7 Great Reasons to Collect Found Shopping Lists

Collecting other people’s shopping lists may sound like a strange thing to want to do but there are many advantages to the budding enthusiast.

Lists can be gifted from friends or family, or lists can be found discarded in shopping trollies and baskets. Here are 7 compelling reasons for joining the niche hobby and becoming a shopping list collector.

1. Shopping lists are Socially Significant

A person’s grocery list is a window into their life. Not only do you get literal insights into people’s buying habits but you also get to see something of the person when you analyse a list. Do they have a pet, are they vegetarian, are there ethnicity clues? The humble shopping list can capture a picture of wider trends and events. Are people buying budget items? Are they buying turkey at Christmas. Is there barbecue food in the Summer?

During the coronavirus pandemic there was a large reduction in the number of shopping lists generated as people embraced online shopping and home delivery. When there were shopping lists, they often contained PPE items like face masks. Hand sanitiser was a very popular item.

2. A Niche collection – small community

There are two types of collections, those which are open and those which are closed. For example, a closed collection could include a signed first edition of each of the Tolkien Lord of the Rings books – there are a finite number of things to find. An open collection is the opposite, for example beach glass, stamps or concert tickets. Within reason, there is not a limit to the number of items you can collect.

Shopping list collections are open. There is no limit to the number you can collect, each one a signpost to further information. An invite for Holmesien analysis and further thinking.

What is more, if you collect shopping lists you will likely be the only person who you know who is doing so. That said, there is a small online community out there who appreciate the ‘art’ and who are willing to share and discuss their finds. Just Google ‘Found Shopping Lists” and see what turns up.

3. Free To Keep and Collect

Grocery lists are great to collect as it costs nothing to find, or keep, them. You can find them anywhere, not just Tesco, Lidl, Morrisons, Cole’s or Walmart but up a cliff, on a dog walk, blowing in the wind. This quality can not be said about many collections.

You do not need to buy insurance, visit specialist collector fairs or spend hard earned cash on the most prized specimens – it is all FREE!

4. Lists are Great to display online, in a book or a gallery

Once you have your collection, however small, you will find there is a very visual aspect to enjoy. With each list being different, in terms of paper, pen and content, you will see an individual and group aesthetic emerge.

Your lists can then be displayed publicly if you wish. Some examples are this online archive/gallery at www.TheShoppingLists.com, or this collector’s book Milk, Eggs, Vodka.

One list enthusiast in California entered her grocery lists into a competition at the San Diego County Fair and won first prize.

5. Shopping Lists are Physically Small

Shopping lists are very easy to store. You have two options, firstly you can take a photo of a list, archive the image, throwing away the paper list itself to meet its final end. Alternatively you can take a photo and keep the list too.

As each grocery lists is pretty small, you can store a huge physical collection in a folder, envelope or even a shoe box. Some collectors enjoy a photograph of the list where it was found in situ, as well as then keeping the physical list.

6. Each List is Unique

Like faces and fingerprints, no two shopping lists are the same. There are common trends, for example many shoppers like to use Post-it notes for smaller shops, some like to use purpose made list making note paper, others, the back of envelopes. In terms of writing implement, the common black ball point pen is a firm favourite, along with the pencil. Some people use coloured pens or Sharpies.

In just about every archive, no two shopping lists have the same list of contents. There are favourite items of course; bread, milk, eggs, butter… but very quickly people’s individual requirements come to the fore; sauce pan, birthday card, Breathright, mouse treats…

According to www.TheShoppingLists.com, the top 10 shopping lists items are:

  • Milk
  • Bread
  • Potatoes
  • Eggs
  • Cheese
  • Chicken
  • Crisps (potato chips)
  • Vegetables
  • Ham
  • Fruit

7. The Shopping List May not be around forever

As people shop online more often, or have electronic grocery lists on the phones, either as emails, notes or specialist apps, the art of making and using a written shopping list is likely to be lost.

The role of home economics, as in household management, is increasingly taken less earnestly than it was a generation ago and supermarket food prices, although on the rise, are still mostly affordable as a proportion of income. People do not need to be so diligent about planning and executing their grocery shopping.

Further, people are eating out more often than in previous decades. Some shopping lists have weekly meal planners jotted down on them, Monday – pasta, Tuesday – Caesar salad, Wednesday – Eat out, Nandos. In the 1980’s and before, eating out was for many, a rare occasion, it is now a multi-weekly event.

In themselves of course, shopping lists are naturally ephemeral. Those which are made today, are tomorrows recycling or land fill. Many just fall to tatters left outside in the wind and rain.

Summary

With shopping lists, being a social record of the times, geography and circumstance in which we live, being free to collect and a being at threat from extinction, what better time is there than NOW to start a found shopping list collection.

Next time you are at the supermarket, have a look around the trolly area – you never know what you might find.

TheShoppingLists.com is an online archive of over 150 shopping lists, with searchable tags for items and locations. Submissions can be made of your own lists for others to view. For submissions and PR please contact thelistcollector@gmail.com.

Kitchen Towel ‘Plenty‘

Shopping list in situ on a trolly with built in clip board.

The specification of the kitchen towel brand, ‘Plenty’, is of interest.

This discerning shopper has a select number of items on the list. Maybe sausage and mash on the menu. No fruit or veg today. A top up list.

This shopper had to collect a parcel as the number one priority. Maybe there was a parcel collection point at the super market.

A grateful contribution.

From Sainsbury’s in Alton.

Ruth’s Birthday

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

Christmas Shopping List

A Christmas shopping list.

Vibrant pink paper.

Some seasonal Christmas food here. Parsnips, nuts, ingredients for trifle. Even Xmas is listed as an item.

The list is from Morrisons yet some items have been specified to be sourced from Costco, Salmon and Pepps (peppers?).

This person enjoys an abbreviation, mushs = mushrooms, pots = potatoes, rasps = raspberries.

Morrisons, December 2022

Porridge

Standard list of staples. Bread, milk, butter, cheese etc. interesting the items are grouped into categories. Biscuits appear twice.

Ruled paper has rounded corners on the left hand side and slight tear marks on the right, suggesting it has been torn from a note book.

Morrisons, Reading, 27th November 2022

Custard Pots II

Found with its counterpart ‘custard pots’ at Morrisons in Bridport, U.K., this list is in the same hand, on the back of a betting slip but intertwined with a Waitrose receipt for items listed.

Some items are duplicated from the first list but also included are two tins of baked beans, Kellogg’s Fruit and Fibre and some ‘ready baked’ potatoes.

Morrisons & Waitrose, Bridport, 29th May 2022

Small Potatoes

A list on A4 lined and punched paper pulled from a pad. Written in biro by two people. The first in capitals, the second amending in what looks to be an older style in lower case.

Ordinary tea suggests that other types of tea are sometimes purchased. Quite a healthy list, no meat, low fat.

Sainsbury’s, Reading 3rd August 2021

P&G

This appears to be shopping for two people in two hands with two pens.

They are working age dog and cat owners with no children.

On P’s side of the list we have chicken, weetabix, French fries, custard creams, cokes and tissues. On G’s side we have duck in plum, chick/mushrooms, cold puds (eclair), trifle, lattes, cookies and chocs.

Some items have been crossed off, some have been circled. Some items in capitals and some in lower case. Notice the change of pen between hand wash and pads/pants.

Sainsbury’s, Reading. 3rd August 2021

Pacific North West, USA

This is the first list on www.theshoppinglists.com from the United States.  Woo!

The list was very kindly donated by Rockie from Portland, Oregan.  My guess is that this is a top up shop rather than a large weekly visit.  Items on the menu for the next couple of days could include a salad with lettuce, cucumber? Maybe some Mexican food with the rice, beans and salsa and bagels with cream cheese for lunch?

I had never heard of Mr Stubbs and his BBQ sauce before so here is more info for those who are interested: http://www.stubbsbbq.com/

Apparently, “This is the real deal, the original.  And its tangy tomato, vinegar, molasses and black pepper are gonna treat you right.”

Rockie has great handwriting but in case you need help making it out, the items are:

Salad, Olive Oil, Dish soap, Potatoes, Bread, Peanut Butter, Bagels / Cheese, Lettuce, Doritos, Rice, Beans, Salsa, Lunch Meat, Carrots, Cucumber, Mr Stubbs BBQ

The food was purchased from Fred Meyer here https://www.fredmeyer.com/stores/details/701/00040

Any questions and comments are welcome!