Found in Waitrose, UK, this shopping list is bulleted with little circles prefixing each item. Blue pen on a back of an envelope.
Some interesting things here, not sure what the second item is, ‘Quealo’? Or the penultimate item, ‘Pilos’.
I had to Google, but Ñoqui is the Spanish spelling on the Italian Gnocchi. Very good.
Waitrose, UK, March 2023
I did not know that dogs ate fish.
Cats are famous for liking fish. Cats are also famous for not liking water. The question therefore is how, pre-domestication, did cats come across their fishy feasts to develop such a taste?
Pleasant little list on half a sheet of ruled A5 paper. A clear hand with some essentials. Interesting that there is a ‘big yog’ and ‘yog’. I am not sure what ‘Red On’ is, or Keiti.
I am not sure what Keiti is, will it be this? Maybe I am reading the word incorrectly. Could it be Keith?
Morrisons, Reading, UK, December 2022
Joe ‘Posset’ Murray did it first. He used to post his shopping list finds on Twitter, way before I started. I used to admire them, signifiers of shoppers in a different town or city.
I believe my first post, on Facebook, was an odd one as it had ‘mouldy ham’ written down, discarded in a park while I was on the way to the JobCentre one morning. I didn’t pick it up but took a photo to post once I got back home. After that I kept seeing discarded grocery lists all the time, in trolleys or baskets, at the end of the tills or on the floor.
After picking up a few I noticed that some were indecipherable, others just fragments. This led me to cary on as if I’d discovered some hitherto unknown source of found poetry, scores for readings that had yet to be heard. Handwriting and spelling leant what would be a shopping list in any other hands an air of mystery, especially once I got our eldest child to read out a few.
Still the collection grew bigger and I would get moaned at by the wife for picking up ‘other people’s rubbish’ even though I’d explained my reasons.
I had a vague idea for a ‘zine’ but photos and scans of lists didn’t appeal. Then Covid 19 hit. Long queues at supermarkets with paranoid shoppers (myself included) meant I was only photographing shopping lists in situ as they lay discarded on the floor, instead of picking them up as usual. I was left without a resource.
I was given the chance to perform a gig which gave me and the eldest a chance to read some of the shopping lists in public, plus a couple of found care notes, over some no-input mixer, a kind of low budget power electronics to our peers. We enjoyed it and the idea stuck. I was guided towards older sound poetry by Joe who had written a piece for the TQ zine and this set me on the path to concrete poetry. I downloaded pdfs. I bought a book. I devoured the images and descriptions. A quiet spell at work set my mind towards creating a form of found concrete poetry.
I’m still working on it and developing a CD (or tape) to go with it in zine form. I’m also back to picking up random pieces, making sure I wash my hands thoroughly after photoing and handling them. Daft, I know. I think there’ll be some form of recorded output with our daughter again using some lists, but that’s a separate project now, it’s taken on it’s own identity.
But it’s all Joe’s fault. Thanks Joe.
Jonathan Lee lives in Darlington, England with his wife, 3 children and an overly needy cat. Aside from collecting discarded shopping lists, Jonathan makes music under the alias Stapperton, collage under the alias insolent.collage and works in a post office. You can find him on social media here (https://instagram.com/insolent.collage) and admire some of his musical output here (https://lurkerbias.bandcamp.com/album/lb-071)
If you would like to contribute blog content, found shopping lists, or your own shopping lists, please do so using the email address on the submission page. Sharing a link to www.theshoppinglists.com on your site or via social media is greatly appreciated. Back links available.
A vintage list from 7 years ago. A deceptively large shopping list as there are multiple items on each line.
This shopper has planned their menu for the next week with, for example, gammon and squares(?) on Thursday. It looks like Saturday night may have been a night out!
Dog owner.
Found Sainsbury’s, Calcot, Reading
15th September 2016
A substantial shopping list. Torn paper, black biro.
This person has taken the trouble to enumerate their items:
The bottom right of the list makes for an interesting read, sliced chicken, sliced ham, frozen chicken, dog.
Morrisons, Reading, December 2022
To aid reading whilst dashing through the supermarket, this happy shopper has organised their list into columns. All the staples are here for a large weekly shop.
This person is organised as they have their columns but they also take a pen with them to check items off as they go.
Morrisons, Reading, December 2022
Nice writing. Very clear. Top up shopping list on torn quarter of A4 paper.
What are roosters?
Sainsbury’s, Reading 20th July 2022
Interesting to see a centre justified list. Items are bunched around a mostly invisible centrally vertical dividing line. Although in some cases, Ham | Chicken are visibly separated with a vertical bar.
A5, lined and spiral bound paper.
Dog and cat owner, smoker?
Doritos are listed as well as tortilla chips. Hmm.
On the back of the list is a date “Wed 22nd, 2:30pm”.
Sainsbury’s Reading, UK, June 2nd 2022
A small piece of paper, torn on 3 sides. Maybe belonging to an older hand.
Unusual to see a particular brand of water required.
What is W.U.L? Ah – washing up liquid 🙂
I suppose Bis is biscuits. Ch Burgers are chicken. Marg is margarine.
Lidl, Reading, UK. 2nd June 2022
