Codes in the supermarket come along very unromantic. They interrupt the processes of crucial decision-making (“Which of the five different types of apples should I take?”) in a very merciless manner. Instead of Norah Jones` soothing music all of a sudden a rather high pitched voice roars over the costumer’s head: “34 to 77, please.”

According to Jens Harenberg*, management-member of a local supermarket in Aurich, up to 30 of such announcements are made in his store every hour. Their meaning mostly remains a mystery to the consumer, who is making his or her own interpretation. “A phone call for one of the staff members”, one thinks and continues pondering over the apples. However, the truth can be more complex than that.

According to Harenberg it is true that “some announcements require staff members to come to take a phone call from home”. “34 to 77”, for example could mean that the shop assistant with the staff number 34 is asked to come to the telephone numbered “77”. If the announcement would be “34 to 35, please”, shop assistant “34” is supposed to make a call to the shop assistant with the registration number “34”. Often an expert of one department is called to another one to give information to costumers there. “The purpose of those codes is to ensure that the daily routine at the store runs smoothly” says 47 year-old Harenberg. There were “more effective, quicker and cheaper than intern mobile phones”, which are also in use.

However, encoding in the supermarket is not just about numbers and phone calls. Especially when it comes to exceptional situations codes are essential. “It is important to inform the staff without raising panic among the costumers”, explains Jens Harenberg. In his supermarket emergency cases are encoded with different colours** that are announced over the microphone: Code orange stands for a bombing threat, green for fire, red is for the case of physical injury and if there is rioting taking place “Code white” is announced. For the event of robbery, the use of weapons, damage of the refrigeration unit and extreme stormy weather there are as well specific codes- to most of them a colour is assigned, too. “Code Eva”, however, is called out, when a child has been lost. “The reference to the Eva of the bible is no coincidence here”, says Harenberg.

In comparison to the codes used at this former work place, a supermarket in Hamburg, the codification of the shop in Aurich is “rather conventional”. “In Hamburg the encoding was very creative”, he recalls. Since the shop no longer exists he’s “allowed to talk about it.” Whenever those staff members that were familiar with First Aid were required, the term “Solforino” was announced over the microphone, Harenberg reveals. “Solforino” according to him was a huge battle in 1863, where medical assistance would have been very helpful indeed. The battle by the way was the reason on the ground of which the Red Cross was founded by the Swiss Philanthropist Henry Dunant in the very same year. Another code was “Adam Riese”, referring to the editor of the modern maths books in the 15th century. The name in Germany is still used as a figure of speech to underline the correctness of a simple mathematical task. Whenever “Adam Riese” was called out the staff knew that the cash register was broken and that “everyone with a calculator had to show up.” To people not initiated it all seemed like “absolute nonsense”, says Jens Harenberg and smiles. “But we always knew exactly what to do.” And that is what encoding is all about – no matter if in times of conspiracy - or just in the shopping center around the corner. Mareike Aden

* Name has on request been changed by the editor ** Codes have been defamiliarized by the editor

last change: 10.03.2004 15:35