SHITS AND GIGGLES DEPARTMENT

I had no idea this had become a “thing.” I’ve been out of the Shop Rite ad-buy market for so long, I thought I was the only one who remembered. The jingle and the dancing cans and the thud-ly dancers were seared into my brain at an early age. But for years and years, I would sing the song to people and they would look at me like I had two heads. Then, eager to prove I wasn’t insane, I would hunt for hours online, desperate for clips. I’d lose sleep and drive people away and follow bum leads behind all-night gas-stations. I always looked in vain. Until now! FINALLY, Shop Rite has put these up on YouTube.

Oddly, they don’t have the spot with the lyrics I memorized, which must have been the first one. Maybe nobody ever bothered to save it. Anyway I’ll recount them here so you’ll get the idea, and think it is not I who am CRAZY…. it is not I who am MAD….! Mwu-hah-hah-hah! ……….Oh yeah, the jingle:

“Now, Shop Rite does the Can-Can
Selling lots of brands of vegetables in cans-cans.
For quality that you can trust,
For tasty corn, asparagus,
For peas and greens from gourmet dreams
And beets that beat all other treats!
The only vegetables you can
Compare with all the Shop Rite brands
Are vegetables you pick yourself,
Instead of picking off our shelf.
NOW’S THE TIME TO
Ask yourself, “So, why pay more?”
NOW’S THE TIME TO
Shop Rite now at Shop Rite Store!

— The original Shop Rite Can-Can Jingle: un-dented, un-dinged, with no rusty seams. Guaranteed fresh.

My favorite part of the whole lyric is the sly and subtle identification with the New Jersey housewife customer, with the lyricist addressing her, as it were, in a Yiddish accent. Ask yourself, “So, why pay more?” Indeed. Klaenge der Heimat, sounds of home.