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Starbucks' music is driving employees nuts

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Re: Starbucks' music is driving employees nuts

#141

Post by brokenmachine »

JadeNB wrote: post #86
maxxxxx wrote: 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.

> 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. I presume your comment was addressed to businesses, but I've noticed it for people as well; there seems to be a growing trend of believing that it's perfectly OK to listen to music, or watch TV, in public, without headphones, and without even a minimal attemp…

And on bushwalks, and on beaches.

Those bloody bluetooth speakers are too cheap. It's so rude IMO to force everyone to be subjected to your noise.

Re: Starbucks' music is driving employees nuts

#142

Post by brokenmachine »

psychometry wrote: post #16
grawprog wrote: post #6

I went into a Starbucks the other day early in the morning that didn't have music playing yet, it was really weird. It was actually kind of disconcerting. I think that's the only time i've ever been in one with no music. Everybody's voices echoed really loudly. You could hear every conversation going on and people ordering from the other side of the store. As much as I dislike their music choices usually, I kind of u…

All coffee shops and restaurants these days have terrible acoustical design. It's because any kind of acoustic treatment is more expensive than none at all.

I guess also because hard surfaces are easier to clean.

Re: Starbucks' music is driving employees nuts

#143

Post by Broken_Hippo »

grawprog wrote: post #6

I went into a Starbucks the other day early in the morning that didn't have music playing yet, it was really weird. It was actually kind of disconcerting. I think that's the only time i've ever been in one with no music. Everybody's voices echoed really loudly. You could hear every conversation going on and people ordering from the other side of the store. As much as I dislike their music choices usually, I kind of u…

I worked in retail for years before moving out of the states. Pharmacies, specifically. The last couple of years I worked overnights at a 24 hour location. (Hey, only robbed once while I was working - a bonus!).

Anyhow, I used to go into the office and turn off the music at night. The silence you speak of was my entire excuse for turning it off: Corporate expected us to do things in the store at night, yet wait on customers like normal. The added benefit was that the store was sooo peaceful without the bad covers plus adverts they played on a loop.

Re: Starbucks' music is driving employees nuts

#144

Post by kd0amg »

jniedrauer wrote: post #43
maxxxxx wrote: 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.

As with many things, it's profit-driven. As a related example, bars intentionally turn the music up loud enough that conversations are difficult because this causes patrons to buy more drinks.

OTOH, I find this also makes it difficult to order drinks.

Re: Starbucks' music is driving employees nuts

#145

Post by Broken_Hippo »

ng12 wrote: post #7

I spent years working retail in a CVS. Hamilton's got nothing on off-brand Christmas music.

I worked at the same chain for years. Bad covers of horrible songs for most of the years then off-brand christmas mixed with adverts for Christmas.

The last 2 years before leaving the country, I worked nights. I had office keys and would turn off the music. You don't know proper peace at work until you've done a nice, quiet midnight shift. :)

Re: Starbucks' music is driving employees nuts

#146

Post by hnruss »

I experienced this on another level while working retail at a musical instrument store for a few years. People would pick up any instrument and play whatever they wanted for however long they wanted-- at whatever volume they wanted. Although some people are quite talented, most are not. One lady would sit at the piano for hours, playing the musical equivalent of nonsense.

Around that same time, I had my own home recording studio and sometimes wound up recording musicians that were on the scale of bad to downright terrible. If I reacted negatively to the sound they made, that would only make them want to re-record it, which meant I'd have to hear it again. I quickly learned how to keep a straight face and mentally treat the music like background noise or focus intently on the parts of it that weren't too bad.

Re: Starbucks' music is driving employees nuts

#147

Post by asteli »

dawnerd wrote: post #104
asteli wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I experienced this in a Target last year sometime. No music over the intercom, and the energy in the place just felt more... nervous, restless. I don't know whether that's an effect inherent to silence in large spaces or whether it was an effect created by the absence of something we took for granted.

Wait, target plays music? I've literally never noticed and I was just in one last night. Only thing I've heard is their movies section playing teasers pretty loudly.

After that one experience, I'm pretty sure that if I walked into a supermarket or department store and they weren't playing music, I would immediately notice.

Re: Starbucks' music is driving employees nuts

#148

Post by brokenmachine »

brycedorn wrote: post #59

it's only a matter of time before we all have bone-conducting headphones and can wirelessly receive/send sounds to each other (and choose our own music at work)

We have headphones now and people still rudely insist on broadcasting their music to everyone.

Re: Starbucks' music is driving employees nuts

#149

Post by rb808 »

bogidon wrote: post #65

An elementary school I attended from first to fourth grade would play Beethovan's Moonlight Sonata in the lunchroom as the song that signaled "quiet time," when we'd have to eat our food without talking. Occasionally we would get another song, something by Chopin I think, but in my memory 90% of the time it was Moonlight Sonata. Whenever I hear that song now, ten years later, I get teleported back to fourth grade qui…

> in the lunchroom as the song that signaled "quiet time," when we'd have to eat our food without talking.

That sounds like a really oppressive school. hope you made it out OK.

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