Shopping Background Music Wastes Over 1 Gigawatt Of Electricity Per Month

scientificamerican.com:

Do you find the incessant background music in stores and shopping malls distracting? Even annoying? Well, here's another reason not to like it: The malls of America consume more than a gigawatt of electricity per month playing the anodyne sales-spurring pop.

Read the whole story: scientificamerican.com

Comments

[Madbunny]

03:56 PM on 02/03/2011

Now all they need to do is to bump it up to 1.21 gigawatts and some how make the mall go 88 miles per hour..

[Dana1982]

12:55 PM on 02/03/2011

HuffPo provides a great service by letting us know who and what we should hate. Without them we most likely wouldn't hate as much or hate the right things.

[terriblyconfused]

08:23 AM on 02/02/2011

I was in the grocery store the other day and I heard The Ramones singing I Wanna Be Sedated. Am I getting old, or was someone having fun?

[LONDON3]

07:37 AM on 02/02/2011

I like the background music ...... stop whining

[Amber Berglund]

08:10 PM on 02/01/2011

I don't think playing music is any more of a waste than running the lights. Music in the store is good for mood, it relaxes both the shoppers and the sales people (as long as it isn't played on a continuous loop). It's part of the experience of being out and about.

What they could start doing is hiring local musicians to play the piano or a string quartet.

[JScott]

01:00 AM on 02/02/2011

Costs way more to do that than to pipe in music.

[hobo62]

06:19 PM on 02/01/2011

It's not the music I hate as much as I do the stupid commercials they put on those machines as you walk thru the aisle's. Wally world is real bad about this. Every where you turn there it is trying to sell you odor eaters, smelling salts, cardboard cereal or something else you either don't want or don't need.

[JScott]

01:02 AM on 02/02/2011

Or it's now the custom radio stations.....'now for the latest on Macy's radio... but first head on over to... department for great bargains...' and hmmm wonder if theirs any 'subtle messages' played under it that we don't consciously hear like 'don't shoplift', 'buy more stuff'.

[KIVPossum]

05:47 PM on 02/01/2011

One More Reason to Hate Shopping??

Women shop. Men buy.

A dress for my wife takes 4 days, 20 stores, and 37 trips to the dressing room.
Pants for me takes 15 minutes in jeans shop no dressing room needed
Grooming supplies for her requires 12 shops, a team of professionals, and constant refinement
Soap, razor blades, and deoderant are sold on the same aisle
And we won't talk shoes...when she says she needs a new pair of shoes my heartbeat rises, I get night sweat, and think of ways to go out of town for a few days

[hobo62]

06:20 PM on 02/01/2011

I think I married your wife's sister.

[michelesda]

06:28 PM on 02/01/2011

I know the feeling. I may not be very well dressed, but at least I didn't waste a lot of shopping time getting that way. Women laugh at how typically "male" my shopping forays are: Find it, kill it, drag it home.

[No stinking fans]

05:42 PM on 02/01/2011

It is especially annoying when they repeatedly play 'money' by Pink Floyd.

[TaxpayingVoter]

10:26 PM on 02/01/2011

I remember when that was too racy for Muzak...lol

[Greendawg]

05:19 PM on 02/01/2011

You can't waste a gigawatt. A gigawatt is a rate of energy use. It's like wasting miles per hour. Makes no sense.

[TaxpayingVoter]

10:26 PM on 02/01/2011

Stop trying to inject logic into a nonsensical phrase....lol

[MichaelDavidson]

05:17 PM on 02/01/2011

I don't mind music when I shop...I mind when the store interrupts a good song to make an obnoxious announcement! That being said, that is a lot of energy usage. Businesses should set an example and turn off the excess noise!

[JScott]

01:05 AM on 02/02/2011

And sometimes it's too loud in restaurants.