244 - Food vs. Drink

Arranged into two opposing columns, the food vs. drink list is a typical example of basic organisation. However, my rudimentary knowledge of science has picked up on the first two items on the list: "ICE" and "SALT" are, surely, absolute enemies of each other. So why buy them one after the other?

243 - A Table of (dis)Organisation

Wow, what a fantastic list! I'm a big fan of organisation, and an even bigger fan of pre-printed lists. While this is arranged into sections, it's not in the order that items are laid on in the shop...but I think we can excuse that little mistake.

Comparing the tickets items to the unticked is an interesting exercise. While there are a significant number of "junk food" items mentioned on the list, very few of them are actually ticked for purchase.

What I find particularly amusing, though, is the way in which the pre-prepared list has failed this shopper. Around the edges are written a variety of emergency items, very clearly being for Christmas ("wrapping paper", "chipolatas", "snacks" and "nibbles" - although I don't know the difference the between these last two).

Curiously, some of the emergency items ARE pre-printed in boxes ("White Wine" has even been ticked, but "Orange juice" hasn't).

All-in-all this is the tabulated list of a shopper who outwardly projects an image of calm organisation, but beneath the facade is just as frantically messy as you or I.

242 - Desperate for Youth

This list is rather sad. While regular items ("BACON", "MiLK" and "BREAD") make up the centre of the list, it's the peripherals that are most interesting.

The urgency with which "WATER FILTERS!" is scrawled at the head of the list indicates absolute neccessity. So, really, we need to think about why people use water filters. The Healthy House Ltd says that "Clean water is essential for healthy living", before goign on at quite boring length about how many times water has been recycled before we drink it. From this evidence, therefore, we can work out that the shopper is a keen health fanatic (as long as we choose to ignore the "BACON", "KETCHUP" and "PIZZAS" on the list!)

Secondly, there are the items at the lower-right of the list. Vanity items including "Revlon Age Defying All Day Lifting Foundation" and "No 7 Uplifting Foundation" scream to me the title of this list. I am convinced that this list belongs to someone desperately holding on to what youth they have, in a bid to beat the aging process.

Now, I realised yesterday that as well as having a receding hairline I'm also getting considerably thinner on top...but I don't think there's any creams that can help me appear something I'm not!

241 - Fruitilicious

Okay, so it's not all fruit. In fact it's predemoninantly vegetables and salad items - but I think you get the idea. Finally someone to add to the collection with a healthy eating conscience. Not that others don't have one, mind, but they're few and far between - especially in this season of excess.

Weird Web Award

So, the Compendium has been recognised by AlterVistas as "a web site of outstanding oddness". Excellent!

The Weird Web Award.
Click here to verify.

240 - Whose Juice

This list was stuck, tempting me, to the glass window of a trolley park in Tesco's. Since the Sun article, I've been finding lists at my local Tesco in considerably shorter supply than normal, but I wonder whether this is as a result of the article itself or merely the change in weather. I would have thought that more lists would be appearing as we near Christmas, and I'm still desperate to get my hands on one with "brussel sprouts", but until then I'll have to be content with lists such as this.

It's the "Juice" that intrigues me. Is this "Tom's Juice" (in which case there's an inaccurate apostrophe), or "Tom(ato(e))s Juice", in which case I think there's an amount of erratic pluralisation taking place. Either way, the shopper knows what they want - and what they don't. Evidently the "Baguette" is French enough for this shopper. "Croissants" have been crossed off.

239 - Aisle by Aisle

Two aisle geniuses (genii?) in a row. Amazing.

Starting at the door end by the toilettries, this shopper has listed their items in such a way as to be able to parade up and down the aisles at ease. While I praise such organisation, I can't help but query getting "potatoes" in the middle of a shop. This is sticking to the layout of the shop too closely, in my opinion, as I strongly believe in buying fruit and veg either at the start or the end of a shop.

It would confuse me any other way.

238 - Juice, not Bread

Quite how it's possible to mistake "Juice" for "Bread" is beyond me. One is firm and made of flour, the other is squeezed from fruit. But this shopper did decide to scribble "Bread" off their list and replace it with "Juice", only to add "Bread" onto the list further down.

However, perhaps the truth is that this shopper is cunning. "Juice", "cheese" and "milk" live close to each other in the supermarket, whereas "Bread" is nearest to "sandwich filler" and "Eggs". Just like on the list! This may well be the work of an aisle genius.

230 - Napkin Shopping

Writing on napkins seems to be something that lots of us do, but rarely are these scribbles of any practical use other than to pass the time while waiting for our dinner to arrive. This shopper used that time wisely, though, jotting down items they needed from the supermarket.

I'm worried by the "*Money*" though, as perhaps this shopper has gone into a restaurant without enough cash to pay for their food.

Then again, perhaps they weren't actually in a restaurant while they wrote this...

236 - International Pooh

Pooh Bear paper, and written in an unknown language. I'm at a loss with these - "laks", "shasonercette", "Basilikum". Something about it sounds German, if not even further Eastern Europe, but that's just a guess. Any help gratefully received!