Attention K-Mart Shoppers: Recordings of K-Mart In-Store Music from 1992 | Hacker News Reader

Attention K-Mart Shoppers: Recordings of K-Mart In-Store Music from 1992

archive.org

66 pointstintinnabula13 comments

Here is a video of Mark Davis showing off the cassettes before they were digitized. Interesting collection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t5TYw2bkOk

The announcer makes a point of touting their "made in the USA" clothing at "low K-Mart prices."

How much things have changed in such a short time.

For some reason I still remember the Kmart in-store ad from the early 80s. It was about the photo development at the Camera Bar. It went something like "Kmart now offers the Goof Proof Picture Perfect guarantee..." I'd love to hear that again.

It's on there! I remember it specifically from the first half of the Week of 6.21.92 tape.

Thanks for the tip! I found it. Interestingly, this is a very boring version from the one I remember. What I recall was a kids voice saying something about buying his parents photos for Christmas or something. Still pretty cool. Thanks again!

The whole vaporwave community is going to have a field day with this stuff.

This is great. The internet needs more sites like this. Kudos to archive.org for preserving it and @tintinnabula for sharing it here.

A propos of music and shopping, I offer:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney_and_the_1964_World...

With the timeless "Music to Buy Toasters By".

One of my favorite internet moments was tracking down an mp3 to the old Disneyland Peoplemover attraction.

"Stop by the men's department where a wide assortment of sweaters and shaker knits, cottons and jacards are available in the newest colors and styles."

The pre-recorded announcer said things to this effect. Listen here:

https://youtu.be/8t5TYw2bkOk?t=2m10s

The same but from a few decades earlier: http://www.oddiooverplay.com/ears/kresge.html

These are MP3s of muzak played in Kresge stores (K-Mart) from the early 1960s.

I can download them individually, but how do I get the torrent of all of them together?

Why am I willingly listening to in store advertising? Some of these tunes are groovy.

I think it becomes slightly less offensive when it's ancient and the product/service doesn't really exist anymore - it feels like you're walking through a museum instead of looking at an actual advertisement or something, at least to me

I worked in the Electronics/Sporting Goods (sometimes both when understaffed) and Gardening departments of the local small town K-Mart when I was in high school.

Can't say I was overly fond of the throwback 80s music it played or the cheesy product ads after hearing the same ones for weeks on end. This was 15+ years after the 80s as well. Thanks to this discussion, I unfortunately have them stuck in my head once again after years of suppressing them :(

It was actually a pretty decent job for where I lived and for being in high school (with above average high school pay). However, I never ever liked the radio system or the pre-recorded announcer.

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