Why this supermarket is stocked with 31,000 items of inedible food
At first glance, the Sparrow Mart looks like an ordinary California supermarket.
It has red shopping carts near the entrance. There's a giant Coca-Cola refrigerator holding beverages next to rows and rows of packaged foods, including Cheez Whiz, Moon Pies and Welch's Grape Jelly. But upon closer inspection, it's not food at all.
"The items are all made of felt. They're all hand-sewn and stuffed with polyester fiber," British artist Lucy Sparrow told "GMA."
Sparrow said the exhibit took her an entire year to create, with some individual items, like the shrimp, taking a few minutes and other, larger items taking an entire week.
The immersive art installation located at The Standard Hotel in downtown Los Angeles is open through the month of August.
Sparrow has been working with felt for about 25 years, and this is her fifth exhibit of this kind. She said she's drawn to felt for a number of reasons.
"It's a brightly colored, approachable, easy fabric to use that is available in so many colors, and it's synonymous with simplicity, with childlike feelings," Sparrow said.
The art is also for sale, ranging from about $5 to $160 per item.
Sparrow said the art is independent of the food brands, and they either don't know or are fine with it.
"This is a celebration of brands -- its always been about that. It's not a criticism on consumerism or anything like that. Each brand was chosen to be in the supermarket because of how I liked their label, how well it came across and how successful they've been in becoming well-known brands," Sparrow said.
Sparrow said it's not official merchandise, it's art.
Her favorite?
"I really like the Windex bottle ... I think cleaning products work well in felt because they're so unexpected," Sparrow said.
It was cat litter, though, that made the biggest splash at first.
"Weirdly, the first thing to sell out was cat litter, so that went I think on day one," Sparrow said.
Other best-sellers included instant noodle soup, avocados and watermelon.
