The Supermarket Museum



You walk into what looks like a supermarket and you see:
BannersAisle namesActors
Price tags


What is it?

Complete the following sentence: The Supermarket Museum is: _________________________________________________
As you can see, the name itself can spur everyone’s imagination. There is a constant stream of ideas regarding the food and drinks related information that can be shown and the ways in which it can be presented.

Change in Choice is the first organization to come up with the Supermarket Museum concept, for raising awareness of global issues on which food and drinks products contribute negatively. This project is based on the pop-up concept, using temporarily available retail spaces, therefore allowing
its transfer from city to city. In each location, the Supermarket Museum comprises of two stages. Both involve the designing of a place which at first sight would look like a supermarket, in order to initially attract consumers of all types. Once a ‘customer’ takes a closer look, (s)he would notice that the information displayed on the normal physical spaces (banners, posters, price tags, etc) is about meaningful impacts of products’ life cycle.

In the first stage, people who don’t realize the differences and try to pick up a product, are alerted through different interactive technologies of a striking impact related to the product, and, on request, would be provided further information. The ‘prank’ effect will lead to different reactions which will be filmed and compiled into a short video.

The second stage begins after the local media covered the project and ‘customers’ change to interested ‘visitors’ who know they are visiting a ‘food museum’. The Supermarket Museum can serve as a hub for promoting local initiatives, and foods and drinks with positive social, environmental
and economic impacts.

Innovative factors

The Supermarket Museum is a response to brand building by the food and drinks industry. Consumers and visitors will no longer see only the brand names, prices or even nutritional value of products. They will be faced with all the impacts of their everyday supermarket purchases.

It’s a better alternative to smartphone apps which struggle to extend their target audience beyond the ‘globally aware consumers’. Rather than taking the information to consumers, due to the design of the Supermarket Museum, the consumers come themselves to receive the information. This is a more effective and non-intrusive approach.

The Supermarket Museum concept can be used to inform people on many aspects:

  • the social and environmental impacts of food choices
  • the hundreds of confusing labels and the shortcomings of certification
  • the companies that were built to not only sell food products but to create positive impacts
  • the products that people can buy guilt-free
  • tactics used by retailers to make us buy more than we need
  • any other topic that many campaigns struggle to raise awareness about

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