__Supermarket enslavement techniques, by +ORC, March 1997__
Let's crack the very temples of the enemies of humanity and poetry,
the prisons where we are forced to buy and consume...
Let's enlighten all idiots about the WHIPS that are being used to enslave them
and, as always, light comes through knowledge.
NOTHING is casual in this awful society
where people are CULTIVATED to consume and nothing else,
where almost everything has a "secret" meaning we are not supposed to understand.
Knowledge is real power,
and Internet allows us (at least for now) the possibility to pass it on....
They spread their advertising shit, useless information, publicity;
We spread real knowledge.
We'll win.
Let's begin with some simple basic counter-intelligence work...
You'll never look at your mall or supermarket with the same eyes after having read this!
Take a trolley
Enslavement starts at the entrance. Row upon row of trolleys lead the slave to one inevitable conclusion: "I must take a trolley" -- a trolley which is easily large enough to contain hundreds of dollars worth of produce. The slave is not only disencumbered from physical restrictions that might otherwise limit how much can be bought; more important, the slave is subconciously encouraged to fill the vast, empty container in his charge. Very few are they who will have the courage to pull up to the checkout counter with nothing but a litre of milk or a loaf of bread in their trolley.
The entrance is on the right, yet you walk left
In all modern supermarkets the slave MUST follow a counterclockwise direction. 95% of the world's population has a slightly imperfect equilibrium; they tend to the left (for most people the right leg is slightly stronger than the left). If you leave somebody alone lost in the desert, he'll begin to turn around counterclockwise. This is the direction of unthinking, mindlessness, a state that is painstakingly nurtured by marketing directors.
Why do they start with fresh fruit?
Reason Number 1: People coming inside a supermarket tend to conserve the velocity and the inertia of the streets... they would skip the first 10 meters of merchandise if you did not stop them with the explosion of colours and smells that only fresh fruit can offer.
Reason number 2: The slave must immediately be assured, palpating a nice red perfect tomato (thanks to the latest genetic engineering technology), that he is in an "exquisite" special fresh shop. Prime the slave for premium expenditures; and if he doesn't take the tomato, his defenses are at least weakened....
Note that the disposition of the fruit and vegetables is NOT casual (far from it). The whole point in supermarket enslavement is that the very few things that are really useful and must be bought are overwhelmed and interpolated with completely useless products and/or with much more expensive varieties and brands because of the huge profits on those articles and of the smaller profits on basic products. You came in looking for a lemon, but you leave with a melon, a dozen plump peaches, and a couple of Indonesian mangosteens, all of which will spend the next month rotting in the "fruits and vegetables" compartment of your refrigerator.
Light dances in your eyes, sounds enter your ears
Orange and apples with a lot of mirrors, bananas and pears with a green surrounding, salads and potatoes with clear light... red for meat (coz white light would make grey) and so on... have a look at the illumination tricks in your supermarket the next time you are compelled to go in.
Note also how the quiet music is necessary: the supermarket would seem "dead" without it, but it must not be too energetic.... And it changes too. They know exactly at which time of the day seniors and at which time yuppy slaves go consuming inside; you'll therefore have music which is carefully calibrated to keep each group nice and submissive.
Expensive is easy, cheap is difficult
Producte are so positioned that the expensive ones are ALWAYS towards the march direction of the slave and at the best height to be picked up. The cheaper varieties of the same articles are always away from the march direction of the slave, and/or a little too low or a little too high.
Now stop and have a look at the varieties of a given product. Humans (euroamericans) scan from left to right (like you are doing now, reading my lines); therefore notice how the most EXPENSIVE varities of a given product are on the left, the cheaper on the right, in the hope that slave's hands will be quicker than slave's brain (as is often the case nowadays).
But in the fridges, the expensive stuff is on the RIGHT side!
Yeah, because you open the doors with your left hand, so it's much easier to grab those brands on the right (which just happen to be the most expensive ones... Christ! I believe we should drive school classes through the malls explaining all these tricks to the little future slaves!)
And notice how the "discounts" are lilliputian in comparison with what they steal from you through their tricks. Did you know that 35% of all refrigerated products go directly from fridge to garbage?
May I NOT help you?
You never hear a supermarket employee asking you "May I help you?", because that would not encourage the possibility of buying more and more useless products instead of what is needed. It would break the 'spell'; instead of filling his trolley - overwhelmed by sooo much choice - the slave might come to the nasty realization that he doesn't even need a trolley.
And besides, the employees are busy filling all the spaces, tirelessly plugging the holes in the displays, moving things to the foreground, creating a wall of products on either side of the aisles. Leave any space on the shelves and it might occur to some slaves to put back products they have deposited in their trolley...
What are stoppers?
Stoppers are the "dynamic" part of a supermarket. Most of the slaves come here twice a week (at least), and if they always see the same things in the same places they could start to develop a habitual route, bypassing some of the unnecessay garbage which represents about 90% of the store's inventory. Of course, everything cannot be moved every week (although it is surprising how frequently such moves do take place), but a part must move... hence the stoppers, little mountains of 'special offers': toilet paper today, shampoos tomorrow.... Keep those slaves guessing.
Mommy, mommy, can I have this and that?
There are queues at the cash, and that's the right moment to bite the slaves' kids. Watch as they make their embarrassing scenes, begging for the junk that has been dangled in front of them, all chosen and calculated to give maximum profit, all products you would NEVER in your life buy, except HERE, because this is the obligatory canyon that the slave must pass through... "Daddy, can I have a chocolate bar?", "Mommy, can we have some of those nice mints?... please... please...PLEEEEEEZE!"
And notice how these products are MUCH more expensive than the "three for one" confections of the same product that are sold inside the shop somewhere else ... but where? You will not know, coz these are exactly the sort of products you normally don't buy!
D'you want our "superadvantage" nice plastic card?
No! No! No! It's only a cheap, dirty trick to gather all possible data on your behaviour without ever having to raise a finger. They'll know how much and when and where you drink/shit/eat/copulate/cry/wash/sleep/etc and stuff their databases for free. Then they will sell this information to others who will further refine their strategies for getting you to buy even more unnecessary crap.
The manipulations of the greedy are endless in their variations... but once you get the picture, your knowledge gives you the upper hand. Teach your kids to use the waiting time to make a shambles of the checkout counter displays ... or do it yourself. These shelves can also be very useful for dumping all useless products that you don't really need; best of all is to dump there a couple of frozen icecream boxes upside down so that they will slowly leak their contents onto the candy bars and the brainless entertainment magazines.
Battle against them! Spread the word; free the stupid slaves! Escape from petty convention and climb above this awful mess we have been condemned to live in!
+ORC, the old red cracker...