Store Policy

Song Meaning

The lyrics to "Store Policy" immediately throw the listener into a bizarre, transgressive world. We hear strange, arbitrary rules followed by increasingly unsettling actions. The repeated refrain, "It's our policy, our policy / I'm sorry, sir, but you got to leave," acts as a bureaucratic, almost robotic, dismissal. The central tension here is the stark contrast between the narrator's chaotic, often illicit behavior and the bland, repetitive institutional response. From "touching myself by the health food shelf" to "selling drugs to the kids at the school," the narrator consistently pushes boundaries, only to be met with the same polite, yet firm, expulsion. This effectiveness comes from the jarring juxtapositions. Mundane settings like a "local zoo" or a "health food shelf" become backdrops for unsettling acts, creating a sense of a world slightly off-kilter. The nonsensical advice, like "Don't eat animals if they don't sweat," sets an immediate tone of absurdist defiance against conventional logic. Ultimately, the lyrics create a sense of unease and dark humor by presenting a character who operates entirely outside conventional morality, yet is met with only an automated, almost indifferent, expulsion. The vague threats and unexplained items, such as the "perpetual stew" or the need for "a bucket, some lube and some screws," leave the listener with a lingering sense of discomfort about the narrator's true intentions and the nature of the "policy" itself.