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I’m sick to death of having to listen to stupid pop music pumped through the speakers every time I go into a clothes shop. People who work in these retail places have my utmost sympathy.
It must truly drive these poor employees nuts having to put up with that garbage playing through the sound system all day long. Hearing the same Britney Spears songs ten times a day would send me over the edge I think. And another thing, why is it specifically the clothing outlets that feel the need to bombard their customers with all this mainstream charts rubbish?
Does it impress the younger generation and make them want to buy more clothes? I think not, it’s more likely that some customers wouldn’t even bother going into the shop in the first place.
I’m not an old fuddy-duddy and I have no objection to listening to a bit of music when I’m out shopping, but please, for the sake of your employees and customers, let’s have a bit more variety and imagination. A good start would be to leave Britney Spears on the shelf where she belongs.
Maybe having a bigger play list would help, or perhaps shop staff could be encouraged to bring in some CD’s to play in the store. Oh dear, that’s technically broadcasting to the public though and we don’t want to get the store in trouble now do we?
Anything really would be better than the same old boring songs ten times a day.Also, it might be an idea to turn the volume of the music down just a little bit! It’s a retail shop, not a nightclub.
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Loud trashy pop music drives me out of a shop - I find shopping for clothes quite stressful and want something soothing. If I'm in a place where they're playing something a bit classy I always make a point of complimenting them.
10/02/16 molly
3
I just wanted to add that links are not hyperlinked and clickable on the "recent comments" page but they are on the gripe subject page they were posted on.
17/02/15 Petra
0
Being forced to listen to piped music in shops and cafés is one of my pet hates. I think it was the beginning of the end of customer loyalty for Marks and Spencer when it started to sound like Asda in there.
I want to be able to think when I am shopping and, when having coffee or a meal with friends, I want to be able to talk and have a laugh in peace. I know people like their cheaper prices but not making customers shout over loud pop music must play a part in Wetherspoon’s success when pubs are closing all over the country.
Like them or hate them, Primark is always packed and they seem to see no need to either make customers listen to music or pay for it through the costs of licences and the companies who provide the music.
Which? has a complaints page dedicated to this subject and has promised to let some of the offenders know what their readers feel about piped music. If anyone is interested this is the link:
http://conversation.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/annoying-background-music-shops-supermarkets/#respond
17/02/15 Petra
I want to be able to think when I am shopping and, when having coffee or a meal with friends, I want to be able to talk and have a laugh in peace. I know people like their cheaper prices but not making customers shout over loud pop music must play a part in Wetherspoon’s success when pubs are closing all over the country.
Like them or hate them, Primark is always packed and they seem to see no need to either make customers listen to music or pay for it through the costs of licences and the companies who provide the music.
Which? has a complaints page dedicated to this subject and has promised to let some of the offenders know what their readers feel about piped music. If anyone is interested this is the link:
http://conversation.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/annoying-background-music-shops-supermarkets/#respond
2
Here in New Zealand finding a store or cafe that does not play any music unfortunately is close to impossible. I really don't know why shop and cafe owners think they'll motivate people to spend money by playing music. I've decided against going to stores and cafes because the loud music put me off. And yes, clothing stores are the worst. There is one major clothing store chain in NZ which I've never been to because the terribly loud music has put me off each time I considered taking a look at clothes in this chain's stores. Lately it has just been getting worse. There's another clothing store chain, a men's one this time, where I went to with my husband this year. The music was intolerable, so loud in fact, that the shop assistant couldn't even hear my husband asking him a question. How ridicuolous is that?
10/02/14 Sick of being forced to listen to noisy music
3
Many comments on this article have stated along the lines that "teenagers cannot live without music" adding that this is why shops now play music. I, myself am a teenager and I would much rather shops did not play music for the simple reason that it's usually just an advert-ensue method for artists to promote their music to shoppers who just want to shop and not be force-fed music. Marks and Spencer's is the worst, in my opinion, I much preferred when their storees where quiet and now I can't go there without hearing the cat-whinnying screams of Dolly Parton. Another gripe of mine is that stores now seem to be setting up their own in-store 'radio stations'. What? Why?!
15/09/12 Ben
6
Piped music I can deal with. As for load music from the radio (mostly naff 1980's pop music) that you now just can't avoid in any shop you pop into, it's all just too much and makes me want to walk out. I mostly do mail order shopping these days! Who says we need to be bombared with (bad) loud music everywhere we go?
06/04/12 Stephen
-3
It's interesting that the shops and pubs that are doing quite well, even in a recession, have a policy of no piped music.
Wetherspoons is thriving where other pubs close; many shops and supermarkets are seeing profits dip where music free places like John Lewis's and Waitrose or , at the other end of the scale, Primark are doing very nicely thanks.
Yet, the people who run establishments continue to believe the reports that piped music increases sales. They seem to not notice that these reports are often commissioned by the companies who sell the music to them! Independent surveys suggest that a majority dislike it very much, enough to leave a shop or restaurant without buying or even looking around.
11/03/12 Pedestrian Pat
Wetherspoons is thriving where other pubs close; many shops and supermarkets are seeing profits dip where music free places like John Lewis's and Waitrose or , at the other end of the scale, Primark are doing very nicely thanks.
Yet, the people who run establishments continue to believe the reports that piped music increases sales. They seem to not notice that these reports are often commissioned by the companies who sell the music to them! Independent surveys suggest that a majority dislike it very much, enough to leave a shop or restaurant without buying or even looking around.
1
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.
14/10/11 Petra
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.
15
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”.
13/10/11 MikeP
“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”.
4
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.
09/10/11 Dan
3
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.
26/05/11 Watsons Box
3
"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.
18/04/11 MikeP
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.
1
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.
17/04/11 Petra
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.
1
“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?
17/04/11 Murchison
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?
2
Sam