I agree, and it's not just restaurants. Why is it that every single store or beauty salon or honestly every place I seem to go has to have music playing?? Drives me nuts.

The music is played to drown out the 'industrial' noise of dishes clattering, talking, kitchen sounds, grocery cart rattling, coughing, sniffling, cell phone conversations and more. Truly, you'd find that shopping, dining, doctors' office visits, etc. far less comfortable without that ambient noise!

That being said, I am in total agreement that some businesses crank up the volume way too high! I've asked to have the music turned down a few times, myself.

Vote with your feet, wantoretire. I avoid chain restaurants for many reasons, but such a stupid response to your reasonable request is more than enough reason to go somewhere else next time. There's no need to patronize places run by morons who don't understand that a restaurant is in the business of pleasing customers so that they'll come back.

While troublesome music volume can usually be fixed, what bothers me more is when the volume of conversations is too loud. Sometimes it's an escalation thing, people talk louder because others are talking louder which causes them to talk louder, etc. Sometimes, it's just some people with loud mouths (you can hear them all the time when out in public) who spoil it for others.

No matter what the cause, when a place is too loud, I don't return.

In restaurants, you have to do more than "vote with your feet," you need to contact the people who make the decisions and let them know.

When it comes to clothing, I find that loud music stores never have the type of clothing I want, so there is no need for me to spend time there.

Some of the stores at the mall are like that. Aeropostale for one. Another one is Holllister. That's one good thing about my daughter being older now. Like graywings said, seems like mostly "bopper" clothing stores.

I very seldom go to the mall anymore. Maybe once at Christmas time. Quite frankly, I don't know how they stay in business.

The reason I don't go to Five Guys is because of the music. I do not feel that a burger and fries travels well, so I prefer to eat it at the place I buy it - NOT carry-out. But since you cannot possibly carry on a conversation in our Five Guys because of the music, I simply don't go.

I am a strong believer in emailing corporate of complaints. My bugaboo at one restaurant here in town is their filthy, sticky menus. Whenever I get a survey, you can be sure that I take advantage of it to comment on other areas of concern.

Luckily, the restuarants in our area have turned the music down so that it is in the background. They found that increased music volume promoted a louder atmosphere such that the wait staff had problems hearing the customer's order. The louder the music, the louder people spoke their conversations and soom the room became a din of shouters - very uncomfortable.

Actually, the first time I complained, which was quite a few years ago, was at a very popular locally owned restaurant. We were with another couple and could barely converse. When I said something to the waitress, she snapped back that "No one else has complained." I figured that with that attitude, it wouldn't help to speak to the owner/manager.

Well, don't you know that shortly thereafter, the food editor of the largest newspaper in circulation here (capitol district of NY) asked for comments about restaurants in the area, so I sent him a signed email and OMG was quoted in his article. I did not give the name of the restaurant but did mention the city. I don't know if the article helped, but they did lower their volume and changed the genre of music, which is ongoing to this day.

As an aside, one reason I don't shop at Penneys is because from day one of the opening of their totally remodeled store here, the music has been blaring so that even the salespeople find it difficult to talk over. They have absolutely no control over it, and now that JCP is in dire trouble, too loud music has been noted as just one of its many problems!

Sheila, your comment about the sticky menus made me laugh! There's a very popular with the old timers restaurant that I call the sticky place! EVERYthing is sticky and I'm not kidding.

It's primary meal is breakfast, where there is often a waiting line. Robert took me there once but I've refused ever since. Heck, the food wasn't special at all....not enough to excuse the sticky menus, table, floors. I still laugb about it.

There is one particular store at the mall where the music is SO loud it makes you feel almost frantic looking for the escape door. lol I don't get the Hollister (I think that's the name) store where they don't have any lights on... please explain how people are supposed to shop in almost complete darkness? The other customers in the store don't look bothered by it (those I can see, that is - ha).

My problem with restaurants is the air conditioning. I always seem to be seated under a blowing AC vent, in summer when I'm wearing light sleeveless clothing. I get such a chill I've sometimes had to change tables.

Not only is music piped in your ears in restaurants and doctors offices, you are forced to listen to music when put "on hold" when calling most any type of business. Is silence a sin now?

I like music, but I want to listen to "my" kind of music "when" I want to hear it.

What I really hate is restaurants (Applebee's comes to mind) that have both music and tv's going. The tv's are turned up, and even if they're confined to the bar area, they're loud. Then the music is turned up to drown them out. With that plus other people trying to talk over all that, I can't even hear myself think!

Wanttoretire, I have had the same experience at JCP. Each department had its own music, stuff which appeals to younger people (who are not shopping in Penneys), and played too loud. Worse yet is the music played in Sephora which is housed within the the JCP store.

Two other pet peeves: gum and cigarette butts thrown on the ground. What are these people thinking? The world is their trash can?

The reason the stores play the fast paced loud music is it "sets the tone" for making people shop. Or so they say...

I hate the TVs in all the restaurants. I can understand a sports bar but to have one at practically every table in a restaurant?

Recently, a local Mexican place near by remodeled and put a TV at nearly every booth along the walls. Each TV is set to a different channel. Next time we ate there, they seated us at a booth. We asked them to turn the TV down. I was sitting next to DH and still couldn't hear him!
That was the last time we ate there.

If we wanted to watch TV while we ate we'd stay home.

Like SheilaJoyce, I'm a big fan of giving feed back to corporate or even the managers.

Must be lucky, I can't hear any of your complaints.

I dread the loud music at the Pier One store in Kahului, Maui. (I've never tried any other branches; there's limited choice of housewares on an island.)

On my last visit I encountered another peeve: The salespeople who are too busy conversing to wait on a customer who is standing in front of them. This also happened last week at Safeway, where the cashier and bagger talked throughout my checkout, neither of them making eye contact with me.

OMG THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A million times! I cannot stand the stupid loud music they play at restaurants! Sometimes my husband and I are both ready to pull our hair out. We have stopped going to several restaurants because of the music. Smoky Bones is one place that we just could not handle. I will never go there again. A light instrumental is OK but for the most part, it is very annoying and just mind jangling. UGH!

OH yeah and the age thing...my husband and I are in our 50s and when we look around, we are much younger than most of the other diners so I'm really so sure those 70 and 80 year old diners are just really loving listening to some top 40 music cranked up. Give me a break, these business owner must have $#!* for brains! I can see drowning out noise but there is good music and there is cr^p music!

This post was edited by arkansas_girl on Sun, Feb 16, 14 at 18:53

Bag boys that don't understand why I would not want my bananas and strawberries in the same plastic bag as 8 cans of vegetables. I do not want one refrigerated item in each of my 12 bags. I want every freezer item in the same bag or two but not with other non frozen items. Lettuce is not considered a freezer item.

My pet peeve is going to Walmart and watching the check out girl lick her fingers to open my bags. I ask her where the sticky stuff is that she's suppose to use and she says, she doesn't want to use it. I told her I don't want her licking her finges to open my bags. and she she said she wasn't licking her fingers. I told her, I just watched you doing it. My DH just looks the other way when I'm in the check out. LOL He knows I'm going to say something. I've made numerous complaints and they have followed through with leaving the sticky jars for opening bags. But you always have those few.

Check-out clerks that pick up fruit and slam it down on the weighing scale or onto the conveyer belt irritate me to no end.

I do not like going home with bruised fruit!

Yesterday there was an elderly lady ahead of me and the cashier would NOT speak up for her! Even though she kept saying, "What?" it never seemed to dawn on him to raise his voice. I finally repeated his last question to her about whether she wanted help out, and she was grateful. As she was on her way out (and hopefully couldn't hear me,) I suggested that often elderly people need others to raise their voices when speaking. He gave me a slightly irritated look, barely smiled, and didn't say anything in answer. I see this happen often!

People ahead of me in any check out line who are taken by surprise that they have to pay for what ever it was they just ran through the check out. And as it S L O W L Y sinks in, after looking through pockets or purses they are faced with which choice: credit card, debit card, check, or cash. And each option must be studied before any decision can be made.

Lov_mkitchen, we wonder the same thing. They will stand there and watch the prices ring up on the register and then fumble around in their purse. Do they think they are free??

I, on the other hand, have my wallet in my hand, flipped open to my debit card or cash. AND because I'm always "prepared" imagine my shock last week when my debit card was not in its slot! I was planning to get cash back, so I didn't have enough cash to cover our purchases.

Hubby was just starting to unload our things on the belt, and I turned to the person behind me and said I didn't have my debit card.

We grabbed the food, and we split up to put the items back in their proper locations.

Thankfully, we live not far from the store, came home and found the card and went again. The funny thing was, the broccoli and asparagus that we had put in the produce bags were still there, and everything else that we put back, we just grabbed again.

This post was edited by jasdip on Mon, Feb 17, 14 at 18:40

Here's an unexpected wrinkle to that problem (which I agree with and can only scratch my head when it happens).

I was at the store about a week ago. My timing was poor, it was rather busy with long lines. My best choice was in a line behind a woman with a very full shopping cart.

I was encouraged when she opened her purse to get out her credit card while still waiting her turn. But then when it came time to put her purchases on the conveyor belt, she held the card lovingly in her right hand, while using her (obviously weaker) left hand only to empty the cart. Some things were too heavy or too large for her to deal with one-handed, though she tried. While her teenage daughter stood by and watched, she slowly lifted one thing at a time onto the conveyor. The cashier was a bit miffed too. I finally stepped up and helped her finish, it took 2X too much time as it was.

Some people don't grasp that the task is to go through the checkstand as efficiently and quickly as possible.

It drives me crazy to stand in the grocery line and wait while someone digs to find their money out to pay. Or for them to carry on a long conversation with the cashier after the have finally paid. Can't they see there are people waiting in line? OR, they forgot something and they want someone to go get it for them. I could go on and on about the grocery store. I know that certain cashiers are good and I try to go down their isle. So many crazy people these day.

One day I was in a local grocery. There was a mom and daughter that had a huge cart full of groceries. I was behind them in line as they checked out. The cashier was clicking along when suddenly the lady handed her her card to see how much money was on it. There was only $17.00 and some change on it. There they were with all these groceries rang up, already bagged and in her cart and not enough money to pay for them. Here we are waiting in line behind her while she decides what to have taken off. The lady finally just left without taking anything. The cashier had worked so hard to help her. There was an older gentleman behind me that leaned over and said quietly in my ear, " I remember when we didn't have plastic".