Spill in Aisle 9: Poetry's Unexpected Relationship with the Grocery Store

From "A Supermarket in California" to Tesco, The Guardian's Kathryn Bromwich illuminates poetry's known and unknown ties to the grocery store. In England, most supermarkets lack poetry books within the aisles; however, as Bromwich explains, supermarkets frequently hire poets to write lines to decorate the walls and disgruntled employees have been known to pen complaints in verse. More:

In 1956, Allen Ginsberg’s poem A Supermarket in California placed famous poets in supermarket aisles: “Wives in the/avocados, babies in the tomatoes!–and you, Garcia Lorca, what/were you doing down by the watermelons?” Back then, the unlikely union of supermarkets and poetry was both literally and figuratively like chalk (used to write poetry on boards) and cheese (available from all good supermarkets). This week, the two worlds have collided again.

St Andrews University students Isabelle Bousquette and Tomi Baikie were so disgruntled that their local Tesco stopped selling a particular brand of popcorn that they “resorted to the only thing we really know, Shakespearean sonnet”. The verbally gifted duo sent in a poem of complaint, which included lines such as “Have I Butterkist my true love goodbye?/Let this be a dream. Restock when I wake.” Tesco’s complaints team whirred into action, penning an apology poem that made the word “continued” rhyme with “discontinued”, and offering a £10 gift card. The response intoned “A decision was taken though not in great haste,/To de-list this item ’cos it ended in waste.”

But why stop at customer service poems? Having exhausted the marketing possibilities of randy penguins demanding a concubine (John Lewis) and the senseless slaughter of millions during the first world war (Sainsbury’s), perhaps supermarkets could advertise their products with well-known lines of poetry. “Water, water, everywhere/Makes you want to drink.” “Rage, rage, against the dying of the Sprite.” “Shall I compare thee to a cheese soufflé?” A few supermarket chains have already taken steps in this direction. Back in May, Waitrose employed poet Roger McGough to adorn the stores’ walls with verse in order to make the experience of shopping there more pleasurable (one of the poems is called Tofu and the Tiger). A few years back, Morrisons appointed poets Ian McMillan, John Mole and Peter Sansom as “food laureates” to write recipes in verse (sample line: “Add yeast to the water: let’s go!/Mix salt in the flour. Make dough”), and encouraged shoppers to write their own rhymes. [...]

Learn more at The Guardian.