I love music. But when I’m shopping and the music is in the background I find it irritating. Shopping at my local Macy’s is even worse, because the music isn’t in the background but in my face. (And in some areas I get to add TV into the mix as well, because they have TVs on right at the entrances to the dressing rooms.) For me music isn’t wallpaper. It’s art. I want to listen to it when it is on, and I want it off if I don’t want to listen.

So reading the New Yorker article about Muzak (which I guess has gotten “better” than the elevator music it was) doesn’t make me smile.

But it’s true, what they say about different music for different stores. Thing is, I really like shopping at some stores that I’m clearly not supposed to like! I can tell, by the music they are playing, that I don’t belong there, that I’m too old, or not cool enough, or just not their type, and that I should leave. I really wonder if those stores actually prefer to lose my business. (While music I hate is blaring away I hear this voice in my head saying, “You don’t belong, you don’t belong, you don’t belong!” and I’ve even been known to mutter those words out loud, sad but true.) Is it a bad thing for the other shoppers—the ones who fit‐to see me buying something? Will that cause them to hesitate before buying something? Hmm.

But I wander. Mostly I just wanted to say I’m looking for the SilentStore™. I’m looking for the store that appreciates those of use who actually listen to music and don’t think of it as background fluff. But that’s just me.

Final sentence of the article:

“Our biggest competitor,” a member of Muzak’s marketing department told me, “is silence.”

YES. (And silence is free.)
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