I was talking to my friend how much I’ve been craving lobster 2 days ago. They now have lobster at my grocery store - they haven’t had lobster in years. Last winter I was talking about how much I like goose over Turkey for Christmas dinner and suddenly they had frozen goose and they literally never had goose before.
Am I being targeted or am I paying more attention or am I just being paranoid?
If the bots are listening, bring back lamb. I’ll buy lamb chops.
Another possibility: advertising.
Your cravings aren’t your own, they’re the effect of cleverly placed advertising in preparation to the sale of those items. You didn’t notice it, because you “tune out” advertising, but at the right moment it all “clicked into place” and turned into a craving… just in time for the seller to have the goods ready for you to buy them.
Or maybe its Futurama style dream advertising.
Most likely the change here is that you’re now noticing these items where you previously didn’t. This is a documented psychological effect.
People often look at a car they like and suddenly see that same model of car all over. People didn’t suddenly buy those cars to drive around for you, this isn’t the Truman Show. You’re just noticing them where before you didn’t even register them as anything other than a backdrop, a random blade of grass.
Almost certainly this is what is happening.
Most closely the baader-meinhof phenomenon.
Or maybe you are becoming a food psychic of some kind
Of all the really good suggestions here, this one seems to me the most plausible. I, for one, welcome our food psychic overlords.
In addition to the points people have already mentioned, it is possible that when you’re doing your groceries, that your subconscious notices items which you aren’t looking for that day. You tune them out because your mind is busy with other matters, but the idea of a lobster or a goose or whatever gets into your thoughts, gives you a craving which you then discuss, but the lobster or goose were on the shelves before the conversation & before the craving.
The same can happen with things like advertisements promoting a special deal this weekend, or whatever. We don’t have to be paying attention or have any conscious awareness of the ad to get the idea “mmm, lobster”, “oooh, goose” in the days following.
On top of that, the supermarkets have a sense of what situations make large numbers of customers interested in specific categories of product. So, the start of autumn can make people begin to think about ordering a big bird for for Christmas, summery weather can make people want shellfish to grill outdoors, etc… The most obvious examples would be special offers on all of the items that are popular for BBQ when there’s a hot dry spell, or stocking Christmas pudding & mince pies in the run up to Christmas. Yes, one can get these things at other times of year, but they’re not promoted and are often tucked away, or you have to ask at the counter. In this sense, your cravings and thoughts about produce may just accord with that of others in your community, and the supermarkets’ stocking is just a reflection of those trends.
So your premise is that somebody is listening in on your conversations and then using that information to insert stock items into your local grocery store?
Not me specifically - generally where you are and what you’re taking about (phone location and general conversation).
I don’t think anyone specifically is actually listening to me. I think it’s automated marketing gone wild.
Consider the sheer cost of this. Shipping, especially overnight shipping, is incredibly expensive. Stores get stock on on or two regular days of the week and have a crew dedicated to just unloading that truck and getting everything on shelves, a process that takes days.
Stores could not profit enough to put items in your path in the hope that you might buy them in this way.
Cost, yeah I was thinking about that. Lobster is pretty readily available at other locations nearby (ish),. Same can be said for lamb and goose. Same distribution center just dropping it off at a different store.
These are things I can buy with only a little travel it’s just now they are immediately available as soon as I talk about it.
That’s not really how supply chains work though.
“Yes I know you ordered 40 lobsters but you only get 35 because some other shop wants them at the last minute” would be out of business.
Sorta yeah but most large chains dont really do most of their ordering manually - it’s half if not mostly or completely automated based on sales, trends and size.
It’s obviously very different in small stores where they expect X amount of product they paid for. But it’s super easy for, say, Walmart, to move inventory around based on possible trends.
I’m not saying your wrong but it is kinda noticable when my grocery store started carrying lobster a week after I was looking it up on door dash. After not having it for ~10 years or suddenly having 3 frozen geese a month after taking about it after never having it (~18 years at this house).
I’m not about to spend $130 on a small frozen goose. Or ~$80 on a 1lb lobster. I will, however, spend money on lamb - something I’ve been purposefully bringing up in gchat a lot recently. Something they stopped selling about a decade ago.
If lamb is suddenly available in the next monthish I’ll respond to this comment - but maybe I’m just noticing trends that don’t exist.
Sounds like the Baader Meinhof effect to me
While we’re at it: dear bots, please give me whole milk, low-moisture mozzarella. Thanks.
After Japan dumped Fukushima water into the ocean, Chinese consumers have gone crazy and stopped buying any kind of seafood. They are the biggest lobster importer in the world.
Last winter happened to be avian flu season, and China stopped imports of poultry for some weeks.
Lamb is rather unpopular in China outside of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia (where they raise them in abundance), so I guess you’ll have to skip the chops… No imports to be halted :-/
