Collecting other peoples'
shopping lists has long been my passion.
There's nothing more intriguing than finding
someone's discarded list at the bottom of my trolley
and I am not alone. There's now a
website devoted to documenting people's shopping
lists.
According to the recent findings of ID Magasin only 30
per cent of shoppers now make a shopping list before
they hit the high street. Buyers are increasingly relying
on retailers to provide them with guides and prompts.
Our ability to analyse and judge people's
diets and attitudes to food through random shopping
lists may soon perhaps be a thing of the past.
Marmite
Houmous
Peppercorns
Toothpaste
Razor blades
My analysis: An unlikely combination of English
food staple meets Middle Eastern delicacy and razor
blades indicating that it's more likely to be a male's
shopping list. He likes to cook, using peppercorns in
his grinder to spice things up. The toothpaste is for
fresh breath and he's perhaps planning a night of hot
passion. "She" is likely to be disappointed if marmite
on toast is all there is on offer the
morning after.
If the items on lists aren't enough to tell us the
personality of the mystery shopper there's always the
handwriting, the neatness or the logical order of the
list, in
some cases prices and the exact store to visit. The
type of
paper that lists are written on is a dead giveaway -
what does the UBS
corporate banking notepaper or the reverse side of a
sermon tell us about the writer? The lists that leave
me
wondering are the
ones with non-specific items."Something for
lunch"-
"dessert"- "Nice bread"- what is nice bread?
Fluffy and
white or grainy and with added fibre? Given that "she"
had bananas and Flora Light on the list along with
apple
flavour air freshner my money is on a white loaf.
what was on everyone elses' list? »
