There was this boyband in the 90s that was big in Central Europe for a couple of years, Caught in the Act. I was obsessed (yes yes, I now realise that they were mid at best and created to rid teen girls like me of their pocket money). I was also aware that eventually they tried to enter other markets like Southeast and East Asia but they disbanded in 98 so I don't think they were very successful over there (I'd already stopped listening, so I wasn't too bothered lol).

So imagine my surprise when 15 years later I was standing in a department store in Japan, desperately looking for shoes that fit my huge Western feet, when, after an hour of unremarkable background music, they started playing You Know by Caught in the Act, a song I had listened to on repeat in the 90s. Note that Japan has its own big music industry with Western music in general playing a smaller role than one might think, so nothing prepared me for a random song from an obscure band from back home, never mind my early teen obsession. It was incredibly surreal, made more surreal by the fact that of course nobody around me reacted in any way.

Didn't find shoes by the way, had to walk around in fur-lined boots the rest of the summer.

A few months ago, I walked into the grocery store and Dio's Holy Diver was playing. 40+ years on, the music and content are pretty tame, but it was still a surprise. I don't think RJD ever figured in that happening.

Numb by Linkin Park. Just not a song one would expect to follow Let It Go from Frozen in December.

It was a Burlington Coat Factory, but Goodbye Horses was a little off putting.

Marry on a cross by Ghost.

It's not like they're a particular wild band, and we're not a very christian country, but I really didn't expect a band like that to chime through the local mall.

It was a department store rather than a supermarket, but I once heard a song by The Rural Alberta Advantage in Japan, like 17 years ago. I was so shocked.

One time I walked into a 24/7 grocery store at night and an employee was at the tail end of an argument with someone who was walking out the door.

The guy walking out the door said something rude like "alright well you can go fuck yourself" and the employee yelled out after him, right as I walked in "Yeah!? well at least I have a HOME!"

I thought to myself that no matter how shitty the homeless guy was being, you should never yell that at anyone because of the chance that a bystander like me will wander into earshot and hear only that one single line and never forget it for the rest of my life.

Been caught stealing by Janes addiction

Weird Science by Oingo Boingo, in the middle of a grocery store i worked at for several years and had never (not ONCE) heard any variation in the music playlist.

Maximum the Hormone in a ramen restaurant in France. This one

I walked into a grocery store in Reno, NV one day and they were playing opera music by Wagner

Target's playlists always stuck out for name dropping the competition. There was a country song that mentioned Walmart and their winter playlist inflicted the song Stretchy Pants which mentioned the titular pants were ordered through Amazon Prime.

Also, while not a grocery store, I still haven't been able to shake the irony of first hearing the song Sixteen Tons in the bathroom while working at Disney.

Death or glory by the clash (the social distortion cover is the one I heard). It was kind of fun to hear them fail to edit "he who fucks nuns, will later join the church".

Ariana grande 'Don't Look Up'

...from the movie

....I live in the EU