Checkout for supermarket

Week on week an exciting Facebook group is made, the trendiest spots in Oxford are laden with posters of pretty popstars from the 1990s and a hubbub of activity stirs amidst the rumours of another Supermarket night @ Baby Love.

The branding is simply fabulous. Whether it’s keeping up with contemporary lingo that does it – ‘Wagwan’ popped up the other day – or all those bright, pretty colours that go on the poster, Supermarket is really, really cool.

Is post-ironic branding just too passé?

“Sweaty is part of the vibe,” Baby Love veteran Priya Manwaring retorts when asked her thoughts on the club’s size. She goes on to say how the more self-conscious ‘indie’ vibe at Supermarket means that she even gets hit on less than she would at Oxford’s more mainstream nights, allowing her to have a fun time without worrying about being constantly judged.

A non-judgmental crowd

There is an elephant in the room, however, and the poor thing is stuck bang in the middle of that teeny tiny dance floor downstairs. “It’s like the music girls listen to when they’re 12 and the irony is meant to cover up how mainstream it is,” regular Supermarket goer Constance Meath-Baker tells The Tab. “I like the vibe, but there are so many places with good music now and Supermarket just isn’t one of them.”

Constance shows off her edgy attire B4 another night at Supermarket

The Cherwell has made a lot of the club night’s recent move to Shoreditch, perhaps forgetting how ‘East London’ branding is almost as much of a poisoned chalice as telling people you’re a big deal because you ran a night at Baby Love. People will go wherever is chic and well-advertised in London but if Supermarket wants to avoid befalling the fate it has suffered in Oxford, it has to look more at substance than style.

More style than substance?

Maybe in terms-gone-past a brightly coloured flyer and the promise that other people would also be wearing floral shirts in the same place was enough to get people down to an alternative night. This year, however, the game has changed. Nights such as Subverse at the The Cellar and Milkshake (RIP) at Lola Lo’s have all done away with the unnecessary hype Supermarket obsesses over and are instead putting their time into playing decent, contemporary music on a regular basis. Hell, even the new Varsity Club is changing things up with the new Circus night on Wednesdays.

Nor is Supermarket alone in fast becoming one of the dinosaurs in the done-up-top-button graveyard. Baby Love seems to have lost its edge this year, too, and, let’s face it; edge is all it’s got. Without the neoteric, underground label attached to it, Baby Love is nothing more than a dimly lit, over-priced pub with pretty wallpaper and hearts. And that’s not cool. Not even a little bit. Its other nights like Action Stations are less well known even in the most alternative of circles (looking at you, Wadham) and Poptarts enthusiast Michael Roderick tells me that Baby Love just doesn’t feel like it ‘embraces the LGBTQ vibe anymore’.

Hipster heaven

New nights will inevitably come and go and it will be interesting to see how long the student vibe in The Cellar lasts before angry townies launch their rebellion. Nights like Subverse are going to have to keep their image fresh and that is just as dependent on marketing as it is on what’s trending musically. Supermarket had a particularly good run, especially in denting The Bridge’s monopoly on Thursdays, but there’s only so much Will Smith and Craig David you can listen to before getting fed up, chucking out your flat cap and heading home.

Tab reporter Aleks (featured right) dons his flat cap, but not for Supermarket