Noise-Bombardment-Free Shopping: SPAR Turns Off the Radios in Linz
Press Information
3 March 2009
Being subjected to unwanted acoustic accompaniment is a thing of the past in Linzer SPAR supermarkets beginning Wednesday, March 4, 2009. In a total of 18 affiliates—from Urfahr to SolarCity—the grocery chain will dispense with drizzling background music down upon customers and staff for the remainder of 2009. Accordingly, SPAR will be identifying each of its Linz markets with the Linz09 Beschallungsfrei sticker that designates it as a “No Background Music Zone.” This is an across-the-board noise-free policy; there will no longer even be advertising announcements on the store’s public address system.
“We actively sought out this opportunity to work together with Linz09, since we were looking to contribute to the European Capital of Culture program in an especially unique way,” explained SPAR executive Jakob Leitner. “Turning off the background music in order to create a sphere of peace and quite and thereby offering a more acoustically relaxed shopping experience seems to us to be a form of involvement that strongly appeals to people.”
Other organizations involved in Beschallungsfrei are the Linz chapter of the ÖGB–Austrian Federation of Labor, the GPA–Private-sector Employees Union (Print, Journalism and Paper), as well as the Catholic churches in Upper Austria as represented by CityPastoral. Peter Androsch, Linz09’s director of music and head of the Beschallungsfrei initiative, said: “We welcome SPAR to our ranks, the first company to intentionally take this decisive step and make a high-profile statement to stamp out acoustic pollution.”
In-store shopping radio will remain switched off for the rest of the Capital of Culture year in the SPAR markets in the main train station, on Landstraße, in Kleinmünchen, in both affiliates in Froschberg and in Gründberg, on Friedhofstraße, Derfflingerstraße, Freistädter Straße, Stieglbauernstraße, Wildbergstraße, Wiener Straße and Holzstraße as well as in Oed, Puchenau, Dornach, Magdalena and SolarCity.
On November 21, 2009, shoppers will also be able to enjoy a temporary respite from unwanted noise in approximately 125 SPAR locations throughout the Province of Upper Austria: “We’re also glad to be working together with Linz09 on No Music Day 2009,” Jakob Leitner added. “We’re staging a one-day musical fast in conjunction with this interesting initiative.”
Beschallungsfrei – The Campaign to Stamp Out Acoustic Pollution and to work on behalf of more public spaces in which people aren’t incessantly subjected to unwanted noise is being conducted under the joint auspices of Linz 2009 European Capital of Culture, ÖGB, GPA-djp and the Catholic Church in Upper Austria/City Pastoral.
www.beschallungsfrei.at
