10 Strange Things People Do With Shopping Lists

Shopping lists are a bit dull, aren’t they? We even put up to 60% of the same items on our lists every time we go shopping. But they aren’t always like this. Sometimes, shopping lists can be less than ordinary. So, here are 10 examples of some unorthodox things people have done with shopping lists.

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Making meals from grocery lists sounds obvious, right? That’s why we make them and go shopping, duh! But what if you were to make one entire dish out of everything that’s on a shopping list? This is what photograph Tom Lakeman decided to do. Fancy a sandwich made of a battery filing? Or a bowl of cereal and cotton buds? Well, Lakeman has the menu for you!

Revenge is a dish best served cold. It is also a shopping list best made angry. Blogger Karen Alpert, aka Baby Sideburns, was getting fed up with her lazy husband. So, she decided to get revenge. She sent him shopping with a list of items that, whilst sound plausible, are non-existent. Not only that, but she also turned her phone off. Bravo! However, if someone can find us some seedless strawberries or organic pop tarts, please let us know!

We make a shopping list on paper because it’s easy to carry. We might even make them on our phones because those are always in our pockets. But British artist David Shrigley’s attitude is either go big or go home. Possibly taking inspiration from ancient Mesophatonians who made shopping lists by leaving markings in clay tablets, Shrigley’s shopping list, playfully titled “MEMORIAL”, was carved into a 16ft (4.8m) stone slab and placed proudly in Central Park, New York. We hope he didn’t skip arm day.

Shrigley is not the only person who makes shopping lists into literal works of art. Caligrapher Seb Lester decided to frame one of his shopping lists. Made on the back of an envelope, Lester put to work their exceptional penmanship skills to make something that is truly as beautiful as it is practical. If you want to make shopping lists as beautiful as Lester, you can take an online calligraphy course with the master.

The names of furniture are not the only strange things in Ikea. Reddit user u/nilwho found two diamond rings wrapped up in a shopping list in a trash can at their local Swedish furniture store. Why they there and why wrap them in a shopping list, no one knows. But any couple who has shopped together in an Ikea can tell you of the strain it puts on relationships. Therefore, it’s likely that this particular marriage fell apart like a cheap flat-pack wardrobe.

Learning a language is always a good idea. We usually think of learning languages such as French, Spanish, or even Polish (if you’re brave enough). But what about Morse Code? Morse Code is a language made up of long and short sounds known as “dashes” and “dots” respectively. It was used by telegraph and shipping companies long ago in order to transmit messages quickly over long distances.

Reddit user u/B8it found a shopping list that had been translated into this binary language. What purpose this would serve is unclear, but it’s interesting none the less.

Can a shopping list change the world? Well, Galileo’s did just that. After successfully demonstrating a telescope made with spectacle lenses, their plans became more ambitious to make something that could magnify things by a greater magnitude. However, Galileo needed some very specific items in order to do this.

Galileo’s shopping list goes from your ordinary groceries to items such as crystals and organ pipes. The result? They proved that the earth moved around the sun, not the other way around, forever changing how we saw our planet and the universe to this day.

People collect many interesting things. Stamps, coins, baseball cards: you name it! But shopping lists?

Well, Bill Keaggy has been collecting shopping lists for over 20 years. They found their first shopping list back in 1997 and started putting them online since 2000. Now, Keaggy has a website archiving nearly 4,000 found shopping lists, and a best-selling book, "Milk, Eggs, Vodka", showcasing some of the most treasured lists from their collection. Many of the lists collected are strange and often hilarious. You might even find one of your lists among them.

Comedian and author Hillary Carlip, took 26 found shopping lists and decided to try and think about what kind of people made them. Not only did Carlip develop these characters, but she also dressed up as them. In her book, "á la Cart: The Secret Lives of Grocery Shoppers", you can find photo shoots and short descriptions of the characters Carlip has extracted from these abandoned lists.

Many things can be considered poetry these days. Modern poems don’t even have to rhyme. This is why poets actually take inspiration from their shopping lists. You can find many examples of shopping list poetry on the internet. From poets who have made their shopping lists as poems, to poets who have penned prose on the subject of their shopping lists. Why not try it for yourself? You could be the next Keats of Costco or the Shakespeare of CVS!