mobites - ideas, inspiration, insight

Every Thursday I receive an email entitled “CARRIE, savings for you” from Dominick’s, a local grocery chain.  And every week, it irritates me.  Talk about your personalized email gone awry.

It is the first line that sets me off – “Your favorite items on sale this week at your local Dominick’s.” I faithfully allow them to scan my club card on every visit, which means they have a database of all the items I’ve ever purchased at any Dominick’s within the last couple years, depending on how long they keep their data.  And 100% of the time I’ve been on their email list I have never – not even one time – purchased the majority of “my favorite items” featured each week.

Here’s an example.  I’ve crossed out all the items I’ve never purchased in red.  Let’s take a look, shall we?  Pinot Grigio is almost exclusively my white wine of choice, with an occasional Sauvignon Blanc thrown in for good measure.  Just ask my poor mother how I feel about pork chops and I don’t really buy steak for my house.  I am a loyal Pepsi drinker . . . I’d rather drink water than buy Coke for my home.  And I never liked orange juice – not as a kid and not in a screwdriver.

That leaves the peppers.

I actually have purchased red peppers at Dominick’s – though probably only five in my lifetime, as they are a newly acquired taste.  Hardly qualifies them as a “favorite,” though.

So when I open this email, instead of seeing it as a helpful piece of communication that would persuade me to shop at Dominick’s this weekend instead of next, I see a reminder of how the place where I spend hundreds of dollars over the course of a year doesn’t even know who I am. Even though they could.

Unsubscribe.