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To: Yogi - Paul who wrote (1665)	4/11/1999 1:54:00 PM
From: Jurgis Bekepuris	Respond to of 2025

>Interesting that, with the help of some data mining, > grocery stores would already have >a very accurate record of what we buy, when we buy it, > how much, and how often. I don't know about you all > but we use the same grocery store every week. Same here. Interesting that they don't do anything about it. Yeah, they send some coupons after one spends $500. Half of these coupons are products I never bought before and never will. However, couple of interesting observations: - Why send coupons for the stuff you buy frequently? You'll buy it anyway for an inflated price. The much better thing is to send you "worthless" coupons for things that you won't buy and 5%-off certificate after you spend $500. This rewards shopping at the store, but does not decrease the margins. Note that this strategy is not applicable for infrequent-visit, non-monopoly retailers such as clothing stores in larger malls. Another interesting thing - the party that is most interested in your shopping list is the competing grocery store that you never visit. Then they could offer you "free peanut butter every day you spend $50". Espionage rules. :-)))) - Funny thing, my taste is so unconventional that the grocery store discontinued two items I bought every time I came there. Now, this is a bad move, because it may force me to change grocery chain. Finally an axiom of spycraft relevant to data mining applications: "The best counterintelligence is human laziness and stupidity". Cheers Jurgis