Grocerycore is the kind of music you hear at the grocery store.
It is not a genre itself, but a vibe that spans a variety of genres, from dance pop to yacht rock and more. Of course, grocerycore is also inherently subjective and contingent on external factors — e.g., socioeconomics. (I’m not very familiar with Whole Foods’s variety of grocerycore, but I assume it’s a slight variation on what I’m thinking of.) Also of note: while grocerycore is most closely associated with grocery stores, it can certainly appear in other venues — orthodontist clinics, select auto repair shops, commercials for household cleaning products, etc.
In other words, grocerycore contains multitudes, but some recurring motifs include:
Accessible. A song doesn’t have to be Top 40 to be grocerycore, but most grocerycore at least sounds like it could be Top 40.
Character-building. Grocerycore often imparts a lesson: be kind! don’t judge! choose love!
Generates a positive feedback loop. Or something like a double take...hm? oh! OH!
Utterly sincere. Authentic grocerycore is never ironic.
Vaguely erotic. Strange but true.
Global Village Coffee House-adjacent.
Context-dependent. Grocerycore music can stand on its own, but you probably wouldn’t think to play it in your everyday life. It’s enhanced and reified by the fact it’s being played in a grocery store (or a similar setting; see above).
Keyboard-forward. A lot of heavy keyboards in grocerycore.
Confabulatory. Or: nostalgic, sentimental, romantic — even oneiric. The internet seems to have coined anemoia to describe nostalgia for something one has never actually experienced, which would also work.
Pretty white.
...which is to say, again, that grocerycore is principally a vibe. Like pornography as defined by the Supreme Court, you know it when you hear it.
My own interpretation:
So true, great compilation, nostalgia as we dawn a recession. Thanks