Random Shopping.

Ok, this isn't so much an update, as a catalogue. I am revitalising (as promised) the art of random shopping.

The phenomena that is "random shopping"

It's not a revolutionary new form of artistic expressionism, unlike the concept of reverse shoplifting, known as "shop dropping" whereby prankster artists buy supermarket products, replace the labels with their own artwork and sneak them back onto the shelves. One shop dropper said the idea was to subvert commercial space for artistic use. I heartily condone this kind of action. Thanks to Mr. Rajah for bringing this to my attention.

Suffice to say, my own invention, is quite different. Whilst browsing the supermarkets during my regular "Friday big-shop", I notice that several items have been placed in strange context within the otherwise orderly shelves. As an example, let's say I find a huge joint of beef nestled amongst the brussel sprouts. Someone has obviously picked something up, and then realised that they don't want the item and has ditched it at the point of realisation.

Now the interesting thing about this is that some items get misappropriated at completely unsuitable stations. I like to find frozen items amongst bottles of wine, or a bag of onions hanging on a CD rack… it's a personal fascination. It's not just the item that intrigues me, or its context, but the thought process that must have gone through someone's head in order to perpetrate said act.

I am bound to create a photo album of such items – I always have my mobile phone with me, so I am going to start cataloguing said events, and in the spirit of forteana, perhaps we can by the ridiculous nature of these actions predict the apocalypse?

I should create some sort of score for each item, and could enlist the help of an equally fascinated colleague to do this.

Scores could be for:
Proximity to item's original location.
Damage potential from surrounding products.
Damage potential from surrounding environment.
Points would be deducted of course for prolonging a product's life-cycle – example: a bag of apples is casually discarded in the refrigerated section.

My mouth is already watering at the concept of cooking up an adequate formula to score said items. I wonder if Object Matrix could help me out here??

Ok... So you don't think this is very interesting, I can tell... just wait until you see my photo album – or wait until you next visit a supermarket to buy something and there amongst the loaves of bread you find a jar of marmite... You will know instinctively that the Fox speaks the truth. Random shopping is alive and well in your local supermarket. Feel free to contribute to this phenomena by dropping everything and anything into the shelves as you go.


1. Cucumber amongst the crackers.


2. Gingerbread on ham.


3. Lightbulbs in gravy.


4. Marmite and Jaffa cakes.


5. Tuna crunch on the corner.


6. Classic baked potatoes on bedding.


7. Playstation 2 and frozen goods??