Lost in the Supermarket

I think this song's about how disenchanted people become with modern society and the way its strips us of our identity. "I can no longer shop happily I came in here for that special offer A guaranteed personality" He lived his life like the commercials told him to, as in he followed all the trends thinking they had the answers ("I save coupons from packets of tea / I've got my giant hit discoteque album"). But when he wanted something substantial, personality, although modern culture promised it, it isn't there, hence is lost in the supermarket of modern culture.

It's a metaphor for suburban life. He's saying that growing up in the suburbs can lead to a kind of identity crisis because basically when you live there you have no identity(according to him, that is). So it is kind of depressing.

It's all about consumerism being empty. We live for it, we got our giant hit Britney(tm) albums, and we all love Bacardi(tm)!! Yeah! Whoops where's our culture.

I think this song is about being lonely or trying to find sumone to be with or sumthing along those lines. You can c it in such lines as... "I wasn't born so much as I fell out, Nobody seemed to notice me"
and "The kids in the halls and the pipes in the walls, Make me noises for company" and "Long distance callers make long distance calls, And the silence makes me lonely" as well as other lines.

The whole part with the getting lost in a supermarket is kinda a metaphor for the writers life. if your lost in a supermarket, your trying to find someone you kno the person u came in with, in this song, the writer kind of is saying how he's lost in the world and he's just trying to find someone he can relate to or sumone who will give him attention.

I dont kno how much sense that just made but i hope u got what i was trying to say. anyway, The Clash rule! R.I.P. Joe Strummer and Topper Headon

the supermarket is his happy place, like where he use to go get high or somthing, his life led him there, but its lost his effect, and he doesnt know what to do anymore

Essentially to all of the meanings that previous posters have gotten from this song, I think that this song is about insecurity and confusion of who you really are. It's really well-written and one of my favorites from The Clash. Very well done.

P.S. - I also love this song, it really struck a cord with the theme of lonliness, and again, Mick's voice suits it perfectly.

Mick Jones' phrasing is just masterful here. Interesting that so many comments took the title literally, because the voice does have a very childlike perspective. Oh, and interesting typo: <i>I came in her for that special offer</i> if you know what I mean

this song was actually written by joe strummer, he was writing for mick jones' perspective, imagining what it was like to live his childhood and all that.

Mick Jones wrote this song while living when he was broke and had to live with his grandmother. I believe in a recent Rolling Stone he talks about this. Anyway, here he is, this hipster punk musician in a popular band, and he has to share a flat in the suburbs and just wallow in the lameness.