Posted on 09/01/2004 7:53:52 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
HIDDEN MESSAGES: Store muzak not just designed to lull shoppers, it's also a signal
By YU MIYAJI, The Asahi Shimbun
``Help! I need somebody! Help! Not just anybody!''
Strains of the familiar Beatles music waft out over the loudspeakers of the Shimonoseki Daimaru department store in Yamaguchi Prefecture on a recent July afternoon.
In response, store officials rush to the summer gift section to aid the swamped sales staff.
Although played at the store as an instrumental-only song, the lyrics of the Beatles' hit are particularly appropriate given the situation at hand: ``Won't you please, please, help me?'' It's the signal to come to the rescue when the gift section is shorthanded.
Takahiko Yamaguchi, in charge of sales promotion, and other staffers were quickly helping out in the seventh-floor gift section.
The ``Help'' signal is played at least 10 times a day in the summer and end-of-year gift-giving seasons.
Today's muzak is more than just a shopper's lullaby. It raises employee morale, too.
When a daily sales target is reached at Shimonoseki Daimaru, the theme from ``Rocky'' reverberates. And a muzak version of ``I Was Born to Love You,'' by Queen, familiar as the theme of the popular TV drama series ``Pride,'' is heard when monthly targets are met.
Yamakataya department store in Kagoshima Prefecture also plays uplifting music when its daily sales target is reached.
``Since we started to play the signal song, staff members have become more interested in the entire store's business,'' says Shimonoseki Daimaru's Yamaguchi.
Iwataya department store in Tenjin, a shopping district in Fukuoka, plays 10 signal tunes to communicate with staff.
Twice a day, one song urges clerks to tidy up sales areas, while another tune signals it's time to change shifts.
A 34-year-old women's goods clerk says: ``At first I used to forget what some of the tunes meant, but now I know exactly what the signals are.''
Signal tunes are chosen so their meanings are clear.
For instance, the song ``Heigh-Ho'' from Disney's ``Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' is used to remind staff to finish sending out deliveries. The dwarfs' ``off to work'' song is played daily at 5:10 p.m., 20 minutes before the parcel deadline.
Public relations official Koichi Tanaka said he chose the song because it ``seemed to encourage the staff to hurry and not forget.''
The most common signal is to let sales staff know that it has started raining. ``Singing in the Rain'' is a popular choice. Staff at the Isetan department store in the Kokura-Kita district of Kita-Kyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, know when they hear that tune, it's time to switch to waterproof wrapping paper and to cover paper shopping bags in plastic.
Iwataya plays Paul Mauriat's ``Nocturne'' when it stops raining.
Some stores use signal music to alert clerks to beware of shoplifters or other risks.
Why not make simple announcements?
Yamakataya, which uses six standard signal songs, started switching to music 20 years ago. Store public relations and research staffer Hisashi Iwabuchi says: ``We gradually switched to music after receiving customer complaints that announcements were noisy and annoying.''
Iwataya's Tanaka explained: ``The sales floors of a department store are sort of like a theater. We use tricks of the trade here and there to keep the backstage goings-on hidden from view.''(IHT/Asahi: September 1,2004) (09/01)
Ping!
Message: Yamaguchi is the West Virginia of Japan.
Message: Daimaru is a department store for old people.
I wonder what they do when they hear the song "Things I'll Never Say" by Avril Lavigne?
What do they play at Motomachi or Isezaki-cho ?
So which is the worse hick in Japan, a guy from Shimonoseki or one from Aomori?
My wife is from the sticks in Nagasaki and she's always called herself a "potato girl".
Is she a Christian by any chance? Nagasaki is the Christian stronghold of Japan.
No, she's Buddhist.
Aomori.
Anyone who says "'nda" for "yes" is a massive hick.
In contrast, Kyoto is the cradle of Japanese civilization.
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