Aisling: The American Shopper Experience

Imagine a world where the competitive nature of Americans, the freedom of self-expression and our grocery list meld into one; this is Aisling. It is not anywhere near what some may know "Aisling" to be, which is the traditional vision poems of Ireland from the 18^th century. Instead, American's will come to know Aisling as a poetic sport where claustrophobic grocery aisles become a boundless arena of shopping cart antics. Being introduced to Aisling from the heartwarming mocumentary, American Shopper, one might recall Margaret Mead's wisdom to "never doubt that s small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world..."

Will Aisling change the world? While the rising stars of grocery glory profiled in American Shopper may seem to think so, it's not likely the sport will catch on. Though the impact it made on the competitors and its founder, Jonathan Sawyer, is apparent. Inspired by the tedious 6000 hours of shopping for food Americans spend in their lifetime, Sawyer saw a need to spice things up. As he introduces Aisling to a local group of Missourians, Sawyer strikes accord; who hasn't humored the thought of having a submarine styled shopping cart with robotic arms to grab items? Actually that was just an original idea, and I might compete in the next championships with it.

The point is, shopping is boring and mundane, and once in while you catch someone making a toilet-paper roll hook-shot into their cart, or popping a wheelie down the aisle. Take this playfulness, and add an element of theatrics, athleticism, ingenuity and imagination into some bored grocery shoppers and you've got an Aisling Competition. The film, American Shopper, follows this experience from its awkward beginnings to its triumphant National Championship.

Aisling's basic set up is as follows: One competitor performs at a time, with a predetermined item list as their goal. This is only the basic foundation of the scoring, officially called "Aislemanship", which judges how smoothly and accurately you obtain each item. The most exciting part of Aisling is the Originality Score; which judges how creatively the performer customizes their shopping cart and their own self-expression. It can literally be anything, as long as the shopping cart makes it through the aisle and you can put items in it. Perhaps the most challenging or embarrassing part of the scoring is the "Movement" score. How good is your choreography, your grace and skill, technique, rhythm and balance? Do you have what it takes to make shopping look like the most elaborate and exciting activity for a nation of consumers.

Without revealing a detailed cast list from American Shopper, here's just a sampling of what resulted at the first Aisling National Championships. Elvis, Star Trek, Pageantry, Marshmallow shooters, the battle of good vs. evil, and an abstract expressionistic basket weaving flower-child. The film is a riot to watch, and you can't help but conjure up ideas for your own Aisling.

Grocery store chains might not readily jump on the idea as it's an insurance liability nightmare, yet I'm looking forward to the underground movement. Renegade Aislers will infiltrate their local grocery on fully customized shopping carts, with daring feats of top-shelf grabbing acrobatics. At least one can dream of such, as we join the masses of zombie-shoppers, price checking between thirty-seven varieties of cottage cheese. Check out the film; it will make you laugh, make you think, and possibly inspire you to make grocery shopping a little more interesting with a touch of Aisling.