent my money with them instead (not that they were entirely innocent, just that their music was more 'background' rather than 'in your face').

I REFUSE to go into any shop playing the latest chart crap. Music it certainly is not. Some retailers have started pumping music out into the street via PA systems in a desparate bid to 'woo' shoppers in. I walk on the opposite side of the street unless tempted to pull the plug out of the speaker. The rant continues. Boy am I glad I found this site.

I know many people who hate piped music in cafes and shops but when I ask them why they don't say anything they always say something along the lines of "what can you do?" or "well, I don't like to make a fuss".

I do complain but I am always told that I am the only person who doesn’t like it! I know this to be untrue.

This site appeals to people who enjoy a good rant, so why don't we all complain and nag until they turn off the muzak?

There are many things we cannot change in this country but this might be one that we could.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/8291272/

I've used this in large shops which were parts of multiple chains. I tend not to use shopping malls as I lose my sense of direction, sense of humour, and will to live when I go into one of those bloody places, but a complaint to the centre management would not go amiss.

With regard to your last point, if enough people stood up and made a fuss about things they object to, poor service, shoddy goods, and so on, then standards would be raised. I do as much as possible of my shopping on line to avoid the unpleasantness and squalor of shops and shopping centres and towns and cities.

Mike P, this can work in a small shop, although quite often the staff just say "well, we like it", but what do you do when it is a larger place like a shopping centre?

My local shopping centre, The Exchange, in Ilford did not use to play music at all years ago but now they play offensively loud music and every time someone complains they pretend that everyone else likes it which isn't true as I know quite a few people who hate it and that is just my personal experience.

The problem is that, with the population explosion in London from immigration and the resulting rise in the birth rates here, just saying that I refuse to shop there any more will have litle effect as they are so damn busy that it won't make any difference to them.

Very simply dealt with, knowing that the staff generally dislike it as much as I do.

I ask them to turn it down, sometimes they do, sometimes they tell me they can't on instructions from head office. I then ask them if I can use their 'phone (why should I use my own?) and I call their head office, speak in a low voice to a responsible person, who complains they can't hear me properly because of the noise in the background. I then tell a staff member that someone from head office needs the noise turned down so they can hear me at head office. I then explain the problem, adding that I shall refuse to shop unless the matter is dealt with.

I have never had a failure. That said, I generally avoid the type of shops where there is a lot of background noise anyway. I also follow this up with a letter. If more people adopted this type of approach and did not submit to bullying the world would be a more pleasant place in many small ways which cumulatively would mean a lot.

Eleanor,

Sorry but you don't feel the same way as customers. You feel the same way as management in that you don't want them to inflict their taste in music on you but you are quite happy to impose yours on the customers.

What a lot of us would prefer is no music at all. After all, anyone who wants to hear music all day has the option of using headphones with an MP3 player these days so loud background music is not only offensive and annoying - it is old fashioned and behind the times.