Live data from Hacker News

Starbucks' music is driving employees nuts

cbc.ca

121–130 of 321 posts

Re: Starbucks' music is driving employees nuts

#121
This seems like a problem that could be solved by noise cancelling earbuds that could allow people to filter in things like people talking to them, but filter out background noise.

I've experienced a similar problem at work actually, but with people with loud voices. I've wished for an earbud set that could let me dial the volume down or run certain voices through a vocoder.

Re: Starbucks' music is driving employees nuts

#122

I attended university in the very early days of MP3s. In a microcontroller lab, the TAs hooked one of the lab computers to a pair of speakers and set up their collection of MP3s to loop indefinitely. I still remember the whole playlist: * White Wedding by Billy Idol * I Am The Walrus by the Beatles I may have the order reversed.

But that was all the disk space they had!

You were lucky!

Some of us could only walk through the snow uphill one way!

;)

Re: Starbucks' music is driving employees nuts

#123
post #22

In general I don’t understand why people think that it’s ok to pollute every bit of space with noise of their choice (aka music). I view it as a big nuisance.

O/T but people do the same thing with light, as well. e.g. just had a nighttime flight (so they turn off the cabin lights) where the person diagonally in front of me blinded me with his 100% brightness screen for hours. Couple that with the countless people using their phones at max brightness, and I would've just preferred keeping the cabin lights on.

My kids are in an orchestra and half the audience is holding up a big honking bright phone or tablet recording the whole thing. Its annoying

Re: Starbucks' music is driving employees nuts

#124
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved from the UK to Canada 20 years ago this September. Back in High School and University, I worked retail for about 5 years or so. By the time I left, I haaaaaated Christmas music. Couldn't stand it. Now after 20 years in Canada, I really miss it. Nothing here is the same as it is in the UK when it comes to Christmas traditions. There's no carolers, the smells aren't the same, the shops aren't the same. Everythi…

>There's no carolers, the smells aren't the same, the shops aren't the same Growing up in Canada, I thought carolers and olde-timey Christmas themes only happened in movies these days. Are these traditions still alive in the UK?

Lived in the UK for a few decades. Have never seen a carolers. Thought they were a weird USA thing.

Re: Starbucks' music is driving employees nuts

#126
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved from the UK to Canada 20 years ago this September. Back in High School and University, I worked retail for about 5 years or so. By the time I left, I haaaaaated Christmas music. Couldn't stand it. Now after 20 years in Canada, I really miss it. Nothing here is the same as it is in the UK when it comes to Christmas traditions. There's no carolers, the smells aren't the same, the shops aren't the same. Everythi…

>There's no carolers, the smells aren't the same, the shops aren't the same Growing up in Canada, I thought carolers and olde-timey Christmas themes only happened in movies these days. Are these traditions still alive in the UK?

I can't say they're common, but they definitely happen. We usually get 1 or 2 small groups each year.

Re: Starbucks' music is driving employees nuts

#127
post #36

I experienced this working in retail during the holiday season back when I was in college. The little bell intro to Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas is You", will forever haunt my dreams. I rarely listen to Christmas music anymore because of that experience. Nowadays, I get irritated when I've burned through a 2 hour playlist twice at work and need to find something else to listen to, but I totally take the a…

I hate the omnipresent Christmas music in stores around the holidays, but had never linked that to the fact that I worked in a store through college that repeatedly played the same music. Now that I'm thinking about it, I probably had the same experience as you. Thanks for the insight!

I've never worked retail, only been a customer, and I hate christmas music in stores.

Playing christmas music is surely the quickest way to drive me away from your store.

Re: Starbucks' music is driving employees nuts

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canadian here and these happen in my neighborhood. YMMY elsewhere, as OP has mentioned.

Canada is a big place, which city are you in?

One of my family members would go with a group caroling in Winnipeg.

Re: Starbucks' music is driving employees nuts

#130
I worked at a coffee shop that played a fixed set of songs which included the Sarah McLachlan song from her SPCA commercials. Every time it came on somebody would run into the back to change it, because we all grew to hate the "sad puppy song"
Post reply on HN