Re: Loyalty cards again

In article <lCezj.17672$XI.743@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
Jette  <bosslady@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>Keith F. Lynch wrote:
>> Jette <bosslady@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>> Why not get a loyalty card for all the chains that offer them,
>>> comparison shop, and buy whatever is lowest priced at each
>>> of them?
>> 
>> Because those cards are an invasion of privacy.  See
>> http://www.nocards.org/
for more details.
>
>So they know what I  buy.  Wow.  That will be really useful to them - 
>"she buys cat-food and kitty litter every week, likes to get fresh veg 
>and occasionally splurges on chocolate cake".

Well, the idea is (a) that knowing you buy cat stuff and
chocolate (an all-around rasff'er, in other words), they're going
to send you lots of targeted advertising for those things; and

(b) that you don't want to receive *any* advertising, and
targeted is just as obnoxious as non-targeted.  This is the
attitude of many of us.

Particularly when (c) the advertising agency doesn't have any
catfood vendors on its client list at present, so they pull the
kind of stunt Amazon does in recommending books to you, and
figure, "OK, she buys cat food, we can send her advertising for
dog food."  Supermarkets that print out discount coupons with the
sales receipt not infrequently do *exactly that.*  I myself, moi
qui vous parle, have received dog food coupons when buying cat
food.  

Or "she buys cat food, we can advertise for gerbil food."  Or
"roach motels."  Or "multivitamins."  I'm assuming, you see, that
their targeting is going to be as bad as Amazon's, vide supra.

There was nothing in the mailbox today except a discount coupon
for Babies R Us, which was definitely targeted because my
daughter is even now in the hospital undergoing the boring early
stages of labor, and a fistful of brightly-colored advertising
from every supermarket, drug store, auto supply shop, and dry
cleaner's in town.  I threw them; saved the coupon for Meg to
throw or keep as she chooses.

Dorothy J. Heydt
Albany, California
djheydt@[EMAIL PROTECTED]