We live within walking distance from the local Prisma. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's a chain of "hypermarkets" here in Finland.
We rarely shop there because, in truth, I kind of hate it. In fact, I hate shopping of any kind. To me, it's the worst of all chores.
Prisma, though, always seems packed like an enormous sardine can full of consumers. People mill about aimlessly among the rows and, if you intend to buy something specific, you will most likely have to push past several people who are entranced by the yogurt or the baked goods. It reminds me of Walmart, though it's actually a good deal larger than any Walmart I've ever had the misfortune to visit.
Now, to be fair, Walmart is an evil son-of-a-bitch. Although it is owned by oligopoly member S-Group, I doubt very much that Prisma's business practices are quite so deplorable. (A Google search didn't yield much information either way. Please enlighten me if you happen to know something I don't.) I don't seek to equate them. It's just that I've been programmed to feel irritated whenever I'm in a gargantuan supermarket brimming with people.
And when I'm finally out in the open air, goods in tow, I resolve to be less of a curmudgeonly jerk and to understand that, for some people, Prisma is quite an awesome thing. "Hey, I don't need to drag my children to four different stores; I can complete all of my shopping in one trip!" If you're a parent or a person otherwise lacking in time and energy, Prisma must be of immeasurable use to you.
But, really, is it so interesting for its size and abundance? Is the "Prisma trance" a result of anything particularly compelling? Is there porn tucked between milk cartons and pasted to the back of every t-shirt? Clearly there's some incredible fun that I'm missing because I'm such an utterly joyless shopper.
Still, I think I'll be happy to keep rushing impatiently through the act of shopping. And I think I may just stay away from Prisma until the day I manage to suppress my inner curmudgeon.
We rarely shop there because, in truth, I kind of hate it. In fact, I hate shopping of any kind. To me, it's the worst of all chores.
Prisma, though, always seems packed like an enormous sardine can full of consumers. People mill about aimlessly among the rows and, if you intend to buy something specific, you will most likely have to push past several people who are entranced by the yogurt or the baked goods. It reminds me of Walmart, though it's actually a good deal larger than any Walmart I've ever had the misfortune to visit.
Now, to be fair, Walmart is an evil son-of-a-bitch. Although it is owned by oligopoly member S-Group, I doubt very much that Prisma's business practices are quite so deplorable. (A Google search didn't yield much information either way. Please enlighten me if you happen to know something I don't.) I don't seek to equate them. It's just that I've been programmed to feel irritated whenever I'm in a gargantuan supermarket brimming with people.
And when I'm finally out in the open air, goods in tow, I resolve to be less of a curmudgeonly jerk and to understand that, for some people, Prisma is quite an awesome thing. "Hey, I don't need to drag my children to four different stores; I can complete all of my shopping in one trip!" If you're a parent or a person otherwise lacking in time and energy, Prisma must be of immeasurable use to you.
But, really, is it so interesting for its size and abundance? Is the "Prisma trance" a result of anything particularly compelling? Is there porn tucked between milk cartons and pasted to the back of every t-shirt? Clearly there's some incredible fun that I'm missing because I'm such an utterly joyless shopper.
Still, I think I'll be happy to keep rushing impatiently through the act of shopping. And I think I may just stay away from Prisma until the day I manage to suppress my inner curmudgeon.
Fun facts:
ReplyDeleteS-Group (HOK-Elanto) is a (customer-side) co-op. (Which is why they just held elections.)
Kesko is a a sort of a vendor-side franchising/wholesale/support corporation. So AFAIK the smaller K-Group businesses have independent owners and the larger ones are owned by Kesko.
I think the "Prisma trance" might simply be a result of the unholy combination of human psychology, badly chosen aisle widths and the lack of shopping list. Without a shopping list customers simply mill around, because they don't want to go home to find out that they haven't bought anything they needed to buy. And if the aisles are too wide, people assume there's enough room even if they park their shopping carts crosswise in the middle of it, which is clearly not the case. People treating the store as an alternative to daycare isn't helping either.
For what it's worth, I've found an MP3 player to be an invaluable asset when shopping. The angrier the music, the more you can take: Even the Christmas rush becomes tolerable with some Behemoth, Vader or Cannibal Corpse blasting in your ears. It's an excuse to start a store-wide mosh pit when you lose it if nothing else.
Of course, the time when one does the shopping is also important. Right before and after the evening rush (about an hour after the evening rush in traffic, I think) the lines are the shortest if not considering the early mornings, but then again during the dead hours lines are longer as no tills are open but there's no one else wandering the aisles either.
No need to suppress anything: This is Finland, the land of curmudgeons.
Anyway, porn is wherever you choose to make it.
Ha, yep, an MP3 player is amazingly useful in most public places. I mostly just listen to any music at near-deafening levels so that I'm unable to hear anything around me. I did used to listen to my angry music repository when I was driving, which worked surprisingly well to curb my natural road rage, an effect I always found counterintuitive. I'm going to have to give Cannibal Corpse a try while I'm shopping.
DeleteI agree on the reasons for the Prisma trance, although there is truly something rapt about the attention some people pay to the goods in there. It's like they're simultaneously in awe of and overwhelmed by the choices they must make. As for the hours our Prisma is busy, it seems to me to be perpetually so. That's a major reason I almost never go there.
I somehow missed the fact that S Group is a customer co-op. I assumed otherwise for some reason. I now see that they have an English Wikipedia entry which I missed when I initially googled it.
I'm not sure if I find the idea of supermarket porn appealing. It might be fun to sully the place I resent having to go to. When in doubt, use the internet.
I do wonder, though, whether the angry music effect is completely internal psychology or whether it produces a don't fuck with me glint in listeners' eyes (or other behavioural effects) that people consciously or unconsciously catch on to and take heed to.
DeleteI just had to google supermarket porn after this exchange.
The genre seems to be sorely lacking not just production values but also content.
Not that I'm expecting a contribution.
I think I've recognized the glint etc. in other people, so I'm sure there are subtle yet perceptible effects on behavior when one listens to angry music. The same is probably true for sad, joyous, boring, etc. etc. music.
DeleteYeah, "supermarket porn" seems to consist mainly of stalking MILFs and then ushering them somewhere else. All in all, nothing of any real quality.
And, who knows, if my Finnish doesn't improve, I might have to examine in a career in Prisma porn. Maybe I could nab a discount on groceries in the process.
Reminds me of this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsrEAWcAvRg
Great song. Also, I'm fairly sure I have literally been lost in Prisma, if only for a short time.
DeleteThere's no Prisma here, just a small Valintatalo and S-Market, two K-markets and one Lidl. Nothing else. None of these is as big as the Cittari in Rovaniemi and I kinda like it this way. Of course I miss having more product options (esp. the Asian goods), but this means that there aren't usually too many people crowding any of the supermarkets. :-D
ReplyDeleteYou know, I haven't noticed a wide variety of Asian goods in Prisma. I have been too impatient to really check into it while I'm there, though. Now you've got me wondering about that. I miss Asian food. :)
DeleteYou can always bug them about it to see if they're susceptible to customer feedback.
DeleteI'm afraid I'm one of those "Hey, I don't need to drag my children to four different stores; I can complete all of my shopping in one trip!" people... though I must admit that I too hate shopping, even at a one-stop Prisma or Citymarket. Fortunately, I am married to a man who actually enjoys any kind of shopping (even for groceries!) and patiently compares prices, ignores badly-behaving people around him, and even remembers what brand of deodorant I prefer. I know. It's weird and kind of unbelievable. I don't try to understand it - I just count myself lucky!!
ReplyDeleteYou are lucky to have a shopper in your relationship. I suppose Prisma can actually be pretty useful to those of us who dread shopping, since it is, after all, one stop. Still, the hugeness coupled with the massive numbers of people is just too much for me. :P
DeleteWOW, THUMBS up for your hubby, Katriina! Mine doesn't like going to supermarkets (except when we're abroad on our holiday HA HA...) so I do the grocery shopping for us.
DeleteMy own pet hate is people who park their trolleys in the aisles in a way that causes maximum obstruction for others. I have to admit to have suffered trolley-rage on more than one occasion!
ReplyDeleteI don't think K or S group are particularly evil but between the two they do form basically a duopoly on the food sector in Finland - from field to table because they are vertically integrated through the whole supply chain. This is pretty much central to why food shops in Finland are so crap (ok, they are a lot less crap than they were 10 or 15 years ago but they are still crap) - bad choice, bad quality, high prices. It's important to know that the food sector was one of the biggest funders of the 'no' campaign to EU membership in '94 because basically they realised that the lie they had been telling the Finnish people for the previous 60 year "you have the best food in the world", would become rather transparent once the country was within the EU's common market. And look at the dirty tricks run against Lidl when they turned up about 8 years ago. I like shopping at Lidl because a) they broke the fruit and veg import cartel so have different and often better stuff to S and K, and b) just because buying a can of perfectly quaffable Lidl 'weißbier' for just 1.75 feels faintly like 'sticking it to the man' when Prisma or Citymarket would want EUR 3.50 for the something comparable.
ReplyDeleteYou should all read "Quasi Democracy" by Heikka and Boxberg - it's got lots to say on this issue. You can download it for free at: http://www.toivoajatuspaja.fi/julkaisut/quasi-democracy/
I'm about half way through "Quasi Democracy," and I think I'll refrain from commenting until I have time to get through all of it. I do hope people will see this comment, though, and leave their impressions if they've read it.
DeleteI also always listen to my iPod when shopping, but podcasts. Something interesting from the BBC or NPR, and then you actually feel like you've learnt something whilst doing the shopping.
ReplyDeleteI listen to BBC or NPR while I'm cleaning. I hate cleaning almost as much as shopping. ;)
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