Music at Trader Joe

Trader Joe's plays music in the shop. Nothing unusual there. What is unusual is the music that they play. I've recently heard:

• Big Time - by Peter Gabriel
• Our House - Madness
• She Sells Sanctuary - The Cult (when was the last time you heard that? When was the last time you heard anything by the cult?
• Take on me - A-Ha
• Save a prayer - Duran Duran
• Don't stand so close to me - The Police
  

(I keep meaning to write them down when I get home, so I remember.)

Notice any connection? First of all, they are all from the 80s, and second, they are almost all English (except for A-Ha, and they are Norwegian). I'd like to know who chooses this, and why. First, the staff mainly seem too young to be of that age.

My best theory is that it's the demographic they are after. Who spends the most in supermarkets? People with young (or young-ish) children. And that's people of about my age, who came of age in the 80s, and would say things like "She Sells Sanctuary - when was the last time I heard that? Or when was the last time I heard anything by The Cult").

But that doesn't explain the European-ness. I'm going to have to try to be more systematic. First, writing down all the songs that are played in TJs, and second, going to other stores (there are a couple of others that I go to sometimes) and seeing if they play similar music.

There's a good chance they won't - each store has a 'theme', ours is an airport theme. The checkouts are labelled "Runway 1" "Runway 2", etc, and there are model planes hanging from the ceiling. The other one I go to occasionally has a Hawaiian theme, and has canoes on the walls. The checkouts are called checkouts, and each has a little chalkboard with amusing quotes on it (which, I think, change. My favorite "before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you'll be a mile away, and you'll have their shoes". (Each TJs also has art on the walls, which is done by local artists.)