Bopping along to the sweet, sweet sounds of ShopRite
To be honest, I’d noticed it myself, the strength of the music selection at ShopRite when I would walk the aisles. Just good tunes, overall. Have definitely been annoyed when the manager interrupts a song I was singing along to with a “Special in the meat department” announcement or something. Man, let me toss my Charmin in my cart while singing some Peter Cetera, m’kay?
So you can imagine how tickled I was when I stumbled across a Spotify playlist titled, “ShopRite Bangers (Bop Rite).”
It’s over 42 hours(!) of songs Mike Bacon — that’s Hamilton’s own DJ Iron Mike to you — has uploaded to the playlist, and they all have one thing in common: He’s heard them at the ShopRite in Hamilton.
How the …
“Haha, it’s as simple as me observing songs that are in rotation at ShopRite,” Bacon told me. “I decided I wanted that same vibe to take home or on the road.”
And that’s the thing: It’s an awesome vibe. I just put it on “shuffle,” and these are the first five songs that came up: “Gloria” by Laura Branigan, “Lean on Me” by Bill Withers, “All I Need” by Jack Wagner,” “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” by Paul Simon, and “If You Leave” by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.
Oh you want more? Yeah, me too. “Private Eyes” by Hall & Oates, “You Got It (The Right Stuff)” by New Kids On The Block, “All Right” by Christopher Cross, “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None The Richer, and “Never Too Much” by Luther Vandross.
It is the most vanilla playlist in the history of the world, and it is awesome.
“It stems from a joke between me and my friend Derek Taylor,”
Bacon told me. “About 20 years ago I worked at Rite Aid on Kuser and he was working at ShopRite. Both stores used a satellite service called ‘Smart
Source Radio.’ We would hear the same songs in real time. We would refer to songs like ‘Life in a Northern Town” by the Dream Academy or ‘Circles In The Sand” by Belinda Carlisle as ‘Smart Source Bangers.’
“I eventually decided to make a playlist,” Bacon, who is the general manager for AmbientDJ.com, continued. “At the same time, a lot of memes and Tik Toks started referencing good playlists at grocery stores. The timing was right. It turns out a lot of people enjoy this genre of sorts.”
Count me in. It’s been on background for me since I discovered it a few weeks ago. It’s the best. Also makes me hungry for some reason. Can someone get me a quarter pound of Boar’s Head turkey please? It’s all right, I think we’re gonna make it.