Date: September 24, 2013

Time: 5:00pm to 5:40 pm

Place:Fortinos , 35 Worthington Avenue, brampton Ontario

My journey into the hidden sounds of the grocery store Fortinos began immediately when the automatic sliding doors screeched to an open. The screech was loud but quick, like a sound of the hinges needing to be re-oiled. As I stepped into the store I became overwhelmed with the amount of sounds that broke free from behind the sliding doors. Finding a spot to sit, in the stores small food court, I began to slowly unravel all the sounds that at first overwhelmed me. 

The first sound ,that was repetitive throughout the entire 40 mins of sitting there, was a consistent beeping sound in the far distance in front of me. The sound was coming from the cash register that were lined up in a row. As each item was scanned a high pitched “beep” would quickly sound. Though the sound was fast, it was stationary and loud but rang in multiples.

The second sound, that was repetitive throughout the entire time, was like the sound a toy train would make “chug ah chug ah chug ah”. The sound came from the grocery carts as they rolled over the ceramic tiles.  The sound was mobile and moving at a fast pace. However, the sound did not ring in my ears, it was loud but the pitch was low.

Thirdly, a continuous sound that never stopped throughout the entire time was the sound of music playing. The music sounded like a top 40 mix, playing recent popular songs. However, the volume was very low and I found that the music fell softly into the background and was often overpowered by more prominent sounds within the store.

Next, there was a continuous sound of conversation. There were multiple conversations going on at the same time that made the conversations sound fuzzy; a blur of words that almost became a buzzing noise. The conversations seemed to be happening all around me but in a far distance; which was another reason why the conversations came off as fuzzy and blurry.

In addition to the sounds that were repetitive and continuous, there was also a large amount of unique sounds that I noticed. The first sound came from behind me, a dragging sound of a chair. The sound was a high pitched screech, that came from the rubber bottoms of the chairs  being dragged across the tiles on the floor. I knew the sound was close to where I was sitting because the screech was loud and startled me at first.

The sounds that followed were the “jingling” of keys; loud but didn’t last long. The sound was mobile because it faded into the distance when the individual continued to walk further away from me. 

A “crumpling” of paper; rough and medium pitched that was happening in a stationary position at the flower shop in front of me.

A “zip” sound coming from a piece of ribbon being stripped; loud and fast, with a very high pitch.

A “ knocking” sound coming from the heels of a female who walked by me; the sound was mobile, quick, but loud.

A “ping” sound that was coming from the cashiers dropping money into the registers; stationary, loud, high pitched, and hitting at a rapid speed.

A “clang” sound as dishes from the small restaurant hit each other; loud, high pitched ,and rang in the air for a couple of seconds after the initial impact of the two dishes.

All these sounds that were occurring in Fortinos were made in two different ways: human made or technology made. The only sound that was human made was the sound of conversation that was buzzing through the air.The rest of the sounds found where all technology made. As well, the sounds I found today all represent the sound of a working environment. The beeping, the conversations, the crumpling, the zipping, the pinging , the clanging are all sounds made from motions of someone doing their job. What these sounds indicate is that Fortinos is a place where multiple tasks are taking place at the same time. 

After analyzing the sounds I feel that the keynote in Fortinos was the beeping sound coming from the cash registers every time an item was scanned. This is because the beeping was very prominent and happened so often that it slowly faded into the background. The loud, high pitch beep no longer was ringing in my ears; instead it became a very normal sound to the environment. In this particular grocery store I do not feel that their was a soundmark that was unique to that store and that store only. I feel that the sounds I heard are sounds that can possibly be found in other grocery stores. However, I do feel that the place I heard these sounds does matter to their meaning because I feel that different environments allow for different meanings of a sound. For example, if you hear beeping in a construction site the first thing you think of is not an item being scanned at a cash register. Instead you may think that it is a truck notifying everyone around them that they are backing up. 

  With that being said all the sounds, whether being repetitive, continuous, stationary,  mobile,  human made, or technology made, played an important role in my soundscape analysis of the Fortinos grocery store on Worthington Ave.