I'll have some love with that microscopic $9.95 piece of salmon

A student of mine once did an experiment using this web site called "Craig's List Missed Connections." Basically, it is a site in which people post notes to the universe that say things like, "I saw you walking down the street and you glanced at me. You were wearing a red hat and a green scarf...coffee?" And so if you think you are this person you can email this individual back and hopefully begin a life of love and lust together. That, or realize you have absolutely nothing to discuss over coffee.

Recently I was reading this site (perhaps perversely to see if someone posted something about that guy in the coffee shop cursing SPSS under his breath when the p value for his most recent experiment is greater than .05.) One thing I’ve noticed in passing through these listings is how there are many posts about missed connections at Whole Foods - the local hip foodstore in my neighborhood.

But this has gotten me into wondering…what is it about Whole Foods that inspires people into longing? Is it something about the air of an organic, expensive grocery store that makes people lust after strangers? Is it that only well-to-do people who can afford well-to-do people’s clothing and well-to-do people’s makeup and well-to-do people’s hair styling can afford shopping at the place? Or is it a unique place in this world - a world in which we communicate so often over the internet that we no longer know how to approach a stranger and say hello, but have to go back to our internet world and post a little "I think I saw you looking at me, but I am not sure and I'm oh so insecure!

(Here I would like to add that such people should read the excellent paper by Clark and Hatfield (1989) in which they had experimenters go around Florida State University's campus and randomly ask strangers if they would go out on a date with them that night. Something like 60 percent said yes! Could be something unique to Floridians, though.)

I wanted first to determine if there was an effect at all. I did a quick search and found that in the past 45 days on craigslist there were none less than 37 postings of missed connections at whole foods. But right next door to whole foods is a regular old supermarket known as Superfresh. How many quick glances and subtle smiles have been exchanged there? Only 8. And this includes all the Superfreshes in the city.

I figured I would try different cities. Let’s try Ann Arbor, Michigan, which I know has a Whole Foods because I used to shop there. They also have Kroeger’s, the Ann Arbor equivalent to Superfresh. 1 hit for whole foods, none for Kroeger. I tried Chicago…5 for whole foods, 1 for Dominick’s (there are dozens of Dominicks out there)

What is the probability that this could be due to chance? I'll stick to the Philadelphia one because it has the most data. Imagine that it were purely due to chance that sightings would occur at Whole Foods and at Super Fresh. Then the expected probability would be .50 - a fifty-fifty chance. What we observe is 8/37 or a 0.21 percent sightings at Superfresh. What are the odds that this is due to chance? Luckily, we have the good old binomial test to tell us the odds. The actual probability that this could be due to chance is 0.000007687045. That's a very small odds! There is something fishy going on, and I don't just mean the salmon I ate for dinner. That I bought at Whole Foods.

I suggest you experimentaholics and statistiphiles try this in your own cities. And if I see a post for that guy talking about Chi square at the produce section, I’ll know I’ve finally been missed.