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sabotabbyYesterday, apparently, was the day that they turn on the Christmas carols at the Second Cup. I am not happy about a month of hearing the same bad songs everywhere I go. You know, I understand that there's a certain type of Christian out there who needs to feel special, what with this multiculturalism thing and all of us unsaved types taking over their jobs and mandating gay marriage and lots of abortions. But why the Christmas carols? It works nicely to remind us of our place in the social hierarchy and all that, but these songs are godawful and I can't imagine that Christians like them any more than I do. In fact, I have it on good authority that not every Second Cup cafe in Toronto is owned by Christians.
And the workers; think of the workers. When I worked in retail, there were a few radio stations that we were allowed to listen to, and in some places, a handful of approved CDs. To this day, I am sick of every song that I heard in heavy rotation. It's so much worse when there's one CD that you're allowed to put on. These poor bastards have to work 8- to 10-hour shifts and hear the same 12 songs every day. Even if they liked those songs in the first place, it'll get hellish by mid-December.
So if it's not to make the owners of stores happy, and it pisses off the staff, why does every food and retail establishment insist on playing Christmas carols for a month or so? Does anyone out there like these songs enough to want to hear them everywhere they go?
[Poll #880254]
* And no, "Fairy Tale of New York" does not count. Do you hear them playing it in coffee shops? Because I don't.
And the workers; think of the workers. When I worked in retail, there were a few radio stations that we were allowed to listen to, and in some places, a handful of approved CDs. To this day, I am sick of every song that I heard in heavy rotation. It's so much worse when there's one CD that you're allowed to put on. These poor bastards have to work 8- to 10-hour shifts and hear the same 12 songs every day. Even if they liked those songs in the first place, it'll get hellish by mid-December.
So if it's not to make the owners of stores happy, and it pisses off the staff, why does every food and retail establishment insist on playing Christmas carols for a month or so? Does anyone out there like these songs enough to want to hear them everywhere they go?
[Poll #880254]
* And no, "Fairy Tale of New York" does not count. Do you hear them playing it in coffee shops? Because I don't.
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If you'll forgive my recycling of material...
Date: 2006-12-02 07:38 pm (UTC)When I was working at Barnes & Noble, there was this surly, unhappy guy named Pete working in receiving. Pete wasn't a bad guy, he just felt as we all did: that our lives were being wasted at B&N. In any case, one holiday season, the music department was running a competition amongst its staff to see who could sell the most of their chosen holiday CD, and this translated into endless cycles of awful music. The music manager was pitching a particularly evil disc called "Yule Be Swingin'" Get it? It's Christmas-themed swing music! It's a pun! In any case, since it was being pitched by the manager, who controlled the CD player with an iron vise, "Yule Be Swingin'" wound up turning the entire staff into crazed retail monsters. At last Pete couldn't take it anymore: he walked out of receiving, walked in the music department, opened the CD player, and snapped "Yule Be Swingin'" RIGHT THE FUCK IN HALF.
After that, Pete was a Christmas legend at that store.
Re: If you'll forgive my recycling of material...
Date: 2006-12-02 08:23 pm (UTC)Re: If you'll forgive my recycling of material...
Date: 2006-12-03 12:24 am (UTC)