Artists Buy Out Entire Grocery Store Inventory and Turn It Into Pop Art

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Looking for some pop art to decorate your living room? How about Upside Down Coke Can (8oz Coca Cola can, $150)? Or The Last Hurrah (a pack of Marlboro, $406)? Portable Sun (BIC USA plastic lighter, $50)? Ooh, sorry that one’s sold out. More selections can be found at storebuyout.com

Kyle McDonald (the guy who turned a red paper clip into a house), singer-songwriter Jody Gnant and three other artists bought out the entire inventory of Hercules Fancy Grocery in New York. It was Jody’s idea to bring her friends to help out the West Village grocery store when she heard that it was on the verge of closing down. The store had faithfully served the locals for 40 years with exotic imported beer and entertained them with stories of its celebrity clientele, like JFK Jr. and Robert Redford.

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In the heartwarming guerilla footage, the artists storms in carrying $10,000 of cash and surprises Hercules with the news that they are going to buy out the entire store. The elderly storeowner is at first in shock and then teary eyed. Six hours and two receipt rolls later, the collective had wiped out the entire store.

Wait a minute, where did all that cash come from? Via days worth of cash advances. Now they are going to try to make it up by turning the grocery items into Duchamp-ian pop art masterpieces and selling them. But it sure doesn’t easy like the shopping spree.

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